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I only use circle hooks when fishing halibuts. There's nothing worse than wanting to release a fish and finding trebles stuck in it's throat. Shorts, bycatch, sandbass, C&R, all suffer. I'm mostly a C&R guy on hali's anyway. I see trap hooks as more of a crude & cruel method used by commercial boats and fishermen who want to troll over large areas faster with heavy line without having to pay constant attention. I use circles and finesse, light line and light drag, paying attention to my lines when slow-trolling and quickly give 'em slack when I get a tap. Wait for them to swim off with the bait and then set the hook. Corner of the mouth 100% of the time. I don't think I'm missing any fish with this technique, and I don't like dealing with setting up baits on trap hooks anyway.
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