164 
Fishery Bulletin 110(2) 
Recreational Charter 
Hook type 
Figure 3 
Plots of the average catch per trip (±standard error) on circle hooks (open bars) and J 
hooks (gray bars). Data for each group are from both directed and nondirected trips 
for that species. Plots are broken down by user group (recreational [left column, panels 
A-C], and charter [right column, panels D-F[), and taxa (dolphinfish Coryphaena hip- 
purus [A, D[, tunas [B, E], and mackerels [C, Fj). The tuna group included yellowfin 
tuna ( Thunnus albacares ), blackfin tuna (Thunnus atlanticus), skipjack tuna ( Euthyn - 
mis pelamis ), and false albacore ( Euthynnus alletteratus). The mackerel group included 
wahoo (Acanthocybium solandri), king mackerel ( Scomberomorus cavalla ), and Spanish 
mackerel (Scomberomorus maculatus). The legend denoting fill pattern for each leader 
type applies to all panels. No bar for a particular hook-type+taxon+user-group + leader- 
type combination indicates no catch. 
of deep hooking were 0 % for both circle and J hooks 
that caught yellowfin tuna. 
Discussion 
There is increased interest in requiring circle hooks in 
the recreational bluewater troll fishery in the United 
States. This is largely due to studies finding that circle 
hooks maintain catch rates but reduce rates of deep 
hooking compared with J hooks in billfishes (see Serafy 
et ah, 2009, for review). In contrast, we found for non- 
billfishes that observed catch rates were reduced with 
circle hooks under that for J hooks in the charter group; 
similar findings were found in the recreational group for 
dolphinfish. Predictions of relative catch (through effect 
