The best catfishing at Lake Corpus Christi is in the shallows: water less than 8 feet deep, with plenty of vegetation. Meat anglers take channel cats on dough baits while the blues and flatheads in the river and creek channels are best taken on live baits, especially shad and bluegills.

Choke Canyon, a 25,670-acre reservoir in Live Oak and McMullen counties, remains the heavyweight champion of South Texas, catfish-wise. But catfishing in this lake has an interesting twist.

The relatively new lake (1982) is popular with cormorants, a migratory shore bird that likes to roost in trees over water. That sets up one of those fascinating cause-and-effect cycles of nature. Cormorants eat fish and the end product of that, their droppings, attracts more fish.

The spoke in the wheel of this symbiotic relationship is the knowledgeable catfisherman who with trotlines or jugs transforms a rookery into a hookery for anglers. To hurry the process along, some veteran cat-catchers make an artificial catfish bait that resembles cormorant feces.

For more information on Lake Corpus Christi, visit www.tpwd.state. tx.us/fishboat/fish/recreational/lakes/ corpus-christi or www.cctexas.com; for more on Choke Canyon, see www.tpwd.state.tx.us/fishboat/fish/ recreational/lake/choke_canyon ; contact the Three Rivers Chamber of Commerce at 1-888-600-3115, or visit their Web site, the address for which is www.threeriverstx.org .

NORTHEAST TEXAS
Considering that the late, very appropriately named “Splash” -- Texas’ 121.5-pound record blue catfish and for a time the U.S. record blue -- came from Lake Texoma, that giant impoundment between Texas and Soonerland attracts more catfish anglers than a sour grain-baited boat dock. While unquestionably an excellent catfish lake, it’s not the only catfish hotspot in North Texas.

If you want some fine catfishing on a smaller lake, here’s a little secret: In the opinion of a man who makes his living by what he knows about fish, Lake Lavon is as good as Texoma.

Off state Highway 78 northeast of Dallas in Collin County (the community of Wylie is four miles from the lake), this U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lake covers 21,400 acres.

“They’re spawning like crazy at Lavon,” said Texas Parks and Wildlife Department fisheries biologist John Moczygemba, based in Pottsboro. “The lake had been low last year, but thanks to all the rain we got in the spring of 2007, it blew up with water. We did a survey last year and found an excellent population, with up to 60- to 70-pound blues.”

In fact, all the good lakes had been very low, some down 14 or 15 feet, and that hurt the spawn. On the upside, the low water level concentrated the fish and forage fish, making for easier fishing. “The predators were having a feast for a while,” Moczygemba said.

Now that most Texas lakes are full, the TPWD biologist noted, “a lot of them are like new lakes -- real hot. They’ve been refertilized. Vegetation that had grown up is now covered with water, making for good cover. Oxygen’s plentiful top to bottom.” According to Moczygemba, the big blues are being taken in the channels mostly on juglines, with channel cats excellent on shad or cut bait.

Lake Ray Roberts too is a good catfish lake, he said. The 25,600-acre impoundment covers parts of Denton, Cook and Grayson counties, starting 10 miles north of Denton off Farm-to-Market Road 455.

“They catch ‘em on jugs and trotlines, but some striper guides will put out longlines with big shad and dangle it right in front of a 30-pound-plus blue,” he said. “It’s pretty awesome.”