What I am trying to do here is do a survey on the various hooks that we use often in our tackle boxes.  So bear with me here.  Once we know the kind, and who makes them, I would like for us to contact a rep from that company and have them explain more about them.  There are several companies that we can contact that make hooks.  
I believe hooks are one of the basic parts of Catfishing.  Knowing what type and size to use are important on determining what type and size of fish that you are targeting.  Then you select the type of pole, line and reel that will handle that particular catfish.  Once you have this determined, then it is the rig for presentation, weight for depth and bait.  
Let’s start out with hooks as we can learn as much about them and see if we can get the various reps to help us about the specifics that we might have questions about.  
We want a University here for all of us to learn.  This is atleast a starting point of Hook 101 basically.  Eventually, we will get around to everything involved.
I really think at this time, we are limited on hooks that could be used.  Other types still need to be discovered as we are limited to what the market has to offer.  We need better equipment across the Catfish Industry and perhaps some of it can start out here.  So lets look at the basics, share and learn about these more in depth.

I use Eagle claw, Kahles and circles, mostly. It would be nice if you could get them to send you a chart you can put on here of the different sizes, as we all know one manufactures size is different than another manufacturers size are, on circles and Kahles or wide gap. I think this is a great idea.

Gammakatsu Octopus in 2/0-10/0 are the hooks I use most.
Gamma Octo 4x strong in 5/0-9/0
Gamma Big River 10/0
Gamma stinger hooks 2/0-4/0
Gamma octo circles 5/0-8/0 for drifting and sometimes floats
Mustad Big Gunn Catfish in 5/0-7/0 ---wish they made them bigger!
Eagle claw Kahle 5/0-7/0
Eagle Claw King Kahles 8/0-10/0
Owner 5/0-10/0
Diaichi J's(cant remember the style)
I wish I could find what I use most locally,but I have to go over the river and through the woods and up the hill to get them! :evil:

9/0 Demon Circles
10/0 J hooks.

The gamakatsu octopus is the strongest hooks i have ever used. The 10/0 will easily hold a 60lb fish

Thanks for the information so far with this.  Does look like we are targeting 60 plus pounders with the size of the hooks..   Not all tackle stores carry these as in later articles, we need to show them what and why we use them.  Reason being is that I heard a rumor just this last week that Eagle Claw has quit making the larger 8/0 and up since the demand is not there.   This is why this type of information is so important as perhaps we need to focus on them more.  Just from glancing at the membership listing so far.   We have some really good anglers in here that should not be much of a problem with articles explaining why we need all these and showing other anglers a few tips to using them.  All of us have favorite hooks as we expand the Hook section more before long, we can get more specific.  Once again.. Thank you as we continue to grow and learn…

Let’s take a look at the 30 to 50 pound category into the 3/0 to 6/0 sizes roughly or what you would use targeting this size of fish if you all wont mind.

for me that is a hard thing to answer,when im fishing im targeting fish from 20# to as big as my mind can imagine,so im not actually targeting a fish in a certain weight class,i just want big. as i fish i start to learn what the fish prefer as far as bait size and i adapt my hook accordingly to the size of bait,ill start out using a big hunk of bait and a large hook such as 8/0-10/0 as fish and find it slow ill down size my bait and my hook. it makes no since to me to use a 2" shad an 8/0 hook but if the big fish are hungry for small baits i need a hook that is small enough for my bait yet strong enough to handle a large fish.

I use 8/0 gamagatsu octopus circle hooks pretty much all the time no matter what size cat i am after. Even on my light tackle with a small bait to play with the lil ones while waiting for the big ones and have a exelent hook up ratio with them. If i'm not getting the small ones on them i go to a eagle claw 4/0 or 5/0 octopus.