Article by Capt. Mark Sampson
In last week’s column, I mentioned that starting January 1st of 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 those who have stuck to the old ways of using single or double-hook rigs with J-hooks, some changes in their rigging and fishing techniques will need to be made to stay effective at both hooking and landing sharks.
There’s probably not too many fishermen these days who haven’t had at least some experience using circle hooks for certain fish under certain situations. Whether chunking for tuna, wreck fishing for sea bass, live baiting for stripers or tournament fishing for billfish, we all know how effective the unconventional looking hooks can be when used properly. A lot of fishermen have found that when they use circle hooks they have a better bite to hook-up ratio and there is less chance that the fish will throw the hook during the fight. Add to it the fact that the circle hook is less likely to gut-hook a fish, thus providing released fish a better chance for survival, and it’s obvious that circle hooks are a win-win for both fish and fishermen.
To effectively use circle hooks for sharks anglers must first get past a few misconceptions about the hooks. A few years ago when circle hooks were first required to be used in the Ocean City Shark Tournament, a number of local tackle shops stocked up with big mega-size circle hooks that also carried a mega-size price of $5.00 to $8.00 a piece! Unfortunately, because of that some anglers were led to believe that in order to catch a BIG shark you needed 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 shark’s mouth it does not set around the jaw itself but in the fleshy fold of skin in the front of the cheek area. This part of the mouth is made up of both thick skin and tough muscle, so when a hook lodges itself there it’s not likely to pull out. It’s also not as broad as the jaw is so it does not require a hook with an extra large gap to find a good hold.
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 39960D has the classic full curl design and is made from heavy enough wire that it is not likely to straighten under normal fishing pressure. Best of all, with prices ranging from $.50 to $.70 each so this is not an expensive hook!
The way a circle hook wedges itself into the corner of the mouth does not require a super sharp hook so that is another advantage to using the 39960D. 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. As long as the point is just a little bit sticky it will grab and hold on to the corner of the sharks mouth.
The only adjustment we make to the hooks before using them is to smash the barb down. Circle hooks do not need a barb to stay in place. The only advantage to a barb on a circle hook is that it helps to hold the bait in place. On choppy days, if we find that our softer baits are working their way off the hook, we’ll use small rubber bands to hold it all together. Removing the barb makes it easier for us to rotate out the hook with our pliers or push it out with a de-hooking tool.
Another misconception is that when baiting a hook for sharks that the hook must be concealed in the bait. By concealing a circle hook in a bait the angler reduces their chances of a good hookup because the bait clumps-up in the gap of the hook and prevents it from setting. For best results, circle hooks should be as exposed as possible. Don’t worry about the shark seeing the hook and spooking away since he’s not worried about the hook, he wants the bait!
To properly impale a bait on a circle hook requires that the hook go through a thin but tough part of the bait. Obviously if the bait is a fillet the hook needs to through the skin. If it is a fish head or a whole fish, anglers will just have to get creative and find a way to either hook it through the back of the head, the lips or the eyes. We’ve had very good luck by securing a plastic cable-tie either through the eye sockets or through the top lip and out of the bottom lip and then simply passing the hook through the loop in the cable tie. This leaves the hook totally exposed with the bait held very firmly by the cable tie.
For a lot of years, my standard shark rig was two-hook J-hook rig. As it was, the second hook was there because we often fished with very large or long baits and I wanted to make sure that wherever the shark bit the bait he’d get a hook. The problem we sometimes saw was that a shark would grab a big bait and shake the heck out of it to rip out a bite size piece and sometimes dislodge both hooks in the process. We also began to notice that when a shark rolled into the slick, if it was all fired up and ready to eat, it would bite anything we had out there. If, on the other hand, it was a more “normal” shark, it would swim around and look at all the baits before eventually settling on one, and that one bait was usually the smallest bait we had out.
The moral of that story is that a shark will either come in hungry or finicky, and a finicky shark will be more inclined to eat a small bait, while a hungry shark will eat whatever you serve to it. So if all you have out is modest size baits you’ll still catch just as many sharks. Which gets me back to the subject of single or double hook rigs. With a small bait, a shark has no reason to shake it down to bite size pieces because it’s already bite size. Open mouth, take in bait, close mouth - it’s that simple. Once the bait is inside the mouth, the line only needs to come tight and the circle hook will do its job. Fish on!
I know, I know - some shark fishermen have a love affair with fishing big jinormous baits, but I’m saying that 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 a 1 to two pound snapper bluefish. Half that size is OK too. The only reason I’d consider using a really large bait is if I was not chumming and I needed the bait itself to provide the scent trail.
With J-hooks the standard procedure is to fish with the reels in close to free-spool so that when a shark picks up the bait you can give it a drop-back to make sure the offering is well inside the mouth before putting the reel in gear and setting the (well sharpened) hook very hard a bunch of times.
So now that we have a single circle hook lightly embedded in a bite size bait, we can fish our 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. If a shark picks up a bait and keeps coming at the boat the angler will want to crank up the slack quickly and come tight on the fish so it doesn’t get under the boat and foul up on the running gear.
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 because 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!
Capt. Mark Sampson is an outdoor writer and captain of the charter boat, “Fish Finder”, docked at the Ocean City Fishing Center.
