One of the most effective ways of catching these cats involves drifting a chunk of cut bait or prepared cheese bait on a free line -- which simply consists of a hook and a bait -- over the humps. But if that rig's not getting down far enough, don't be afraid to modify it by pinching on a split shot weight. The best place to rig it is a foot above the hook.

You can really score on the cats by anchoring on top of the hump and pitching the free-lined bait into the deep water. If your boat's equipped with a trolling motor, just set it on low and slowly troll through these spots; if not, just drift with the breeze.

LAKE CONROE
Thanks to the activity of Houston's numerous water-sports enthusiasts, Lake Conroe is a busy, bustling reservoir. It's also a locale known for its big complement of eating-sized channel cats.

Longtime Conroe fishing guide Tex Bonin says that anglers can catch dozens of channels there by fishing over baited holes. "Conroe is full of brushpiles and various structures that catfish like to inhabit," he explained. "Once you get on a reliable pattern, it's fairly easy to produce limits of fish."

Bonin has identified around 50 brushpiles, which range in depth from shallow to deep. For the better part of the year, though, the catfish hang out in the deeper brush -- that resting in 18 to 25 feet of water. Bonin advises anglers wanting to intercept Conroe's brush-loving catfish to employ a sonar unit, as most of the brushpiles are around main-lake structure like creeks, humps, roadbeds and points. In other words, the brushpiles are hard to find.

Another method -- namely, "flipping" -- might sound wacky, but it can be worth your while to give it a try at Conroe and other reservoirs. This isn't flipping in the sense used with reference to bass anglers and jigs, but the basic premise is the same, as catfish are like bass in tending to hold tight to the brush that runs along the shoreline and along riprap.

For the best outcomes, flip for cats at brush positioned on a ledge at the end of a point near a creek channel. This works particularly well at night, when catfish often move from the deep holes to the shallows to feed. Shad stack up in these areas, which in turn draw in the catfish. By flipping a piece of cut shad or a live crawfish rigged on a 1/2-ounce jighead, it's you can very possibly catch yourself quite a few cats.

LAKE TRAVIS
Travis doesn't get much play as a catfish destination, but anglers in the Austin area are well aware that this lake can serve up plenty of high-end cats -- eatin'-sized channel catfish especially.

The really dedicated catfishermen of Travis bait their holes with soured milo, corn or cottonseed cake. The general practice is to bait several locations with these substances and to plot a fishing route targeting each of them. But even those who don't regularly bait multiple sites at these reservoirs can go out, bait a single favored hole and return a few hours later to fish; catfish move in on such spots quickly.