Circle Hooks for Stripers Page 18
Making Waves Winter 2020
It's the Law!
by Gary Caputi
There is a lot more to fishing a circle hook than just tying one on, but they are effective fish catchers that significantly reduce release mortality.
I
f you are not already on the circle hook bandwagon, the new striped bass regulations taking effect in January 2021 are going to force the issue. Circle hooks will be mandatory when fishing any type of natural bait. That means worms, eels, menhaden, herring, sand fleas, crabs and clams, any cut bait used for chunking or cast from shore. For our members in New England who troll the time-honored tube and worm, you must either replace the J-hook with a circle hook or forego the worm altogether. Same goes for rigged eels and possibly a bucktail with a pork rind trailer. The actual regulations are being implemented on a state-by-state basis, but there is no wiggle room for change. There is some pushback from some states so pay careful atten-
tion to how the regulations evolve in your state. A small cadre of anglers started experimenting with circle hooks many years ago because they had the potential to do less damage to fish being released. Along the way we discovered that they also have the potential to increase hookups and landing ratios, too. I worked with Eagle Claw in the early 2000’s during the development and testing of their line of recreational circle hooks and found they had varying degrees of effectiveness depending on the species of fish being targeted and the techniques being used. Early prototypes had offset points that proved less effective at reducing deep hooking of fish. To fix that problem I would use pliers to bend the hook
