Shark circle hooks

[johnwest]

Any recommendations on circle hooks for blue sharks, size, straight or upeye, offset or not, brand etc?

[mickser]

I use mustad 10/12/0

[johnwest]

john,

i prefer j hooks, it seems to make a huge difference if you present the mackerel head down and the j hook hidden in the middle.
cox and rawle meet hook 10/0 seems excellent
i found that with circle hooks then the sharks often just bites off the mackerel and leaves the hook behind
Also i find the diameter and colour of the leader makes a big difference, shark fishing is not just a crude game

john

[Rob Millard]

I've used Cox & Rawle meat hooks 10/0 for the last couple of years too. Just hook a Mackeral flapper up through the bottom jaw and out through the head between the eyes. I tighten the drag as soon as the shark takes off and I haven't missed a bite and I've hooked every shark in the scissors. I think I've had 8 or 9 sharks between last year and this, just to give you the sample size.

[johnwest]

one other theory i have is that sometimes they are aware that the hook is there and they are actually trying to pull the mackerel off the
hook so i try and bind it on with lots and lots of bait elastic

[johnwest]

Thanks for your input lads, myself and Chuckaroo got our first sharks recently but both were deep/gut hooked which we want to avoid. We struck as soon as we realised we had a run but perhaps because the boat was almost static, the fish seemed to be able to swim around a bit without moving the floats giving time to swallow the bait. Ninted had suggested circle hooks when replying to my report, we were using Mustad O'Shaughnessy J hooks with the flapper attached as Rob Millard suggested. It wasn't hooking up that was the problem, just avoiding deep hooking.

[Rob Millard]

As you have mentioned, there is a bit of slack to be taken up between baited hook, balloon and rod, which might explain why there's frequently deep hooked blue sharks. I have used circles to good effect for Tope fishing, but normally fish with J hooks and very seldom get deep hooked fish. Hopefully next season you can get out and catch plenty of sharks, experiment and find out what's best for you. Until the Cox & Rawle 10/0 meat hooks fail me, I'll stick with them for my blue shark fishing. Tight lines!

[codking]

Hi, I fish the Celtic Deeps out from Milford Haven quite a bit during the season and after much experimenting with circle and J hooks I've settled on J hooks, either a Mustard Sea Demon or Owner Jobu, but I like to use a big hook either 11/0 or 12/0. I hook the baits (whole mackerel or herring) through the chin and out through top the head, we hit the takes as soon as there's any sort of run. Through a season we average 1 deeply hooked fish to 8 jaw hooked fish. Don't be afraid to go big on the hooks, even a smallish fish (15lb) will hook up on a 12/0. Hope this helps but I must stress this only my option.

[jellybait]

Hi, I fish the Celtic Deeps .

Just wondering ,is it mainly blues your fishing for ,do you get any porgies/threshers etc showing up out there ?

[codking]

Yes mainly blues but as you say also get a fair sprinkling of porgies