Photo by Bruce Ingram.

William Shakespeare may have written A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but I’ve lived the angling version.

I've lived it while fishing for summertime whiskerfish on Lake Texoma, that is. I've done it with the aid of a couple of wily catfishing veterans, Charlie Coder and Kelwyn Ellis, who regularly visit the 89,000-acre reservoir that straddles the Oklahoma-Texas state line.

A few years ago the three of us, riding on Coder's striper fishing rig, waited until darkness fell before venturing out onto sprawling Lake Texoma. Hours later, we returned to the dock to filet our limits of channel cats, weary from whiskerfishing that was almost too good to be true.

Which, come to think about it, is a pretty good way to describe catfishing all over the Sooner State -- this year included.

"It's one of the staples of Oklahoma fishing," said Kim Erickson, fisheries chief for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation. "The catfish is one of the three most sought-after fish in the state."

Why is that? Well, for at least four primary reasons.

First, the catfish -- channel cats, blue cats, and flatheads -- are found from virtually one end of Oklahoma to the other.

"Catfishing is pretty good statewide," Erickson agreed. "Now in some places, you won't find big numbers of blue cats, but channel cats and flatheads are pretty spread out all over the state."

A second reason for the immense popularity of catfish angling in Oklahoma is the sheer simplicity of fishing for them. Forget the $50,000 bass rigs, big sonar units, and high-dollar rods, reels, and tackle.

For catfish, simple equipment and some bait -- all the way from earthworms to shad to the stinky concoctions filling angling shops all over the state -- are all that is needed to catch a mess of catfish from the bank.

A third reason for the popularity of catfishing is that the fish often serves as the angling genesis for many fishermen. Who among us didn't experience the thrill of watching a big whiskerfish take a bobber under as a kid?

"Absolutely," Erickson said. "That hasn't changed since I was a kid; it was the way that I got started. In fact, it's the way we try to start kids now with our Aquatic Education Program. Give a kid a rod, a reel, a bobber, some line, a hook, and a worm and he's ready to go catfishing. I don't think that's ever changed much."

A final reason for the popularity of catfishing in Oklahoma is that the species can absolutely shine on the dinner table. And when fixed properly, it is indeed healthy fare to eat.

With the popularity of catfishing across Oklahoma, what can Sooner State residents expect in this Centennial Year?

More of the same -- good catfishing!

In fact, as he would grade most years, ODWC biologist Gene Gilliland rates the state's 2007 whiskerfish prospects at an "A" level.

And that's even with drought conditions plaguing much of the state over the last year or two.

"Most of these catfish populations, at least for this year, will be pretty good," said Gilliland, who went on to note that the number of catchable-sized catfish is more influenced by what may have happened three or four years ago than by what's happened during the last year or two of drought, whose effects on the population may not show up for a few years.