fishing-my opinion

me and the wife went fishing on a boat last weekend,we were fishing out of crisfield md. on the capt. rocky .we both caught our limit of croaker one spot and the wife caught a flounder while we caught a lot of fish it still didn't seem like as much fun or satisfying as fishing from the pier while we did catch enough to feed family and some select neighbers.it just seems like it was too easy i mean you are sitting rite on top of the fish and all you had to do was reel them in.i did become a fan of circle hooks tho didn't lose any while others around us did.stated useing circle hooks because the wife doesn't really set the hook so i switched us both to circle hooks.question can i still set the hook or get used to not setting the hook and just real in?