I've used them in small sizes for trout fishing in the Sierras. I tried them because I wanted to bait fish some streams without killing the fish.

They had good hookup ratio. Not quite as good as regular hooks, but very close. I think they would have worked better if they had been bigger (I used #14's). About 9/10 were hooked on the corner of the mouth. A few were still gut-hooked. Most fish were swallowing the bait and still were hooked on the lip. My biggest complaint with them was that once the fish WERE hooked it was a pain to get the hook out, even when lip hooked. I think trying to extract a barbed circle hook from the corner of a bass' mouth might do some damage. But this wouldn't be as bad with larger sizes and also if you debarbed them.

I've also tried those Gamakatsu split shotting hooks that some people claim work like circle hooks. I use them for split shotting and drop shotting at Calero. I think I did gut hook less fish with them, but not much less.

I've wanted to try real circle hooks for bass but I never see them in stores in the right size and wire thickness and I'm not interested enough to order them yet.

Nicolo