Texas Catfish Fishing - Good Spots and Tips for Catching Catfish in Texas

Texas is well-known for their catfish fishing opportunities. In fact, there are several species of catfish found in the waters of Texas and they range in a wide variety of sizes. You can also find them in all types of waters ranging from lakes to ponds to rivers. The fact that they are so plentiful in Texas may be one of the reasons why fishing for catfish is so popular in this state.

Catfish are bottom feeders and they will eat just about anything they can get into their mouths. This is fortunate for you because it means that you do not have to worry too much about the bait that you use. However, stink bait always seems to yield the best results due to the extra sensitive smell the catfish have, which is one of their most recognized features. When using stink bait is not an option, worms and minnows are the next best choices to use for catfish bait. For the most part all catfish will respond to any bait that puts off an odor, resembles their natural food source and that is the right size to fit in their mouth.

The bigger the catfish you would like to catch will determine the size of bait you would need to use. The really large catfish will not waste their time chasing after anything that is to small and the smaller ones will avoid any bait that is to large. Therefore, it is important to always choose bait that is suitable for the size of catfish found in any given area. If you are not sure what size fish are found in the area, you can always experiment with different sizes of baits to see which one works the best for you.

Major Lakes in Texas for Catfish Fishing

One thing that you will notice when in Texas is that there are many places where you can go to fish. There are numerous lakes, rivers and reservoirs where the catfish are just waiting to be caught. Below is a list of just a few of these.

Belton Lake
Cooper Lake
Cedar Creek Reservoir
Lake Buchanan
Lake Kemp
Lake Travis
Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir
Stamford Reservoir
Lake Conroe
Proctor Lake
Lake Palestine
Martin Creek Lake

The Texas state record for the blue catfish was caught in Lake Texoma. The channel record catfish was caught and reeled out of the Pedernales and Lake Palestine is where the record for the flathead catfish was caught.

Tips for Catching Catfish in Texas

In Texas you can catch channel catfish anytime of the year unless the state is experiencing extremely cold weather. In this case the catfish will not be biting and you will not be able to catch many of them, if any at all. The spring and fall seasons are the best time of the year to go fishing for catfish in Texas.

You can use a variety of baits to catch catfish but the different species will respond better to certain ones. The best bait to use for catching channel catfish will be other small fish and crawfish. This is why you can find this species in areas where moss is growing and this type of food source is abundant.