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Guatemala uses circle hooks for sailfishing. The fishing with circle hooks is fantastic in Guatemala. Our crews plus quality tackle and gear give you the competitive edge to make every outing unforgettable.
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Circle Hooks Sailfishing in Guatemala.
Circle hooks in Guatemala
Fat Cat Charters uses only Circle hooks for billfish
A Note on Circle Hooks
Guatemala, along with several other Central American nations, has mandated the use of circle hooks for use in billfishing. These oddly-shaped hooks are used because their design allows anglers to hook up to 98 percent of their billfish in the corner of the jaw where it does no harm to the fish. In contrast, standard J-shaped hooks have a much higher percentage of hooking fish deeply in the gills, stomach or throat area where they can cause serious harm or even mortality in sailfish. The object is to release them in good shape for future generations to enjoy.
Guatemala was the first Central American country to enact laws protecting Sailfish in Guatemalan waters. The only sailfishing permitted is catch and release fishing. Later Guatemala enacted another controversial law advocating the exclusive use of circle hooks when fishing for billfish in Guatemala waters, making the use of J hooks on billfish illegal and making Guatemala the number one country, world wide on billfish conservation. Later other Central American countries followed Guatemala's lead, however to most billfish enthusiast this signalled a possitive trend for billfish conservation.
Circle hooks are anything but new. It's hard to know when they first came about but early versions of the concept where seen by Captain Cook when he visited the Pacific Islands. Since then, circle hooks have evolved into the ultimate conservation tool for responsible anglers - non-offset, thin wire carbon steel circle hooks.
In 2002, a study was done by Dr. Eric Prince of the National Marine Fisheries Service in Miami Beach Fl. The question was what was better for the fish vs what was better for the angler, circle hooks or J hooks? At that time, it was anticipated that there was a trade off, "if you wanted to conserve the billfish then you used circle hooks but lost more fish" Dr. Prince's study was instrumental in demonstrating the effectiveness of Circle hooks over J hooks. Dr. Prince's study supplied proof that circle hooks dramatically reduce trauma, with both live and dead bait on sailfish. The results were dramatic revealing the benefits on circle hooks in billfish conservation, as well as in the percentage of landings for the angler. A total of 360 Pacific sailfish were caught with 235 on circle hooks and 125 on J-hooks.
Significantly more sailfish were deep hooked in the throat and stomach with "J" hooks (46%), as compared with circle hooks (2%). Only one sailfish (1%) was foul hooked using circle hooks, while 11 (9%) sailfish caught on "J" hooks were foul hooked. Sailfish caught on "J" hooks are 21 times more likely to suffer hook-related bleeding than those caught on circle hooks.
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Guatemala Sailfishing is the best in the world, but we have so much more for you to do. |
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