Bottom Fishing with Circles!

Good morning
I use circle hooks for bottom fishing. It helps alot . Less hook ups with the reef. I hook up less often when the smaller fish bite. The bigger fish that take the entire bait is almost a definite hook up. The key is to be patient and not strike when the fish bite. Wait till the fish pull hard. At this stage , the hook is in the corner of the mouth. Then a jerk of the rod to get the circle hook through and the hook is properly set. I find that fewer fish manage to throw the hook. The toothy fish also find it difficult to bite you off. This is from my experience. Works for me. Hope it works for you as well. .

So we went out on Saturday. Very tough time. Sea was huge and water was very cold. We battled for fish. I managed to get a good Catface Rockod of about 70cm. And my buddy managed one of the same size as well. However towards the end of the trip I changed over to Circle Hooks and it resulted in me losing a rather large fish. My only explanation was that the bait on the Circle Hook prevented the hook from setting. The fish was huge and pulled my rod so hard that it hit the side of the boat. At first I thought Shark or Rock, and then as I lifted the rod it started fighting and the rod kept going up and down. And then Slack....I reeled up to find my bottom big hook still with all the bait on, but smashed. I guess the fish had it in its mouth but the hook never set. I doubt I will use Circles for Bottom fishing ever again. Picture of Rockies attached.

Lots of anglers think fishing with circles is as easy as 123. Its a little more than that
1.0 Choose the correct hook. Most of us choose a thicker diameter and large offset that is required. Your offset is largely dependent of your bait type
2.0 Make sure you snell the hook correctly
3.0 Do not MAKE bait presentations on circles . Use the principle of 1 is to 5 in terms of what stays on your hook and what is free. That is the ratio
4.0 Ir is very difficult to loose fish if you get the hook placement correct. That means allow suffucient time between hooking the fish and lifting your rod. Do not reel like there is no Xmas when you see your rod bend
5.0 Never use circles that are not chemically sharpened

PLEASE DO NOT BLAME CIRCLE hooks

I'm sorry that you lost the fish. My bad. But as I mentioned in my previous post. It works for me. . Thank you Jace for that informative post. The key plan is to make sure the hook is proud. No obstruction to set the hook.

From the sound of what you describe I would say it was a muscle cracker
can u send pic of the hook i would love to see it
I never dance with the devil so i go with what i know and that is Kendle round period