Varivas Full Circle have a good following in the UK and if you like this type of hook then these Varivas ones are among the best.
The Varivas Full Circle is made from a heavy gauge wire with a straight eye, sharp curved off-set point and neat barb.
Circles are best for fish that move off with the bait and are particularly good for bass, hounds and tope.
With the advent of the ‘dongle’ and hair rigging type rigs the Varivas Full Circle has really come into its own. On this style of rig a Varivas Full Circle gives you almost guaranteed lip hooking with hounds, bass and rays.
The smaller sizes are also worth using for bream and whiting as they not only hook up really well but help to avoid deep hooking. They are best when used with fish baits, live or dead, but they are not a good choice for fishing with worm baits as the circle shape makes them hard to bait up.
If you haven’t tried a circle hook before don’t forget that you do not strike, just gently tighten into the weight of the fish and the hook will pull itself into the corner of the fishes mouth. This can be hard to do but striking is definitely not a good move as most times all you succeed in doing is pulling the hook out of the fishes mouth!
Mike Ladle carried out some extensive tests using both circle and standard J hooks for live baiting for bass with mackerel from the shore. He found the hook up rate with the 6/0 Varivas Full Circle was far better than that achieved with a standard hook. Once the bass had the bait and was running off with it just tightening the line pulled the hook home and every fish was neatly hooked in the mouth.
He also had outstanding results using the same hook with wobbled dead baits for pike and again each fish was hooked cleanly in the scissors.
10 Hooks per packet