Something to keep in mind while using this technique is that some very large cats lurk in these areas -- so be prepared for anything!

These spots are also great for setting trotlines. If there's a tree to tie off to, a good setup can be a line that comes off from the tree and goes down to heavy weights on the bottom. Shad, of course, are an effective bait, but they tend, unfortunately, to be effective for the large numbers of garfish that you'll find at Choke during the summer. A workable substitute would be live sun perch -- easy to catch and irresistible to both big blues and some of the larger channels.

LAKE LIVINGSTON
Lake Livingston is most likely the preeminent catfishing destination in East Texas, if not the entire state. And the records show that preference to be based on more than just hearsay. The lake's all-tackle record for flatheads is held by a 114-pounder, and for that for blues by a 78-pound specimen; both fell to trotliners. The quality of the cats here is such that the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department gathers the state's blue cat broodstock from this lake.

Not only does Livingston boast a huge population of shad, sunfish, carp and other tasty, catfish-tempting morsels, but it's also full of structure and extremely deep holes, and contains water that's just a little off-color for much of the year -- perfect conditions for catfish. Fishing below the tailrace with surf rods and reels can be phenomenal; anglers using those long surf rods baited with live or cut perch regularly bag huge blue cats and flatheads.

The Trinity River below Lake Livingston ranks among the top spots for shorebound anglers looking to get into a tussle with trophy blues and flatheads. The area around Liberty in particular produces massive cats of both species, and is a generally recognized hotspot for those fishing from the bank with live shad, carp and perch.

Craig Stephens of Cleveland has fished this area of the Trinity heavily for the last 10 years. According to him, many big blues and flatheads are out there. "I've caught some real monsters there in the past and that area has many more huge cats to give up yet," he said. "For blues I do really well when the river is up. And for flatheads, I do better when it's down by keying on dropoffs and log snags, which there are plenty of in this mighty river."

LAKE AMISTAD
This deep South Texas lake is tops for channel cats -- and they can grow quite large there.

The most profitable time for catching them is during the late spring and throughout the summer. During the hottest days of summer, shad begin to stack up on the main lake humps and ridges, often suspending in 25 feet of water over humps in 40 feet of water and sometimes as deep as 45 feet in areas that are 60 feet deep. While running sonar over these spots, you'll often notice large fish showing up on the graph. These typically are blue cats.