Circle hooks for Carp?

[Water Wolf]

Hi carp anglers, I was wondering if any of you have ever tried circle hooks for carp? If so what size did you use and did you put the bait on the hook or did you make it into a hair and bolt rig?

I would think that a circle hook would work well for them with there big fleshy lips, yes, no?

WW

[pikemaster789]

not sur what a circle hook is but ive never had a problem with a regular hook, just make sur u set it hard

[bigredfishing]

I caught a whole BUNCH of carp last year using #6 baitholder hooks, and every single one was hooked in the lip.

[camo_fish]

just plain baitholder hooks are fine for carp. With there circular sucker mouth without any jaw or corners, the plain, normal hooks are just fine. 

[MikeThePike]

I never saw a reason for them as every carp I've ever hooked has been caught in the lips.

[Skipper]

I have used size 1 Gamagatsu circle octopus hooks on carp and suckers with good results. Indeed, standard J hooks work just fine, but you will encounter fewer snags with circles.  When I am fishing relatively snag free waters I use a standard offset J hook. When fishing wood cover, circle hooks rarely snag.

[buzzbomb]

I tried 'salmon egg' hooks which I think are sort of a semi-circle pattern and didn't like them.  They hooked up ok, but when I had the fish on the mat, it semed like there was twice as much hook to pull back out and they wound up flopping every time.  The closest thing to a real carp hook I could find here is a Tiemco 2457 large pupa hook and the largest size was #6 and that's working out fine, except in the early season when I want to put a crawler on, then they're a little small.  Here's the Tiemco, they're great hooks and cheap, too!

[Water Wolf]

Thanks for all the info guys.

WW

[Reel Wet Ride]

When I fish for carp in the river I anchor up and use crawlers, so I'm pretty much pinned to using heavy gauge baitkeeper J-hooks.  But I rigged up a few hair rigs with super small trebles and that worked good too.

[buzzbomb]

 There's always the danger of losing a fish with a treble pinning it's lips together so most c+r carpers will advise you to lose the trebles and stick to a single hook.  I'm not looking for an argument, I'm just saying what you'd hear on every carp fishing forum.  I used baitholders on hair rigs before, but the little barbs on the back of the snell interfered with the 'knotless knot' so I tried filing them down but eventually just found different hooks.  And every time I changed, I wound up with a pile of hooks  in a corner of my tacklebox that I'm not sure what to do with. 

[Carpking]

hi, i use circle hooks for carp, they seem to do fine for me. i use a #4 with a fluorocarbon leader. but any hook will work. used them all. went carping first time sunday and we got 1, 14lbs on corn, still a bit early for me but was nice to get one, had numerous hits though.

[Nickp]

Numebr 4 circle hook- gamagatsu

Only way to go and press the bread so its a banana shape with hook exspose on the inside of this ) 


They grab it and run getting hooked- my hookup ratio is 8 for 9 this year versus last year where my hookup ratio was about 1/2

[Nickp]

theres no need for a treble  there not slashing at the bait like trout.

[Reel Wet Ride]

Nick,  the theory on the treble is that because carp are suction feeders (suck it in, spit it out, suck it in, spit it out, ect) that they'll inhale the small treble with your offering, then as they go to spit it out it will hang up on thier lips.  I don't use anything but a short shanked bait keeper, but I also fish in a pretty heavy current, so it works for me.

[xrhino]

Believe it or not, carp can actually get pretty pressured around here.  When this happens I always go to a hair/bolt rig with #4 or #6 circle hooks.  It seems to help a lot.