in general, i think the fish(cat) were not really hooked. A few points we could check up to improve the game: 1), the time we start to reel in. do we need to wait for a little bit more to make sure that the catfish was dragging. it was told that flatheads spits out a few times before it really swallows. 2), the way to tie the hook. “Richard Gene, the fishing machine”, showed the knot he used to tie the circular hook for catfishing in his youtube videoclips. 3), i suggest using stronger circular hooks.
though i am not a successful fisher, i wish to share my two cents, because i like catfishing too.
一条蛮大的河，在大坝下游， 沉底钓，用3/0 circle hook
YOUTUBE上说CIRCLE HOOK不用 set hook, 鱼吞下去自己会挂住嘴唇
如果 set hook, 反而会增加脱钩的几率。
我的做法是钓 blue gill 切块做 bait
一般丢出去20-30 米，五分钟就有咬， 估计是猫鱼，
杆头下沉，咔咔的快速出线，
按照youtube 做法，不set hook， 快速收线，
可以感觉鱼很大，好像是挂底的感觉，凭以前在pond 里面钓猫鱼的经验至少是10磅起。
但是reel没收多久，忽然一松，脱钩了。
这样事情发生了好几次，
怀疑是钩子不够大，钩不住猫鱼的嘴唇，于是换了7/0的 circle hook, 鱼肉块变大了
，这下干脆没有鱼来咬，还是得换回 3/0, 有鱼咬，但还是脱钩。
后来仔细研究，发现用 3/0的圆钩，脱钩以后鱼肉要么是没有了，要么是沿着shank 被拉上去，挂在鱼线上。
现在怀疑这几次鱼都没有咬住钩子，而只是咬了鱼肉扯着走？
我在考虑要不要换成 J hook. 杆头一沉就抓杆子上扬 set hook, 像钓鲈鱼那样？
另外，钩子要不要换更小的号？ 比如1/0 ？
美佬钓了鱼会放回去。
大鱼都老油条了。
CIRCLE HOOK不需要set hook，脱钩还有一种可能就是拉豁了鱼嘴。
我们海钓大型金枪鱼，drag一般是20-30磅，但是钓更大型的剑鱼，drag一般只有10-15磅，是因为很强的drag会拉豁。
没钓过猫鱼，如果你确认上钩的都是猫鱼，每次都脱钩要考虑一下是否是拉豁鱼嘴，另外，换5/0的试试看，猫鱼嘴大，3/0或许真太小。
in general, i think the fish(cat) were not really hooked. A few points we
could check up to improve the game:
1), the time we start to reel in. do we need to wait for a little bit more
to make sure that the catfish was dragging. it was told that flatheads spits out a few times before it really swallows.
2), the way to tie the hook. “Richard Gene, the fishing machine”, showed
the knot he used to tie the circular hook for catfishing in his youtube
videoclips.
3), i suggest using stronger circular hooks.
though i am not a successful fisher, i wish to share my two cents, because i like catfishing too.
bests
我的感觉可能是没钩住，鱼钩和鱼饵太大，鱼只是咬住了鱼饵拉扯了一会就放弃了？有没有见到其他人在这区域钓起的鱼大小?