APRIL
Crappie
In my book, the Texas angling throne is occupied this month by the tasty crappie. Why? Warm weather, cooperative fish in shallow water, the smiles of children, and a plateful of fried crappie!

Top crappie spots range from big water bodies -- like Fork, Lake O' The Pines, Lavon, Richland-Chambers, Toledo Bend and Sam Rayburn -- to more-diminutive spots -- like 1,020-acre Bonham City Lake in North Texas.

Big water or small, TPWD inland fisheries biologist Rafe Brock says to think shallow water and structure. "Crappie don't utilize vegetation like they do structure like piers, docks or sunken timber," he explained. "That's why brushpiles come into play, because habitat is fairly limiting in some lakes."

What bait should you use? "That depends on your preference," Brock said. "You can start with small jigs, and if that doesn't work, then you can go to small minnows. And keep searching till you find what works."

MAY
Bluegills
A tough month for fishing -- mainly because so much great angling action is available across Texas! But perhaps the best quarry during April would be the platter-sized bluegills found at many Lone Star State lakes and farm ponds.

"Caddo is probably as good a lake as we have in Texas for sunfish, especially bluegills and redears," Woodruff said, noting that the natural lake's bluegill beds can be especially large. "If you find a bed and catch one, you can catch a ton." The bigger 'gills tend to hang out around the bed's perimeter and deeper side, he added.

What to use? For flies, throw things like Bream Killers, Wilson's Bluegill Bullies, or Miss Prissy Poppers in white, chartreuse, or yellow. For conventional angling, toss small Beetle Spins around the beds, or fish a live cricket under a bobber.

And keep the fish fryer warmed up -- you'll need it!

JUNE
Catfish
In late spring and early summer, it's time to think about catching spawning catfish in a myriad of lakes ranging statewide from south -- Amistad, Choke Canyon and Livingston -- to north -- Coffee Mill, Davy Crockett, Nocona, and Texoma.

So where should you look for spawning whiskerfish at any given water body? TPWD inland fisheries biologist Bruce Hysmith says that once water temperatures warm into the mid-70s, look for areas that have some sort of moving water.

"During the spawn, they can be found along windy banks, but the best thing that they like is inflowing water on tributaries," he offered. "They'll really crowd into inflowing water where they'll move up in there and look for hollow logs, rock overhangs, and stuff like that."

While classic stink bait catfish lures work, Hysmith prefers another top whiskerfish bait. "I would use live crawfish," he said. "The crawfish is a little cleaner, and a little more user-friendly."

The biologist loves to fish a crawfish weightless, encouraging it to move around more and attract the attention of a hungry cat. "If you had to use a weight, I'd use a slip-sinker so that the crawfish would still have the freedom to move about," he stated. He also noted that he doesn't use a real heavy hook, and keeps it covered. "If they feel the hook, they'll spit it."