These guys show how good circle hooks can be at catching big fish on live bait. They put our circle hooks to the test!

Look out Skeet and G-man!

You’re thinking bright lights and big cities but I experienced the Finger Lakes region and lots of forests and agriculture.

I had the great pleasure of fishing Owasco Lake near the town of Auburn and caught some nice lake trout. On the second day of our fishing we had some motor problems and ended up drifting into some shallows why we waited for help. The water there is super clear and there were hundreds of perch feeding in the shallow grass beds. The problem with this some fish can be super finicky in clear water and in fact they kept stealing our worms and small pieces of cut bait.

To correct the problem I broke out some Eagle Claw Circle Bait Hooks and started catching the small perch and rock bass immediately. Nearly every fish that hit ended up getting hook. With the standard j-style hooks we were using we maybe got one fish per 10 strikes. The circle hooks made a big difference. You hear very little about using circle hooks for panfish but that is about to change. They are not only great for conserving catches of big fish by hooking them in the corner of the mouth but also increase the number of fish landed.

The author and a beautiful yellow perch caught on an Eagle Claw
Circle Bait Hook.

With Eagle Claw Circle hooks, the large number means larger hooks.

Choosing a Hook and Rigging Live Bait

and

Fishing and Tying a Three-way Rig

hi – I just wanted to say thanks for making such great durable products. I always use your snelled hooks when I use live bait. recently I was fishing with my ultra light rod and reel along with your hooks and landed a 5 pound walleye. He put up a good fight but when it was all said and done I realized the hook was what got him in. He actually bent the hook but the hook never broke loose from my line. after removing it and bending it back it was still sharp and usable and I caught plenty more fish on it. So thanks again. I have included a picture of the walleye, as I am very proud of it. To date it is the biggest fish I’ve landed thanks to your hooks!!!

Nice Fish Karmela – you should be proud. Eagle Claw snells account for lots of fish every year. I am happy to know it is your biggest to date!   Chris

If you have a good fish story we would love to hear it. Send you photo and story to info@eagleclaw.com

I fish a local tournament on the Tennessee River at Waterloo, Alabama. We fish every Saturday night from 6pm to 1am. This past Saturday I was fishing with my friend when suddenly my trolling motor quit working. I checked and found that the pin inside the propeller had broken. I didn’t have a new one to replace it with and didn’t want to quit fishing the tournament. We checked the entire boat and the closest thing we could find was a 4/0 Eagle claw offset shank worm hook. We clipped the eye and the hook off the end, inserted it into the slot in the shaft of the trolling motor, put it all back together and it worked like a charm. We were able to finish the night ( which was in 15-20 mph winds) and finished fourth in our tournament!  I just wanted to let you know that Eagle Claw Hooks are not only strong enough to catch the big fish but might also be marketed as a good trolling motor fix!! Thanks for making such a :”strong” product!!.

Sincerely and appreciatively,
Bill Cox

Bernie and Steve had a plan for the evening bite so we recharged the boat batteries and our own before heading out at about 5:30, hoping for a little less wind. The evening started out tough with me missing more than my share of chances. We made the switch to crankbaits and I hooked up first thing with a fish close to 20 lbs. Two minutes later Doug finds a big fish with a crankbait and not to be out-done, pushes over the 20 lb. mark.
The other boat with Steve and Matt in it claims to have caught a fish of 25 lbs. but without a picture, who’s to say?
The next morning we were back on the lake early and it looked like we were finding just the little guys, 2-5 lbs. The winds were strong out of the north but we held in and Doug finally got a bite from a big fish. After a tough battle he was able to boat a nice Laker of about 28 lbs. and after a quick photo, we released it back to the depths. With an airline check-in time looming, we called it a day and headed back down the mountain to Denver.

Steve, Matt and Jim from In-Fisherman said their goodbyes with the promise of more BBQ and big Lake Trout on the calendar for next May.

This pond is a joint effort by Eagle Claw, the Colorado Division of Wildlife and the Denver Water Board. We use this great facility for fishing education, Free Fishing Days and all sorts of fishing classes. Over 2,500 people use this faculty every year and one thing is for sure, everyone has a great time.

RALEIGH, N.C. April 2 – For those who are gearing up for another striped bass outing on the Roanoke River, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission is reminding anglers to use a single barbless circle hooks or lure with a single barbless hook when fishing in the upper river from April 1 through June 30.
While anglers can make their existing hooks barbless by crimping down the barb with pliers, the Wildlife Resources Commission, in partnership with Eagle Claw, are handing out barbless circle hooks to anglers fishing on the river this spring. Informational cards with a single barbless hook attached are available from Wildlife Enforcement officers, fisheries biologists and creel clerks working in the vicinity of the river from now until the end of June.
Small, non-offset circle hooks, preferably ones with the least amount of distance between the hook point and shank, are the best for reducing striped bass mortality. Studies show that striped bass caught on small, barbless circle hooks are usually hooked in the jaw, which means they have a much greater chance of survival after being released than fish hooked in the throat or gut. This is particularly true as the weather and water warm.
According to Chris Russell, Eagle Claw marketing and product director, the company has been conducting circle hook research and working with a wide range of conservation groups for the last 20 years. Their findings show about a 95 percent lip hook rate and an 80 percent reduction in gut hooking. Their research also shows that non-offset circle hooks are helpful in reducing gut-hooking even further.
To promote the use of barbless circle hooks while fishing for striped bass on the Roanoke River, Eagle Claw provided 5,000 Lazer Sharp barbless circle hooks, which have an approximate retail value of $2,500, for striped bass anglers to try out this spring.
“This is a high profile fishery and many of the fish are crucial to the spawning efforts of future generations of striped bass Russell said. “Since anglers come from a wide area to fish the Roanoke River, they can see the success of using a circle hook and apply its use to their home waters.”

Until the end of May, the Commission is posting on its Web site, , weekly fishing reports from the Roanoke River every Thursday afternoon. Click on the Roanoke River Fishing Report link on the home page.

Also available on the Web site is a pocket-sized information card on releasing stripers safely; a series of questions and answers on striped bass fishing; locations of free Commission-managed boat ramps on the Roanoke River; and striped bass fishing tips.

For more information on fishing in public, inland waters, call the agency’s Division of Inland Fisheries, (919) 707-0220 or go the website at www.ncwildlife.org

Attending were Shaw Grigsby, Gerald “GMAN” Swindle, Brent Chapman, Chris Elliott, and Dave Mercer. Along with these top pros and TV celebrities we had Greg Waldron, head of sports and fishing for Disney World resorts in Orlando.

We spent a couple days locked up in a room talking nothing but fish hooks. As you can imagine we got some great feedback and fantastic ideas on how to make Lazer Sharp hooks better then ever. What I learned is this is a great group of guys. Both fun to be around and very knowledgeable on bass fishing and how hooks play a huge part of their success.

I thought it would be fun to share a few photos from the event. As you can see we found time for some fun as well. Enjoy the photos and take a look at the video Dave Mercer shot while he was here

www.factsoffishing.com/videoblog.php?id=36