Circular Argument

Are circle-hooks the answer to all fly fishermen's prayers? JOHN GODDARD analyses their impact and potential following two years of personal exhaustive research

Last year I wrote of my initial experiments with circle-hooks and while I found certain patterns dressed on these hooks extremely lethal, I did state that I had certain reservations about the moral issues involved in their use. However, as these are now being widely used and publicised in the US it is, I'm afraid, inevitable that they will eventually become popular over here. While it is a fact that a fly dressed on one of these hooks and fished virtually static will often result in a fish hooking itself (even when the angler holding the rod is not concentrating) may condemn their use by many fly fishers, one must, I think, look at another aspect where, under certain conditions, fished with a certain amount of expertise they do fill some gaps in the fly fisher's armoury.

In the US, circle-hooks have now become very popular for many aspects of saltwater fly-fishing, particularly with those anglers targetting sailfish and tarpon. Both species have particularly hard, bony mouths making it very difficult to set the hook. As a consequence most fly fishers are very fortunate if they boat more than about one in every four of the fish that they hook. US anglers fishing for these species have found that circle-hooks tend to lodge in the scissors of the mouth of the fish means they do not rely on the point penetrating the bony surfaces of the inner mouth and are thus getting a much higher hook-up rate. They are now also becoming very popular with fly fishers targetting § permit, as the new Crab patterns which are currently being used are best fished static, and are therefore ideal candidates for dressing on these hooks. When it comes to freshwater gamefish the Americans, like us, are still in the experimenting.

Conclusions
My own experiments over the past season and a half have led me to the following conclusions. First of all, I am now convinced they have little future so far as dry-fly fishing on rivers for trout and grayling are concerned, as I have now found out that patterns dressed on circle-hooks any smaller than a size 12 are very poor hookers: the gape on sizes smaller than this are simply too narrow to catch into the scissors, where 90% of the fish caught on these hooks are hooked. The only two species of flies found on rivers that can be dressed on hooks as large as this are the Hawthorn and the Mayfly and, although I have now caught trout on both of these patterns, dressed on circle-hooks I have found in practice they are less efficient hookers than the same patterns dressed on normal hooks. I think the probable reason for this is that the hackle used on most large dry flies shields the gape of the hook.

I think that one can also rule out their use on rivers for wet flies or nymphs, as most of these need to be dressed on small or very small hooks. On the other hand, as it is usually the case to give a taking salmon slack line before striking, I think they may prove to be efficient hookers of salmon on rivers, especially when and where larger hooks are used.

Apart from their use in saltwater, it is on stillwater lakes and reservoirs - and particularly small stillwaters - where circle-hooks have the most potential, as in this medium the hooks used for most patterns are much larger than those used on rivers. As circle-hooks are normally only effective when fished with a slack line, they are not effective with any patterns that have to be retrieved at any speed, or with any patterns that have a bulky body or hackle that can shield the gape of the hook. But they are extremely effective dressed on slim patterns such as most larva or pupa patterns or even possibly some nymphs that are fished either static or semi-static. They certainly overcome one of the major difficulties facing stillwater fishers when they employ the tactic of fishing such patterns on the dead drift. This can be executed either from a boat anchored both bow and stem (to stop any yawing) or from the bank. When employing this technique, if it is to be successful, you really need a flat calm, as it is essential first of all to be able to see the end of your fly line, or the butt of your greased leader, for any sign of a take - but with any wind which causes a ripple this is extremely difficult.

Secondly, it is important to keep in direct contact with your fly. Again, under windy conditions which causes surface drift this is all but impossible, as a big bow will soon form in your fly line on the surface. Therefore, the techniques of fishing flies on the dead-drift or semi-static really lends itself to the use of a circle-hook, because when using these it is essential to have plenty of slack line, as this is the only way to hook fish when using them.

An excerpt from an article which appeared in the February 2004 issue of Fly Fishing and Fly Tying. In the full article, the author explores the successful techniqiues he has used with circle-hooks (especially in breezy and windy conditions) and he gives his nine most successful circle-hook patterns, including two dry flies.

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