Circles for Jew

[macca02]

Thoughts on circles vs J hooks off the beach when fishing with your reel in gear?

Currently I have my rods set in a holder with enough drag to set the hook. Using gamakatsu octopus hooks at the moment and seems to work fairly well though wondering if switching to circles and fishing in gear would be more productive?

[Captain Spanner]

On 4/28/2019 at 8:19 PM, macca02 said:

Thoughts on circles vs J hooks off the beach when fishing with your reel in gear?

Currently I have my rods set in a holder with enough drag to set the hook. Using gamakatsu octopus hooks at the moment and seems to work fairly well though wondering if switching to circles and fishing in gear would be more productive?

Assuming you are using squid, squid strips and strip flesh baits i would try the gamakatsu octopus circles. They are close to what you are using but i think they set themselves a little bit better than the standard octopus. I snell them on so the direction of line pull is parallel to the shank. Live baits i still use a single gamakatsu Octopus hook. Just remember to not be tempted to strike with the circles. If you do need to set the hook just wind the reel with the rod flat or at up to 45 degrees until the rod fully loads up, especially if fishing braid.

[JonD]

Must admit I love using circles for most species but for jews I still use j hooks simply because they've always worked in the past.

[rickmarlin62]

J hooks for me  tried circles and don't like them on jew or reds

[mii11x]

I have always used gamakatsu occy circles 4/0 to 8/0 from when I started my obsession with mulloway.  Always snelled for both dead and live bait.  In the past year for dead squid small sized, either whole, hoods or heads I have been experimenting with standards occy hooks again snelled. I cant say it's made a difference in my catch rate.  I still to this day, some 8 years later have not hooked and landed a jew using livebait with a single hook.  That doesnt mean I dont try and others always question me when rigging a livie with snelled hooks.  It works for me, so I stick to it in most cases.

Either boat based or landbased I never strike with either snelled combo, circles and j's, I just let the drag set the hooks and generally pick up after the first run.  When I first started, I always rushed to grab a screaming reel/rod and learnt slowly not to lift the rod until that first run was done.  I couldn't  begin to tell you how many I have lost by being too exuberant in my early quests.  It's what works for me and have had quite good success by just leaving the rod till after that first run.

Mate, if your catching them using j hooks regularly, why change?  It obviously works for you.  If you went to occy circles and lost a cracker, you'll always be left wondering "If I had just used j hooks......"

[rickmarlin62]

I use a mix of suicide and French hooks  I always hit them quick when they start running   they don't have hands  so the bait can only be in one place   more people drop jew runs because they feel weight and spit it    but   everyone is different   stick with what works for you.....rick

[macca02]

Thanks for the suggestions/replies everyone!

I think i'll stick with J's and having the drag set in the holder, was just looking to see if i could i refine my setup as i'd noticed others use Circles.

[Captain Spanner]

I use a mix of normal octopus hooks and octopus circle hooks, rod in holder, reel in drag in the boat. I try to fish rod in hand on the beach but often i have to leave it in the holder to help whichever mate i've taken fishing or I might have a second rod out with a bigger or different bait that might sit between me and my mate. I fish octopus circles when the rod is in the holder on the beach because i think they set better when in the holder by themselves than a standard octopus. When 100% fishing rod in hand off the beach i sometimes use non-offset J hooks like Inline Octopus Hooks , livebait hooks etc. One of my mates likes to use Gamakatsu SL12s off the beach for jewies and they do well on all fish. He fishes maximum 30lb leader so he's not at as much risk of straightening them as I would be.

If you are fishing a two hook snell you can fish a circle on the top hook and a J hook on the bottom, we often do that. I think a J hook is much better for catching the Tailor you often get fishing for Jewies, which are great for bait, or food if you like them and they are big.