How to rig circle assist hooks to large soft bait?

[Mandelstam]

I'm gearing up for some halibut fishing later this year as some of you know. 

On this side of the Atlantic halibut fishing is often done with large soft baits. 10 ounce head with a 10" shad for example. I think I'm going down that route as well but I'm thinking about rigging and hooks. I want to be able to use assist hooks and circle hooks if I can instead of the large J-hook often fixed to the jig head. There are a few models that comes without hook and with rings to fasten assist hooks to. But people here often use trebles on these.

Giant Jighead. Example of rigging with trebles.


I want to use single hooks and preferably circle hooks. Now, how do I best rig a large soft bait like the one above with circle hooks? Does it have to hang free? Or can you fix it to the body with a bit of rubber band (or cable ties as below)?

Example of rigging with J hooks.


My experience with circle hooks is limited so I need a bit of advice... I'm also thinking of using hook size around 10/0. I've seen on a lot of american forums that they recommend much larger, like 16/0's, but to me that seems very large.

And, if I were to try to go American style, what is your favorite halibut rig? We'll be fishing in mostly shallow water, around 100-150 feet deep.

/Karl

[Keta]

A halibut will inhale your "small" 10" bait, I'd leave the hook free.

[SoCalAngler]

With the bait only 10" long I'd let it hang free also. With the baits pictured I'd cut off the swivel and replace with a split ring to add the new circle hook. Certain circle hook models just like J hooks have longer or shorter hook shanks, purchase the hook shank model that places the hook where you want it on the bait. If you do want the hook placement longer either make assist hooks or leave the swivel.

[Mandelstam]

The swivels and hooks pictured is only an illustrated example on how to rig it, the bait comes with no hooks or swivels when you buy it.

If you let it hang free, where would you place it? From the top rear ring or from the bottom one? Let it hang down below the tail or up close to the body? We'll be jigging straight down mostly. I've come to understand that halibut can be quite suspicious and gentle when they bite.

[Dominick]

Karl:  Check out Saltydog's lures if you are Jigging up and down. http://alantani.com/index.php?topic=6560.0 Unless you must use soft lures these should work best with two hooks hanging loose.  Dominick

[LTM]

The swivels and hooks pictured is only an illustrated example on how to rig it, the bait comes with no hooks or swivels when you buy it.

If you let it hang free, where would you place it? From the top rear ring or from the bottom one? Let it hang down below the tail or up close to the body? We'll be jigging straight down mostly. I've come to understand that halibut can be quite suspicious and gentle when they bite.

Mandlestam,

I would place one of the hooks as far to the back as possible (hanging free), just make sure it doesnt interfere with the action of the lure. One day I caught 5-6 keeper halibut in approximately less than an hour (no they werent the same ones), this gave me the chance to really key-in on that sensitive nibbling on the end of the bait I was fishing and when to set the hook. BTW, I like that custom fishing hat you made! 

Leo

[Dominick]

Maybe I am missing something on the gentle bite.  Every halibut I have caught did the suicide bite and dive.  Dominick

[Mandelstam]

Mandlestam,

I would place one of the hooks as far to the back as possible (hanging free), just make sure it doesnt interfere with the action of the lure. One day I caught 5-6 keeper halibut in approximately less than an hour (no they werent the same ones), this gave me the chance to really key-in on that sensitive nibbling on the end of the bait I was fishing and when to set the hook. BTW, I like that custom fishing hat you made!  

Leo

Leo, thanks for the input (and praise)!

/Karl

[jurelometer]

The swivels and hooks pictured is only an illustrated example on how to rig it, the bait comes with no hooks or swivels when you buy it.

If you let it hang free, where would you place it? From the top rear ring or from the bottom one? Let it hang down below the tail or up close to the body? We'll be jigging straight down mostly. I've come to understand that halibut can be quite suspicious and gentle when they bite.

Hi Mandelstam,

Circle hooks are problematic for artificials, especially on species that do not hold and run when biting.   In order for a circle to do the job, the fish has to swim away while holding onto the bait, allowing the line to draw the hook over the corner of the jaw.   This also means that the bait or lure needs to stay out of the way of the hook.  Offset circles (kirbed) will occasionally catch inside the mouth on a hookset- but this is a  superficial -skin deep hook-up.

Conventional wisdom  recommends against using circle hooks with artificials unless there is a specific need for circles (e.g. facilitating catch and release).  If you do use circles with artificials, the rule is to place the hook  ahead off the lure.   With a soft plastic you could nose hook with a three-way rig (as per live bait), but it would be hard to keep it from spinning on drop jigging, unless you also introduced a belly weight.

