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3. What Do You Think About Circle Hooks For Nymphing?

Assuming that your local fly shop stocks circle hooks in #6 & #8, would you consider tying nymphs with these?
For your consideration, here is a link to a site you probably already know about, but for the benefit of those just getting started:

http://www.mustad.no/action/fishing_tips/czech_nymph1.htm

Dick

I wouldn't for the simple reason that I can probably count on 1 hand how many trout I have hooked deeper than the lip in the last 10 years or so flyfishing, especially nymph fishing. Most of my deeper hooked fish have come from late evening/early night spinner fishing where I didn't set the hook quickly enough since I couldn't see my fly anymore.

I've toyed with them for streamer patterns for smallmouth and stripers with fair success although the field testing is still in it's infancy. The problem I forsee with using circle hooks for more traditional trout applications is they require a tagret species that grabs the "bait" and turns to swim away. Unfortunatly trout generally do not fit this profile.


Now if I'm bottom fishing for catfish or various salt specieswhere live or cut bait is the order of the day I only use circle hooks and feel they far outperform traditional "j" hooks interms of avoiding deep hookups.
Jus my humble .02$
JW

Now John brings up an interesting point about trout spitting out a fly.
We have all seen this, inhale-spit-out in 1/10 sec. Intuition (false?)tells me that an offset hook would be more effective than a circle, but I'm perplexed by these Czech guys winning competitions big time with circle hooks; but then again I am no Czech tournament fisherman.

Dick

I think part of the difference with the Czech nymphing (and Polish Nymphing to a lesser degree) is that you are actually pulling the fly slightly faster than the current so it ends up producing the "turn effect".
Another factor to consider is that in European fly fishing competition circles trout are not typically the target species. Usually attention is focused on grayling which I'm told behave rather differently than our more familiar trout species.
JW

John has it right as far as the czech nymphing technique goes, and the reason behind it is because grayling watch the "food" go past them then turn around and approach it from behind. That is how it was explained to me by a gentleman who fishes in the international tourneys.
Jeff

I tie many of my streamers with #1 & #1/0 Mustad circle hooks but have never seen them in typical nymph hook sizes. I like them as the fish often are hooked in the corner of the mouth and if a gust of wind comes along and throws the hook onto my head the point will not wind up penetrating my scalp.

Matt, do you tie Clousers on them?

Circle hooks for trout flies were just beginning to be talked about when I last trout fished. After years, now this summer I will go again and fish for trout the way I like: in rapids with nymphs on a short line. My favorite terminal tackle was a light, level leader with two flies spaced along it and with a shot at the end. Very effective. When I tried Czech style with three heavy flies and no other weight I liked it even better....except I had many more bottom snags and, when the fish was in and flopping, more fouling.

Before I tie flies for the trip, can anyone say with authority whether circle hooks of (_) size will dramatically decrease my bottom snagging and fish fouling, without dramatically decreasing my hookup and hold rate?

John,

I hope someone can help you with circle hooks; I can't. I very much like Knapek hooks and Partridge barbless Czech Nymph or barbless Scud hooks. They hold fish very well, but come out easily when you want to remove them. Here are two things to reduce fouling: of flies in your net, use a rubber basket net; of flies in fish, separate flies by 24 inches. Here's a Czech leader Loren Williams uses. He has competed internationally, and knows this method very well:

'A very typical nymph rig for me would be 4 feet of 3X to my "sighter" (a section of my leader constructed of two colored pieces of mono or fly line backing that I use to better track my flies), 3 feet of 4X or 5X from it to my top dropper and 24 inches of 4X or 5X between the top and middle and middle dropper and point. Tags are usually around 4-inches. Even on long casts I can tuck hard and turn things over...to the point that as soon as the flies hit the water I am "in contact." For Czech nymphing I am lob casting so turnover is not an issue.

7 feet of leader to top dropper, 3X and 4X, then 24 inches between flies.'

Nice flies, as always, Matt. Mustad is the only manufacturer I've seen with a circle hook for fly tying, but I'll keep my eyes open.

Thanks for the reply, Martinlf

I might try Knapek Czech nymph or Partridge scud hooks. I mostly used size 12 and 14 TMC 2457s with crushed barbs, and other brands, types and sizes, too, and didn't notice any difference in how prone they were to fouling the bottom and fish except smaller was less. But, then, hook pullouts were more.

My leader was shorter than Loren Williams', about 9', but I also spaced the flies about 2' apart. I didn't even use droppers, just tied the flies into the leader. Maybe I'll space the flies even a little further.

You are most welcome. Loren doesn't always use/recommend droppers either. He's discussed tying flies directly to the leader, and that's the way I often do it too. Best of luck.