Nice report Isaac! No kings, but a bit of action 👍
When live baiting for kings with circles you only want to use 1 hook.
The hook should be either placed through the inside of the mouth and up through the nose of the live bait. Or sideways through the nostrils. (In through one nostril and out the other)
You can also bridle rig if you want to.
If you hook it any other way you will impede the circle hooks ability to catch the corner of the kings mouth.
With your rig, make sure your snell line is exiting from the inside eye of the hook. You definitely want to snell your circle as it will guide your hook to the corner of the mouth.
To test, drop your snelled hook into a glass and pull the line horizontally, you will see the hook catch the edge of the glass every time. You know you have rigged it correctly.
Don’t have loose drag - you will loose fish. You need enough drag to provide resistance to set the hook as the fish runs with it. I usually tighten my drag until I can just pull line by hand off the reel. You shouldn’t be able to pull the line off easily.
Don’t lift the rod, the fish will hook itself.
When trolling live bait, you want to do it at a snails pace. Just in gear. 2-4klm/h. Much much slower than trolling lures. Use a sinker - enough weight to keep the livie down while moving forward.
hope this helps
cheers
chris