The lowly catfish.

Bottom-feeding
on foul-odored rot.

Yet current record
catfish angled from
the United States
include
a 130-pound blue,
a 123-pound flathead and a 58-pound channel.

A 650-pound Mekong giant, caught in Thailand,
is the largest catfish on record.

Catfish deserve respect from anglers, and the company Rippin Lips knows that.

Rippin Lips, hardcore catfish tackle manufacturer, has introduced its Tournament Grade Circle Hook.

John Jamison, “legendary catman,”
Rippin Lips says, helped design the
hook, billed as the ultimate for catfishing.

“Once you tag a big cat with one of these sticky circles,” says Jamison, a longtime catfish tournament winner, “they stay hooked – count on it.”

Like all circles, the hook was designed to catch the fish in the mouth, nowhere else.

The unique shape of the point makes circles slide off other parts in the mouth, hooking the lip, the ideal place.

The Rippin Lips hook was designed specifically for a catfish’s mouth.

“We constructed the Tournament Grade Circle Hook with an optimized offset that starts the hook moving faster in a catfish’s jaw,” Jamison says. “This leads to quicker, more forceful penetration and a higher hook-up percentage.”

He’s experienced a 94-percent hook-up rate with the hook, he says.

The hook shape maximizes hook penetration for “all types of bites – from mad and aggressive to subtle and soft,” Rippin Lips says.

The hooks, red-blood colored to enhance “the appeal of rigged baits of all kinds,” the company says, come in sizes 1/0, 3/0, 5/0, 7/0 and 8/0.

The sizes “perfectly match every conceivable catfishing presentation,” the company says.

The hooks are built to better yank that lowly catfish to the top.

For more info about the hooks, or other fascinating catfish supplies, visit the Rippin Lips Web site.