Torres was the first to introduce me to several fishing guides on Falcon Lake in the late 1960s, including Tommy Gray at Redwood Lodge. Gray is gone now but his son, Amaya, is the man to see if you want to learn about not only where to catch catfish on Falcon but largemouth bass and others species as well.

Falcon has a tremendous population of pan-frying-sized channel catfish. Like most anglers, Amaya uses soured maize to bait out holes along the main Rio Grande channel, in the creeks and ditches that lead into the main channel and around underwater structure such as rockpiles, old corrals and bridges. Amaya's knowledge of what is under the surface has been his key to catching scores of fish.

Anglers not familiar with the lake should use their sonar units and concentrate on the timbered areas close to the channels during the spring and early summer months, baiting out various areas ahead of time if possible. Punch bait and shrimp should be all you need to get into the action, even if you bait out a hole only 30 minutes or so before you start fishing. Spinning or spincast gear with 10- to 15-pound-test line and a No. 4 treble hook (when using punch bait) fished vertically is all you need when fishing the edges of the timber.

LAKE LIVINGSTON
There is only one reason that the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department gathers its blue catfish brood stock from Lake Livingston and that's because the lake has such a tremendous population of the popular and very tasty battler.

But it isn't just blue cats that this big reservoir on the Trinity River north of Houston produces. Sure, it has produced a 78-pound blue, but it also has yielded an all-tackle record yellowcat that weighed 114 pounds. Both fish were caught on trotlines. One thing that makes Livingston such a great catfish fishery is the fact that it has lots of deepwater structure with lots of timber and a tremendous population of shad. Combine the three and you have a virtual big-fish production factory.

During the winter months, most of the big fish will be in the deeper areas along the main channel and can be caught on cut shad, either by anchoring and casting out or by fishing vertically. During the spring and summer months, look for the fish off the main-lake points in shallower water or in the creeks at night.

Bank-fishing for big blues also is popular in the Trinity River below Livingston's dam. Anglers there often use heavy surf rods baited with cut shad or perch to catch big blues from the deepest depths of the river channel.

POSSUM KINGDOM LAKE
Here is a lake deep in beauty as well as in fishing opportunities, especially for channel catfish. Winding down 17,624 acres on the Brazos River in Palo Pinto and Young counties, PK, as it often is referred to, has what it takes to be a great catfish lake: lots of shad and other forage fish. It was last stocked with channel catfish in 2001 when 434,718 fingerlings and 230 adult-sized fish were placed in the lake by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. In 2002, the lake was stocked with an additional 70,995 fingerling blue catfish.