Blue cats the size of this 50-pounder that Jeff Williams caught at Grand Lake are old fish! The angler tries to release all his bigger catches, saving the smaller ones for eating. Photo courtesy of Jeff Williams.

August in the Sooner State: Summer's winding down, but it'll be a while yet before cooler temperatures dominate, and you can expect quite a few more scorching 100-degree days in the meantime. Admittedly, the dregs of summer aren't that much fun unless you're sunbathing or relaxing in a cool swimming pool.

However, this month is tops for the catfish angler intent on catching a mess of whiskerfish -- and that's true for nearly any watery venue in the state. That's right: Now's the time to dial in some hot catfish action near you!

"Catfish really get active when the water heats up," said Gene Gilliland of the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation. "Their metabolisms really kick in, and they become more active feeders."

Enough said: Grab your tackle and go buy some catfish bait. But before you start fishing, read up on these primo August catfish waters.

GRAND LAKE
Starting off our list of "hot" catfish spots is this huge impoundment in the northeast part of the state -- a real winner for big blue catfish. Catfish guide Jeff Williams plies his trade at Grand, and has built up a reputation for producing monster catches. "Grand is home to incredible numbers of larger-than-average blues," he said. "It's pretty hard to fish there and get skunked anytime!"

Astute when it comes to all things related to gargantuan blue catfish -- especially catching them! --Williams is sensitive to the substantial time it takes for a blue cat to reach trophy status, and thus photographs and releases all blues over 10 pounds.

Like Williams, ODWC biologist Jeff Boxrucker is a proponent of releasing big blue cats. "It takes at least 12 years for a blue catfish to reach 10 pounds," he explained. "So the really big blue catfish are really old, and should be released to get bigger."

The lake harbors a mixed bag of catfish, Williams said, but he prefers to target trophy blue cats. "Although I do catch some channel cats and flatheads," he offered, "95 percent of my catch is blue cats."

Williams, who has guided on Grand for the past 10 years, thinks that overharvest of trophy blue cats by too many guides and anglers is a problem statewide. He recommended that summer anglers should target the shallow mudflats near Sailboat Bridge, as well as the areas around Twin Bridges State Park; he added that the fishing platform at Bernice State Park as a good bet for bank-anglers. Sweetwater Cove, Duck Creek and Drowning Creek are similarly promising sites for catching blue cats on the huge lake.

Williams' clients generally catch blue catfish in the 3- to 10-pound range, and the occasional larger one; his best exceeded 50 pounds. The guide advised that boat anglers buy the best electronics they can afford to assist them in locating the baitfish that catfish feed on.

"I believe my fish locator is the most important piece of equipment on my boat," he said. "It helps me mark schools of shad -- and usually there are blue catfish nearby."

Night-fishing can also prove profitable at Grand. The lake limit is 15 blue or channel catfish in any combination; no length restrictions apply.

LAKE TEXOMA
This outstanding catfish water sitting in the south-central part of the state harbors all local species of cats, but in the last few years, the huge blues coming from here have garnered a lot of attention. Caught at Texoma: the current Oklahoma rod-and-reel state record -- a 98-pounder taken by Billy Nabors -- and the unrestricted-class state record -- a real brute (118 pounds, 8 ounces) that hooked itself on a trotline set out by Dan Grider.