circle hooks
The Circle Hook Up
February 2008
Article by Bill Pino
Fishing in Isla Mujeres allows everyone on the boat the chance to learn how to hook fish properly. Multiple shots will allow an angler to experiment with his own techniques and also experiment with the lessons an angler will get from a good mate and captain. Capt. Gary Stamm was our cool head on the bridge and our mate Skeebo kept us all involved. We learned quite a bite from the crew of the Pumpin Hard and were rewarded with releasing 14 out of 18 sailfish on our day.
Click any of the pictures to enlarge
This was a flat line bite. The angler had already taken the line out of the flat line clip. Rod was to the side, free spool, clicker off and he saw the fish about to engulf his ballyhoo. The ballyhoo was rigged with 60lb Moi Moi mono and a VMC 7/0 circle hook. At this point he let go of the line, and swung the rod towards his fish. Now notice.
Rod is at the fish.
Now the angler has felt a change in speed and has seen or felt the fish make a turn and has engaged the drag slowly towards the strike position. This is done in a slow deliberate manner. The angler pushes the drag up to about 2 lbs and stops to see if the line is still leaving the spool. If it is then he pushes up a bit more to 3 or 4 lbs and if the line is still leaving the spool then the fish is hooked up. The assumption is that the fish has taken the bait and started to turn away from the boat. The angler slowly pushes up the drag in order for the bait and hook to slowly exit the fish but the extremely sharp VMC 7/0 circle hook will catch the corner of the mouth of the sailfish.
At last the angler is convinced that the VMC 7/0 circle hook has caught the corner of the mouth and the battle begins.
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