Photo by Ron Sinfelt.

The dog days of summer are upon us, and that sets one to thinking about cats -- catfish, that is! Not much beats a mess of crispy fried catfish, and Alabama’s state-owned public fishing lakes are the perfect places for wrangling up a bunch of them. So grab your fishing pole, call your fishing buddy and set out to explore some of these better fishing holes in the Yellowhammer State.

Whether you’re fishing with a buddy or taking the kids out for an angling adventure, Alabama’s public fishing lakes are great destinations. The Division of Wildlife and Fisheries of Alabama’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources owns and operates 23 public fishing lakes in 20 counties located all over the state. Ranging in size from 13 to 184 acres, these lakes offer something for just about every angling desire.

The State Fishing Lakes Program was started in 1940 as a vehicle for providing high-quality fishing at an affordable price, especially in areas of the state that lacked adequate natural waters for anglers. With leisure time in short supply these days, the state lakes provide convenient, easy access as well as outstanding fishing opportunities.

According to Jack Turner, the state lakes coordinator for the DWFF, most of the lakes are pretty heavily used, depending on their location. As expected, the closer the lakes lie to a major population center, the more visits they receive.

“We expect 150,000 to 250,000 visitors per year for the lake system statewide,” Turner said. “The most heavily used lakes support 15,000 to 20,000 anglers per year, but some only see 3,000 to 4,000. It just depends on where they are located geographically.” Annual weather patterns also play a role in determining visitation and how good the fishing is in a given year.

When the system was created, all of the lakes were stocked with largemouth bass, bluegills, redear sunfish (“shellcrackers”) and channel catfish. Over the years, populations of white and black crappie have also become established in many lakes, and anglers may also encounter rainbow trout in some of the northern lakes.

While most anglers who visit the state fishing lakes are targeting bass and bluegills, some really good catfish lakes are also available. “Catfish are considered a supplement in most lakes, but in some of these lakes it’s a pretty big supplement,” Turner remarked.

Channel catfish are the staple of the catfish action in the state lakes system. Sometimes referred to as “willow,” “speckled” and “sand” cats, the species is slender and long, with a deeply forked caudal fin and a protruding upper jaw. Adult fish have gray backs that grade to light yellow or greenish yellow along the sides to white on the bottom; juvenile fish generally have light gray backs and silver sides. Both adult and juvenile fish may have scattered dark spots across their bodies, but these are often absent on fully mature channel cats. The typical adult fish runs between 15 and 24 inches. The state-record channel catfish was a 40-pounder taken by Donald R. Cox in 1967 in Inland Lake on the Locust Fork of the Black Warrior River system.

Channel catfish prefer deeper water. They eat just about anything, their preferred wild foods including aquatic insect larvae, crayfish, mollusks and small fish.

Catfish are stocked into the state lakes each year beginning around Thanksgiving and wrapping up in late January or early February. Most of the stockers run between a half-pound and three-quarters of a pound. According to the State Public Fishing Lakes brochure, catfish in the system commonly grow to 1 to 2 pounds. However, the average size of the catfish that comes out of the lake has a lot to do with the lake that you’re fishing.

“At some lakes, the annual average would be 3 pounds, but at other lakes the average would be half of that,” Turner acknowledged. “It depends on the lake you’re fishing and the conditions in the lake.”