When it comes to tackle, Terrill uses 7-foot rods with medium-to-heavy action mated with 6000 or 6500 Abu Garcia reels spooled with 20-pound line.

Fishing guide Mark Malfa, who has plenty of experience on a number of lakes in the Highland Chain, noted that those bodies of water often don't garner as much attention as do other locales when it comes to finding catfish both in good quantities and of high quality. "Lots of people just enjoy the clear water on those lakes," he said. "All of those lakes -- Buchanan, Granger, LBJ, Travis -- are really underfished when you compare them to other places to the south or north. There's good flatheads and blues on Buchanan, LBJ and Travis. We never caught any monster fish, but we've had flatheads up to 50 pounds or so and a lot of blues up to 25 pounds."

In the view of Malfa, most anglers can find fish with a common approach that works just about anywhere. "We would usually be using cut bait of all kinds," he said. "Live bait can work, but a lot of people just don't want to hassle with it. The best thing you can do is just weight it down to the bottom and just pop it up and down about 6 inches every so often. It's really nothing special, but it catches the fish, whatever you may be angling for."

Overall, the Colorado River system has some of the best catfish waters in the state, and you don't have to be an expert to find fish in lakes or the river itself. The catfish is likely the perfect game fish: relatively easy to catch, and offering some of the best eating of any aquatic dweller. This makes it a great quarry to angle for if you're looking to introduce someone to fishing or just want to bring home some fillets for a fish fry.

Thanks to its hefty appetite for just about anything you put in front of its whiskers, the catfish can be caught by means of a variety of tactics and techniques -- and there's no shortage of them in the central portion of the Lone Star State. For anglers from the Austin area, the catfish can provide an enjoyable day of summer angling -- and you don't have to burn through a whole tank of gas to get to and from some great fishing locale!

Just try to remember this: Stink bait gets its name for a reason -- so you don't want to leave it by accident in a hot vehicle for all of an August day!