Using circle hooks?

[Seeker]

Good day, All

I'm a new comer to the forum, who caught the yellow fever sometime ago already. Cut my teeth catching yellows on the Suikerbos with dry flies amongst the reeds (trout background), now I regularly fish the barrage area Czech style saving the dries for those special days.

My question to those in the know is- Circle hooks by design catch less rocks and foul less fish, but do you hook as many fish as with J's? Do I need to strike differently? Are they available to fly tyiers and what sizes should I be using?

[Michael]

Seeker,

My advice, is don't use them. They are great for not hooking up on the bottom, but equally as great at pulling out of a fish's mouth. I've used both, and many years ago I even tried Vannermerwe hooks, also didn't work as well as normal scud hooks. This of course is my personal experience.
Try it for yourself...rig up your line with circle hooks, fish it, then swop over to scud hooks, and judge for yourself. I found by striking with a circle hook, you just pull it out of the fish's mouth most times. People think it's missed takes, or.."why am I not hooking them?"
I chucked all my circle hooks away eventually.

[Byron]

I like to use circles as my control fly - the rest are scud.

[Michael]

I like to use circles as my control fly - the rest are scud.

Byron, you land many fish on that control fly?

[Byron]

Byron, you land many fish on that control fly?

I honestly can't say I catch more or less on circle hooks - some days my control flies catch no fish, some days they catch all the fish other days they catch just as many as the point fly and then there are days when only the top dropper catches fish....

All I do is if I see a pattern on a given day I do my best to fish with whatever rig works best. Last time I fished I only caught fish on an orange hot spot as a top dropper - I used them in every position on the leader, and I tried a bunch of combos and nothing else worked... I lie - I got one fish on the control fly.

[Michael]

I've just found my catch rate on normal scud hook (even size 8 as the control fly) is better than on circle hooks.

With a circle hook you are not supposed to strike, the fish will swim away and hook himself. if you strike, it just comes out (this is what the bank anglers and salty bait guys say).

[Byron]

generally when I hook up on the circles the fish is on it's way to the coast...

There are some patterns that I just wouldn't tie on a circles thus I fish with a variety of hooks - each pattern gets what it deserves.

[Michael]

generally when I hook up on the circles the fish is on it's way to the coast...

There are some patterns that I just wouldn't tie on a circles thus I fish with a variety of hooks - each pattern gets what it deserves.

That's true...I still prefer nymph hooks for mayfly nymphs, etc. I do use a lot of caddis patterns though, but all on scud hooks.

I still have a sh1t load of van der merwe hooks left here somewhere, want them? Silver ones and brown ones.

[Byron]

That's true...I still prefer nymph hooks for mayfly nymphs, etc. I do use a lot of caddis patterns though, but all on scud hooks.

I still have a sh1t load of van der merwe hooks left here somewhere, want them? Silver ones and brown ones.

No thanks - not a big fan of those.

[Michael]

Me neither.