THE 



CATCH 



tchaiffmease: 



Circle Hooks Round Up Giant Tuna.. 

 And Let Them Swim Away Again 



I 



t's November, and once again 

 fishers are scanning the waters off 

 Morehead City and Hatteras for a fish that 

 has become an annual visitor: the giant 

 bluefin tuna. Though the bluefrn tuna 

 recreational season does not start until Jan. 

 1 , catch and release of the monster fish has 

 become big business in the coastal 

 counties. As a result, many anglers have 

 added circle hooks to their arsenals of 

 fishing gear. 



Originally used in the longline fishing 

 industry, circle hooks have caught on with 

 recreational users because they do little 

 damage to fish. The unusual circular shape 

 actually prevents the fish from swallowing 

 the hook and getting injured internally. 

 Fishers theorize that the fishing line pulls 

 the hook back out of the fish's throat, to 

 lodge firmly in the comer of the jaw when 

 the fish turns. Anglers don't even need to 

 "set" the hook by jerking the line, as they 

 do with the ubiquitous "J hooks." 



"You look at that hook and you say, 

 'There is no way a fish can get caught on 

 that,'" says Jim Bahen, North Carolina Sea 

 Grant's recreational fishing specialist. But 

 it works almost every time, catching tuna, 

 snapper, grouper and tarpon right in the 

 hinge of the jaw, where the hook can easily 

 be removed and retrieved. 



Fishers and scientists are now 

 studying the hook's usefulness with 

 different species of fish, and so far, the 

 results are promising. Hard-mouthed reef 

 and ground fish were already known to 

 show high survival rates using circle 



By Renee Wolcott Shannon 



hooks, and preliminary work with flounder 

 suggests that they, too, respond well to the 

 hooks. Other studies are focusing on 

 billfish, Pacific halibut, red drum and 

 striped bass. 



Circle hooks' performance with the 

 catch and release of tuna is already well 

 known, increasing the number of fish 

 hooked in the lip to about 90 percent. If 

 you plan on eating your catch this spring, 

 however, you need more than just a circle 

 hook. 



One important thing to 

 remember is that Atlantic bluefin 

 tuna are internationally protected, 

 so killing one requires a current 

 permit from the National Marine 

 Fisheries Service (NMFS). You'll 

 also need to find out if the quota is 

 still open for your gear category. 

 See the NMFS tuna Web site at 

 www.usatutia.com for more 

 information or to print out a permit 

 application. 



Whether you plan to catch 

 and release your tuna or eat it, you 

 need to have the appropriate gear. 

 Atlantic bluefin tuna are large, fast 

 fish and require heavy equipment 

 and a specialized approach. Circle 

 hooks don't work well with bait 

 that is dragged through the water, 

 Bahen says, so most fishers chum 

 or "chunk" for tuna, throwing 

 chopped menhaden or other fish 

 into the water until tuna are 

 feeding vigorously. Similar 



chunks threaded onto circle hooks will then 

 catch some of the tuna off guard. 



Because tuna are such huge fish — 

 tuna weighing more than 600 pounds have 

 been caught off the North Carolina coast 

 — you must use a large hook to catch 

 them. Bahen recommends a 12/0 to 16/0 

 circle hook, and suggests matching the line 

 strength to the hook size. For a 12/0 hook, 

 he uses 150-pound line, while a 16/0 hook 

 demands a beefier 350-pound line. 



Jim Bahen shows Carlos Fetteroff how to use the 

 heavy fishing gear. 



26 HOLIDAY 1999 



