indianahunter83

thinking that because a catfish's mouth is tough is not the greatest excuse for not using circle hooks. If you have ever felt a tarpon's mouth you would know what a tough mouth is and would realize that if most guides that live bait tarpons use circle hooks then it would be a pretty damn good hook for catfish. If given enough time your hook rate with a circle should be near 100%

Chuck7

Mauser o6 mentioned a Kahle hook. Some , such as me might not be familiar with that hook ..Here it is.

Chuck7

Down here is Florida I've had very good luck catching catfish.

I simply use minnows or redworms. The bite sometimes can be very suttle. Therefore, I seldom use any weight at all. {Except when fishing minnnows}Someone also mentioned not using a stiff rod. I agree. I use nothing heavier than a medium. I simply raise the rod { Like fishing for crappie}and he hooks himself. I'm talking about blue catfish , channels and bull heads. We don;t have flatheads down here. The hookI use is the same ones I use for crappie. I've caught them up to 15 pounds and I can't remember missing hardly any catfish at all. Minnows are great when the channels are spawning along the shoreline.

I use a regular gold colored hook that looks like this. It's onesize smaller than the one acyually pictured here.

sandilands

Also Manitoba is barbless across the board....... try it. It does make it easier to hook'em if you don't have to push that barb thru the thick skin. AndI rarely lose cats once hooked unless the line has a weak spot. Its also much easier to remove hooks from there mouths once you've got them, if its not one I'm gonna keep or take a pic of then I leave them in the water and grab the hook w/pliers and never have to touch the fish which reduces stress on the fish
One other thing that I forgot to mention is that sometime I tear small pieces of rubber from rubber worms and such. I use them as stoppers on my hook....... to keep the bait from slipping off or in the way of a hook up. I'll try and takes pics soon. This is a big help when using live bait and barbless hooks.

drs1961

I've found the wide gap octopus circle hooks work better than the narrow gapped ones. I use 8/0 or larger and most of the time it is hookeddeep in the corner of the mouth.For live bait I hook up through the bottom jaw and bring the point out of the mouth. Then use a small rubber band, 'girls hair bands', looped over the shank and then over the point behind the barb to keep the baitfish on the hook. The baitfish is uninjured and swims freely with the hook turned upright beside it's head. Bad medicene for flatheads!