Outdoors: Catfish, get your catfish in Oklahoma

Oklahoma Catfish Fact File
Oklahoma has three species: channel catfish, blue catfish and flathead catfish
How to identify them
Blues and channels have a forked tail. Flatheads have a round tail.
The whiskers on a channel cat are darker. The anal fin is curved on a channel and straight on a blue.
Flatheads have brownish mottling or blotches while blues are lighter-colored. And, of course, flatheads have a flatter head.
Best times to catch them
Nights, dusk and dawn. Channel cats feed for longer periods than blues and flatheads. Blues and flatheads are more nocturnal in the summer months.
Best ways to catch them
For flatheads, live sunfish is the bait of choice. For blues, shad and cut bait. For channel cats, prepared stinkbaits work well as they feed more by smell than sight.
Where to find them
Blues are mainly found in lakes impounded on large river systems, such as the Arkansas and Red River systems. Flatheads are native to Oklahoma streams and are in many lakes. Channel cats are in almost every lake in the state. Fish around rip-rap, dams, logjams, deep pools, rock piles, old river channels and mouth of tributaries.
Good catfishing lakes
For Blues
Statewide: Texoma, Grand, Waurika
Oklahoma City area: Arcadia
For Flatheads
Statewide: Waurika, Hugo, Webbers Falls and Eufaula
Oklahoma City area: Thunderbird, Overholser
For Channels
Statewide: Eufaula, Canton, Lawtonka and many more
Oklahoma City area: Guthrie, Thunderbird, Overholser and stocked ponds such as Kids' Lake near Lake Hefner and Edwards Park in south Oklahoma City
State records
For Flatheads: 106 pounds from Lake Wister on a trot line; 72 pounds, 8 ounces from El Reno Lake on a rod and reel.
For blues: 118 pounds and 8 ounces from Lake Texoma on a jug line; 98 pounds on a rod and reel from Lake Texoma.
For channels: 35 pounds, 15 ounces from Taft Lake on a rod and reel.