The benefits of using circle hooks to land sharks

In last week’s column I mentioned that  in 2018, recreational anglers will be required to use non-offset circle hooks anytime they are using bait to catch sharks.

For anglers who have already acquainted themselves with the use of circle hooks for sharks, next season will just be business as usual, but for everyone else, some changes in their rigging and fishing techniques will need to be made to stay effective at both hooking and landing sharks.

Some anglers have been led to believe that in order to catch a BIG shark you need a BIG expensive hook that would get around a BIG jaw. But the fact is, when a circle hook plants properly in the corner of the mouth of a shark, it does not set around the jaw itself but in the fleshy fold of skin in the front of the cheek area.

So a huge hook is not needed, and after experimenting with a number of different size and type of circle hook for sharks, we settled on the basic Mustad 39960D in the size of 16/0 for the larger offshore sharks (including makos) and the same hook in size 13/0 when we’re fishing nearshore and anticipating smaller sharks.

The way a circle hook wedges itself into the corner of the mouth does not require a super sharp hook so that another advantage to using the 39960D is that even though it is not considered to be a “pre-sharpened” hook, it’s definitely sharp enough to be fished right out of the box.

For best results, circle hooks should be as exposed as possible. Don’t worry about the shark seeing the hook and spooking away, he’s not worried about the hook, he wants the bait!

Some shark fishermen have a love affair with using big baits, but regardless of the type of hook you use, you’ll be more successful more often if you scale your baits down to bite-size pieces. How big is that? I would say that nothing larger than the size of an average Boston mackerel or 1-2 pound snapper bluefish. Half that size is OK, too.

With a circle hook lightly embedded in a bite size bait, anglers can fish their reels in the “strike” position because when the shark picks up a bait, it’s going to take that bait (and hook) entirely into its mouth in one slurp. As soon as the line comes tight and the shark feels resistance form the line it will likely take off and the hook will be set from the rod holder.

One more benefit of using circle hooks for sharks is that because hooking a shark does not require coming tight on the line and hauling back on the rod to drive the hook home, there is no longer an advantage to using a stretch-free line such as Dacron or braid.

Monofilament line works just fine for sharks on circle hooks. In fact, I prefer using mono with circle hooks as I feel that a little stretch in the line helps to ease the hook into place rather than snatching it there, and of course, mono is cheaper and more forgiving than braid or Dacron.

Even though the circle hook regulation won’t take effect until next year, it would probably be wise for shark anglers to start getting comfortable with using them this season so that they can work out any kinks in their techniques before the 2018 tournaments roll around and they find themselves forced to learn when there is money on the line and a monster in their slick.

And while I don’t like to use the term “guarantee” for anything related to fishing, I can “almost” guarantee that once anglers get over the learning curve of using circle hooks for sharks, they won’t miss their old rusty J-hooks one bit!