A lot of debate has raged lately about the use of circle hooks when fishing for blue marlin. On the South Paw, owned by Bob DeGabrielle, they only use circle hooks when targeting billfish, and the first mate, Alberto Sanchez, experiments frequently with new rigs. While fishing down in Venezuela with Capt. Bubba Carter and Sanchez this past April, I told Sanchez about the circle-hook battle raging here in the States and the uproar about not being able to use an Ilander/ballyhoo combination in tournaments. (The regulation has been postponed for this year, but it's probably coming back in the future when they get the details ironed out.)

We decided to rig up a few Iland Jr. lures (we had small ballyhoo and were catching 200-pound blue marlin) with circle hooks and see how they would work. Sanchez used the same rigging style he developed for his Mini Chugger/ballyhoo combination that he normally runs, just substituting the Iland Jr. for the Mini Chugger. Here's the step-by-step process:

1. Start by attaching a circle hook to your leader material, making sure you thread the leader through the hook eye, around the shank and back out before crimping.
2. Next, loosely crimp a small loop in a 10-inch section of 200-pound leader material that will fit snugly around the ballyhoo's head and behind its gill plates.
3. Place the loop around the bait's head and tighten the crimp, leaving one remaining tag end running under the ballyhoo's chin.
4. Now take an 18-inch section of waxed rigging floss and make a small, overhand loop in the middle.
5. Slip the loop over the ballyhoo's bill and tighten down the loop to close the bait's mouth.
6. Pass the two tag ends through the eyes from opposite sides — one going in one eye, and one going in the other.
7. Secure it tightly under the bait's chin with another overhand knot, making sure the mono tag end is under the floss and running in a straight line under the bait's chin.
8. Slide your Iland lure onto the section of mono that's sticking out of the front of the bait and slide on a crimp. Once you form the loop, insert the shank of your circle hook in the loop, draw it down tight on the head of the lure and secure the crimp.
9. The finished rig shows the circle hook crimped tight up against the lure's head.

We got a couple of bites early on the big Ilander and didn't hook up. We switched over to the Iland Jr., but never got a bite on it again, so I can't say if the hookup percentage would be any better. (Can't really say much of anything about the hookup ratio to tell you the truth — simply haven't pulled it enough.) However, I think this rig would work much better if the circle hook was placed about 2 or 3 inches in front of the lure instead of tight against the head (same with the Mini Chugger as well). It only makes sense since the circle hook works best only after it has been swallowed and pulled to the corner of the mouth. You definitely don't want a bait or lure head to interfere at the critical moment when the hook comes to the hinge.