Ballyhoo, circle hook rig or traditional?

[mangrovemaster]

Has anyone used a ballyhoo rigged with a circle hook? How does it perform compared to a traditional single hook rig?

[Xanadu]

All the time. I use copper rigging wire to rig the circle hook to the top of the ballyhoo's head and it dances and skips like mad. There is a great article on rigging them in this months sport fish or fs or one of the mags, but I can't remember which exactly.

[FpT|Capt. Dave]

There was a paper released a while back about this very subject. Here is the Opening paragraph.....

Are Circle Hooks Effective?

Among studies the results have been quite disparate, overall the mortality rates were consistently lower for circle hooks than J-style hooks. In addition, circle hooks were more frequently hooked in the jaw, and less frequently hooked in the gut than conventional hook types. There is no doubt that in some marine fisheries, such as tuna, billfish, and striped bass, capture efficiency remains high and injury and mortality rates are drastically reduced.

You can download the entire thing at
http://fryingpantower.com/downloadvi...Effective.html

You will have to register to download it.....It keeps the file harvesters and Hot-linkers out.

Hope that helps.

[die666]

put the biggest possible j-hook in there that you can get away with. if you know what your doing it wont matter either way

[dukmon]

true true true

[Marlintini]

This is how I was taught to rig them for Sailfish.

First break the beak off the bally.
Using rigging floss come from underneath the jaw and out the nosral on top.
Leave two inches of floss above and go back down through the other nosral and out underneath.
Take the loop created, turn it 180 degrees then loop it down over the beak and under it's "chin".
Pull out the slack and this forms an "X" on the top of the bally's head.
Continue to rig back through the eye socket, then back through the peck fin, come back up through the eye socket, then knot off with the standing part from the begining.
Slide your rigged circle hook under and around the "X" on the top of the head, it lays parallel to the body and your ready to go.

This is great for skippers.

[mangrovemaster]

Thanks Marlintini. I prefer circle hooks and your technique sounds excellent.

[Standing Room Only]

The Circle hook with Ballyhoo on a long leader works awesome for bottom bumping when looking for muttons. 'Course, other big snapper are picked up also. J hooks for trolling rigs.