"For channel cats, I recommend using small terminal tackle (No. 6 hook) weighted with a split shot and medium-test line (8- to 14-pound) off the bottom. For blues and flatheads, I would up the gear significantly."

WHAT THE GUIDES SAY
Clancy Terrill, who runs Clancy's Fishing Guide Service, works Central Texas lakes all year. The action for a couple of different species has led him to enjoy fishing Lake Buchanan especially.

"It's a great lake for blue and flathead catfish almost all year," he said. "The spring and early summer are normally high times of the year for trips, but there's good fishing to be had later in the summer."

Terrill was guiding Destinee Love last March when the 11-year-old took a 65.2-pound monster of a blue catfish, setting both the Buchanan lake record and the junior state record for the species and earned several more awards as well. The big fish hit at about 7 p.m.; after a 15-minute battle, Terrill netted the tired fish and hauled it aboard. After getting the beast weighed and having a few photos taken, Destinee requested that the huge fish be returned to the lake.

Destinee's big catch capped off a solid week for Terrill, for whom the youngster's big blue was the fourth catfish weighing 30 pounds or more that his service had been instrumental in taking that week. Terrill personally guided Destinee's father Bobby to the lake-record flathead, which weighed in at more than 17 pounds.

In more than two decades of fishing the Highland Lakes Chain, Terrill has found cats to be creatures of habit, and has different ways of finding fish depending on the time of day. "The catfish will go into the shallows in the early morning and late evening," he said. "And when I say 'shallow,' I mean 20 feet or less. However, in the heat of the day, they'll usually head out to about 50 feet or deeper. If I'm fishing in the shallows, 99.9 percent of the time I'll use a double anchor. If I'm fishing deeper, I'll just use one anchor."

Terrill alters his bait selection to appeal to the species that he thinks he has the best chances of finding and catching. "If I'm going after blue cats, I'll use cut baits like cut shad," he explained. "But if we're chasing flatheads, I use mostly live bait. That's not to say you won't catch flatheads on cut bait or blues on live bait -- it's just a matter of what they're in the mood for. And, usually, it doesn't take much to get them to gulp down a bait."

Though an early spawn brings fish into shallower water and changes their feeding habits, Terrill asserted, August can be a truly promising month for finding above-average fish. "You're still likely to catch a good fish here and there that time of year," he said. "If you're just looking to find good quantity, Buchanan has no shortage of solid fish."