Hooks for catfish have a two-part assignment: To hold onto the bait and then hold onto the catfish once it bites. But it isn’t as simple as it sounds. Every hook isn’t built the same, and each style ...

For the previous 45 minutes I’d jigged a blade bait, just off the bottom, while slowly inching the boat along a section of Keystone Lake shoreline. The depths ran around 20 feet. I’d not had a touch.