Probably the fish swimming with your bait before you setting the hook.
I didn't have any good experiences with Circle hooks after several trial
runs for salmon and steelhead on Lake Michigan. I went back to wide gap
octopus hooks, which I absolutely love from size #12 to size 1.

I have used Wide Gap worm hooks as well, and have hooked fish in the
roof of the mouth, corner of the mouth, and even the tongue a few times.

Hope this helps.

Chris
fishtale wrote:
Last summer I was using wide gap hooks and the fish were being hooked
on the side of the mouth, on hookset. Using circle hooks there is no
hookset and the fish will be hooked on the side of the mouth. I prefer
to have a hookset. Are my observations correct regarding wide gap
hooks.