While anglers fishing from boats have access to many more catfish haunts, the fish can be caught just as easily from dry land. De Jesus pointed to some good bank-fishing opportunities in the Highland Lakes Chain, noting that a list of public access points is available on the TPWD Web site.

"As for bank-angling opportunities, some of the chain's lakes are better than others," he offered. "Travis and Inks offer several parks with excellent bank-fishing opportunities for catfish. Meanwhile, Buchanan and LBJ offer less opportunity, as most of their banks are privately owned. Public boat ramp areas may offer the best bank opportunities in such cases."

While the Highland Chain has great lake fishing opportunities, De Jesus said, the Colorado River offers some of the top river fishing in the state. "The Colorado River offers great catfish opportunities, especially around the Bastrop area," he reported. "The city of Bastrop's Fisherman's Park offers a long stretch of bank designed for bank-fishing; this stretch is good for channel catfish fishing. The LCRA (Lower Colorado River Authority) offers bank-fishing opportunities on their park piers at Lake Bastrop and Fayette County Reservoir. Those lakes also offer good channel catfish opportunities."

Community lakes also can be likely places in which to find catfish, stated De Jesus, adding that some of the lakes will maintain solid numbers all year. "TPWD stocks thousands of channel catfish in many community fishing lakes around the state," he said. "There are several in the Austin area that offer channel catfish opportunities from the bank. These get stocked once a year in fall. Many will hold catfish yearlong. A list of these is also available through our Web site. State parks like Inks, Bastrop and Buescher offer license-exempt fishing opportunities as a promotional effort to get families to fish in Texas."

Declaring summer to be a fantastic time for anglers -- because catfish become active and tend to move around more than they do at other times of the year -- De Jesus offered some tips on locating and catching those fish at this time of year. "Summertime is the best time to catch catfish," he said, "as they become active during warm temperatures. They also move up shallow in the summer to spawn and feed. Riprap areas attract spawning catfish like channels and flatheads in summer. Rocky lake points off of creek channels are also a good place to target blues and flatheads.

"Channel cats will move into creeks and rivers to spawn in secluded areas or cavities under logs or undercut banks. The males protect the nests and become aggressive during this time. This makes them vulnerable to angling.

"Flathead catfish can be caught in the Colorado River in deep holes with logjams. They prefer live bait like sunfish or shad. Blues will bite on cut bait or live bait mostly, and channel cats are easiest to catch, as they bite on a variety of baits. The best are chicken livers, stink bait, night crawlers, hot dogs and dough bait. However, they will pick up artificial baits and other alternatives if they have the opportunity.