For me, I want to catch them all and I have always thought there was a better way of doing it; hence, I have always searched relentlessly for that better way. Once finding the better way, I continue to look for the next change that will help me toward my goal.
  There will be those who won’t believe that lures rigged with circle hooks catch fish, but these will be the same individuals who fought the use of circle hooks with bait. Most of these guys have made or are making the happy discovery that everything that the “crazy people” who pioneered the use of circle hooks is true. Yes, I was among those “crazies” like Tim Choate and Raleigh Werking, who took a lot of heat from the masses while we preached the benefits of circle hooks to our disbelieving brothers. My first books written almost 15 years ago touted circle hooks and I relentlessly recommended their use for years while hearing basically nothing but “boos and catcalls” from most fishermen. Now circle hooks are widely accepted and, if anything, guys who don’t use circles in their live and natural baits are the ones who are looking like the crazies. That’s all good.

GOAL No. 1

  Let’s be realistic here and admit right up-front that making the most out of every shot we get at a marlin is more important to most of us than conservation. As long as the conservation issue comes in a strong second, that’s okay with me. And if we could do both—increase our hookup and landing ratios on the majority of the marlin we raise and do it in a far less harmful way than ever before, we would have one of those win/win situations that are always good.
  That win/win does exist. Enter circle hooks in artificial lures, both marlin lures and spreader bars. I have kept detailed logs on the fish we caught down in marlin-rich Cabo. During this time I experimented with a large number of hook rigs in an effort to find the best for raising the abysmally low ratios that were traditional with the single and double hook rigs of the past. My hookup ratios and, more importantly, my landing ratios were nearly 100 percent when using circles hooks in lures and spreader bars designed for marlin fishing—what I call “MarlinBars.” The tiny number of others who I know run the circles in the fakes have experienced the same thing.

STIFF-RIGGED “SCORPION” AND “TAIL GUNNER” RIGS ARE GOOD

The only J-hook numbers that approached the circles, and they too were almost impossibly high, came with the scorpion rigged stiff J-rigging. Those who have read New Secrets of Modern Trolling know all of the details of that technique. It's only drawback is that it can injure some fish and these fish probably would live long after release. Not so with when using circles, and as one who has only been responsible for killing three billfish that I know of (not including swordfish or spearfish) out of the thousands I’ve released, it is very important to me personally. Killing marlin is like killing mockingbirds, as far as I'm concerned. It is something that I have avoided doing for all of my life, beginning long before "marlin hugging" became the vogue.