If your goal is to set up a stinger for a  light/tail bite (not a good match for circles IMHO):  This gets a bit tricky with soft plastic swim baits.  Most models out there get most of the action at the very tail, and this is where the light biters will grab (that is why swimbaits get tail biteoffs so often).   So you need to set the stinger up so that it as near to the back as possible without hampering the action.  This suggests light hooks (and J hooks- not circles), and some trial and error.   Swimbaits designs all behave slightly differently- I designed some soft plastics for awhile, and found it was quite tricky to get the action I wanted (went through ~15 variations on my 7 inch shad), and getting a swimbait to work well with stingers was especially tricky.    So swimbaits from different suppliers that look quite similar may require different placement. 

If you decide to go ahead with circle hooks-   A good test for effectiveness is with a dead specimen of the target species and size on deck.  Stick the lure in the mouth and then pull the line toward the tail of the fish-  see if the circle hook slides in cleanly into the corner or if the lure gets in the way.

Hope this helps,

Jurelometer




Field testing Shad-7 version N-1a.   N-1c was the final.   Sorry no stinger in this photo, but since this swimbait has a lot of swing, I could rig it  with a short shank, light gauge stinger through the back of the the tail with a through-body leader of limp mono.  This doesn't work with many vendors though.

[Capt Ahab]

Why do you want to use circle hooks?  Circle hooks are designed so you never "set" the hook, the slide to the corner of the jaw (hopefully) when the fish runs and tightens the line.  Made specifically for use with live or cut bait  - not for lures ever.

Unless you can convince the fish to grab and then attempt to swallow your lure a circle hook is not going to work very well.  With lures the fish is fooled into thinking it is alive so the attack it but they will quickly spit it back out once they "taste" that is not a real creature - even soft plastics!

I suggest using a trailer hook set up on your large swim baits (You can make this with some rigging wire and a few haywire twists) or a buttefly jig duel hook if you are fishing them more vertically

[Keta]

Circle hooks work real well for halibut.

[Mandelstam]

Hi Mandelstam,

Circle hooks are problematic for artificials, especially on species that do not hold and run when biting.   In order for a circle to do the job, the fish has to swim away while holding onto the bait, allowing the line to draw the hook over the corner of the jaw.   This also means that the bait or lure needs to stay out of the way of the hook.  Offset circles (kirbed) will occasionally catch inside the mouth on a hookset- but this is a  superficial -skin deep hook-up.

Conventional wisdom  recommends against using circle hooks with artificials unless there is a specific need for circles (e.g. facilitating catch and release).  If you do use circles with artificials, the rule is to place the hook  ahead off the lure.   With a soft plastic you could nose hook with a three-way rig (as per live bait), but it would be hard to keep it from spinning on drop jigging, unless you also introduced a belly weight.

If your goal is to set up a stinger for a  light/tail bite (not a good match for circles IMHO):  This gets a bit tricky with soft plastic swim baits.  Most models out there get most of the action at the very tail, and this is where the light biters will grab (that is why swimbaits get tail biteoffs so often).   So you need to set the stinger up so that it as near to the back as possible without hampering the action.  This suggests light hooks (and J hooks- not circles), and some trial and error.   Swimbaits designs all behave slightly differently- I designed some soft plastics for awhile, and found it was quite tricky to get the action I wanted (went through ~15 variations on my 7 inch shad), and getting a swimbait to work well with stingers was especially tricky.    So swimbaits from different suppliers that look quite similar may require different placement. 

If you decide to go ahead with circle hooks-   A good test for effectiveness is with a dead specimen of the target species and size on deck.  Stick the lure in the mouth and then pull the line toward the tail of the fish-  see if the circle hook slides in cleanly into the corner or if the lure gets in the way.

Hope this helps,

Jurelometer

Thank you for a detailed and informative answer!

Why do you want to use circle hooks?  Circle hooks are designed so you never "set" the hook, the slide to the corner of the jaw (hopefully) when the fish runs and tightens the line.  Made specifically for use with live or cut bait  - not for lures ever.

Unless you can convince the fish to grab and then attempt to swallow your lure a circle hook is not going to work very well.  With lures the fish is fooled into thinking it is alive so the attack it but they will quickly spit it back out once they "taste" that is not a real creature - even soft plastics!

I suggest using a trailer hook set up on your large swim baits (You can make this with some rigging wire and a few haywire twists) or a buttefly jig duel hook if you are fishing them more vertically

I want to use circle hooks for the purpose of being able to release the fish afterwards and getting a clean hook set. I've experimented some with circles on jigging lures before as an assist hook and with some simple squid/hoochie setup. I haven't experienced any real problems with lost fish (not noticeably more than with J's or trebles), but I understand the concerns both of you describe, hence my questions. And I do know about the theory around circle hooks, but I've seen a lot of people using them as assist hooks so there seems to be some use for them on artificial lures.

/K