Fished out of Westport WA y'day and decided to finally give this a try.

Straight eye barbless circle trailing about 4-5 inches behind a custom hootchie/Ace-Hi/Thin Twin concoction trolled behind a kicker-style flasher.

Fish solidly hooked all the way around the maxillary plate, outside in. Sorry, no pics taken so as to achieve the fastest no-touch quick-release.

I believe... I believe!

The key detail (as explained on the Moffitt video) is to rig the circle hook off kilter to maximize its chances of encountering the "edge" provided by the maxilla/mandible.

http://www.youtube.com/user/moffittangling?blend=8&ob=5#p/u/7/0-gk9-IXTjw

Hookset on the troll is NON-existent. Just like when fishing with regular J-hooks, remember to WAIT WAIT WAIT for that rod to load.... FISH ON!

Very interesting video and certainly thought-provoking.

The video speaks of being able to use smaller hooks than conventionally used.....did you follow suit? If so, what size?

Just curious.

works great for marlin and sailfish too

Did NOT downsize as much as suggested in the Moffitt vid.

I usually use the equivalent of a 5/0 Gami Octopus for salmon trolling.

I used a Gami 6/0 straight eye Nautilus Circle. It has the gap equivalent of a std 3/0 Gami Octopus. Will try a bit smaller the next time out.

Amen on the wind Hank, just wont quit.

Yeah.... but are they trying to hook 'em outside in?

The chance of foul hooking a fish is far less than J- hooks..A new reg for some local rivers...Circle hooks only.

hmm.. just sounds like a fancy way to floss fish haha
i wounder how well this would work for drifting corkies for salmon and steelhead??

HUGE difference pseudo-"flossing" bonafide biters in open water with troll gear versus intentionally flossing non-biters kegged up in the river.

Used circle hooks with flashers for Lake WA Sockeye. Worked very well.

last time I marlin fished we used large Cirlcle hooks with small Tuna for bait,, worked great as we were trolling. Also had em on our large lures. Not hooking on outside in as the critetrs eating the bait.

I got 3 salmon on circle hooks on spinners this last fall. I am going to use them for summers and a lot more until I have a reason not to use them. Less snags and didn't miss a bite using them spinnerin. Hopefuly will have same results drift fishing and float fishing.

Not sure that you would have paid it any attention at the time, Andy, but I'm curious about exactly where they were hooked.

Outside in?

I used circles on flies for chum. The idea was to reduce body/fin snagged fish and it did. Any snagged fish could be released by simply giving slack.

I landed four that were all hooked inside the mouth. The first was buried into the roof of the mouth. But, there were a lot less hookups so it probably makes flossing less successful.

Based on a couple years fishing them for pinks and chums it seems that, on flies, circles reduce the snagging a lot but also reduce total hookups.

Though it was like pulling teeth to get anyone to agree, I managed to deploy a circle out in the trolling spread a couple of times this past year. Most of the time, if someone didn't get bit within a short period of time, they wanted to immediately switch back to std rigging. Oh ye of little faith! When someone was willing to commit (usually off-bite off-prime off-tide time of the fishing day), good things were bound to happen.

Rigged ala Moffitt as a hangback trailer on both whole and plug-cut herring, the boat scored two bites and landed both fish.... both coho, and both hooked outside in.

Interesting timing for this discussion. I was just tying up some ultimate sockeye circle flossing rigs earlier this evening. After fishing them exclusively last year for the socks, I am sold. The circles all but eliminate snagged fish and when the circle finds the corner of the mouth from the outside in (which it almost always does), very few fish are lost.

I tied up about 20 #4 sized rigs to test out bead fishing for rainbows as well. I think a barbless circle in this application could be a great answer help reduce some of the damage that the fish suffer during a summer of catch and release. We'll see. I am mainly curious to know how many fish wind up hooked as compared to the std octopus hanging behind a bead.

Indeed... for the sockeye flossery, circles reign supreme....

http://forums.outdoorsdirectory.com/showthread.php/116682-Circles-for-sockeye

fish them upriver drifting back to you.....natural hook up angle

We have been trolling circle hook for tuna and marlin for years over in the East coast