went catfishing at harts lake using dough bait and i bought some mustad #4 treble hooks, they were really sharp but them cats were mangling the hooks i lost a really big one and the fish i got in twisted the point into the shape of a cork screw. i'm going out this weekend to try to get another one but i don't use trebles that much and don't know who makes the strongest in a siz 4.

Have you tried Gamakatsu?

the problem you may be having is that the hook is not penetrating past the barb, which would give the fish much more leverage in bending the hook. go with easy's advice and try gammies, they are one of the sharpest out of the box and they are made of a thinner wire than most hooks so you will get better penetration and your hooks won't bend on you. if you want to use the hooks you already have that would be fine too, just pinch down the barbs, they may be too big, and touch up the points with a stone so they are needle sharp.

thanks easy, i've checked sportco for some gammie treble hooks but i didn't see any, y'all know any where to buy close to tacoma.

and stifler i didn't think about the fish getting leverage on me, til i find some gammie i'm gonna sharpen my points

thanks for the tip guys, i have a feelin' there is a 20# plus out there and i'm gonna spend the rest of the summer chasin' him

You may also try to let them fight a bit more and give them some drag. If you use heavy line and a pretty stiff rod, then sometimes the only thing that can give when fighting a big fish is the hook. If you try to horse them in, then you increase the pressure on the hooks. Try using lighter line and rod, and use a little more finesse (sp?) and your hooks will fail much less often...

The last time I bought Gammi trebles was at Sportco. They are not with the Gammi single hooks. They are farther down the aisle.

Spokey, I was down at Sportco yesterday. The Gammi treble hooks are there. They were with the single Gammis down low by the floor.

hey thanks easy, that's probly why i didn't see 'em. gonna run down tomarrow to pick up few

You might also want to try using circle hooks. Ive seen a lot of cat fishermen using these and they swear by them!!!

I'm heading to harts tonight to try for some of these bad boys. What kind of dough bait were you using? I think I'm just gonna throw crawlers at 'em. THough I've got some catfish bait made by berkly but its never worked for me though.

Is Kress like Harts? I'm planning on heading over to Kress, but don't know what to do for sure. Are catfish like bullheads? Or do you have to use different teqhniques?
Thanks

i don't know a whole lot bout catfishin' but it shouldn't be any different technique for bullhead or channel cats just diffent sized hooks. as far as the diffence between channels and bullheads, channels feed more by sight then other catfish, but i just use real stinky dough bait that way i have a shot at both. i've never fished lake kress, but if your fishing at night, try to fish around some sort of structure up in the shallows (pads, fallen trees, etc.) they cruise around there at night to feed. hope this helps.

if ya wanna know more bout catfishin' try this website there's tons of info catfish.com