I rig my herring hooks about 6 inches apart (eye to eye). It is very common for a king in the 25-35# range to get hooked in the corner of the mouth with the trailer hook, but then sometime during the battle, the top hook finds the pectoral fin on the same side as the corner hookup. Now some of you might be thinking.... alright .... double hookup!

Well, not so fast... the top hook in the pectoral means ZERO ability to steer that fish during the fight, especially for beginners who really haven't honed their fish-fighting skills. On a fish that size, it means a LONG battle, an exhausted fish, and a tough net job when the angler is struggling to get the fish to the surface, even when the fish is dead tired. The fish just tends to spin in circles like a whole bait herring.

I'm thinking the circle on top would really help prevent the pectoral hookups.

I am a firm believer that the top hook is basically there to hold the bait, and the trailer catches the fish....at least that's been my experience the vast majority of the time. With the circle/octopus rigging described, I don't really think I'd be giving up too much lost hooking opportunity on the top hook.... my octopus stinger is still there.

Because we are required to fish barbless, another plus is that the circle holds the bait better than the octopus.

I will definitely have to give it a try next year.