Circle hooks save fish, right? That was the assumption when fishery managers created a rule in 2020 requiring anglers to use circle hooks when fishing with bait for striped bass. Some preliminary studies from the late 1990s suggested that circle hooks result in lower rates of gut hooking than regular J-hooks. However, those studies relied on an older scientific method that used cages to monitor survival for 2 to 3 days after fish were caught. Additionally, the style of circle hooks available today are quite different than were available 25 years ago.
For these reasons, a team of biologists conducted a study using modern circle hooks and modern scientific methods to measure the conservation benefit of the “striped bass circle hook rule”. Over two years, they caught 716 striped bass with J-hooks and three popular circle hooks models. Before releasing them, nearly half of the fish were tagged with electronic transmitters that measured tail beats. Using an array of receiver buoys, the fish were remotely monitored to gauge their survival over 2 months.
Surprisingly, the study found no significant difference in mortality between any of the circle hooks and J-hooks. Why is this? Well, here are a few ideas: first, there isn’t much difference in the gap width (distance from hook point to shaft) between modern circle hooks and J-hooks, whereas older circle hook models used to have a much narrower gap. Also, the earlier studies relied on chunked menhaden for bait, and many of the fish landed during the study were caught using live mackerel.
Is the circle hook rule still necessary? It’s important to remember that this rule also prevents fishing with baited treble hooks, which used to be a common practice. An ongoing follow-up study suggests that both bait fishing and treble hooks cause more injury than lures with single hooks.
The results of our study were recently published in the journal Marine and Coastal Fisheries. Click the link below to read the article:
