Circle Hooks

[Chris Raymond]

Do circle hooks really prevent gut hooking as much as I hear? 

Only last year did I find the pleasures of burbot fishing on the ice...as well as at the table.  In Michigan, you're only allowed to fish two lines.  I jig with one and set a tip-up out for the other.  For the tip-up, I simply rigged a dead minnow about 2" off the bottom.  Problem was, just about every tip-up caught fish was a big pain in that it was invariably very deeply hooked, requiring that I cut my line and re-tie with another hook.  I'm wondering if using circle hooks would help with this problem.

Any thoughts?

[billditrite]

chris, i saw this same post on iceshanty...glad to see you found the two best sites on the net i personally would have to say yes they are awesome to decrease gut hooked fish  .this is a topic i remember being discussed a lot last year on shanty , i would do a topic search on iceshanty and see what you come up with also .but sit back youll get plenty of feedback right here im sure.maybe you could tell us what you are fishing for because some fish are chewers and some are swallowers.i like circle hooks on my tipups when targeting bass because sometimes it takes a minute to get to the tipup,in maine we are allowed 5 on most lakes and ponds.if im twitching a live shiner on my ultra light rod i prefer a nice razor sharp #6 eagle claw regular old spank you very much hook so when he bites and i set the hook like hes a 7 pound largemouth ,i dont rip it out of his mouthhope this helps. sometimes i jus go on and on

[Chris Raymond]

Bill--Thanks for the reply.  I was burbot or lawyer (as some of the old timers around here say) fishing.  I think you folks call them ling or cusk...folks further west of me call them eelpout.  I suspect they're inhalers but I only just turned onto these fish last year so I'm not as keen on their where fors and what nots yet as I am the other fish I chase.