To catch a good stringer of fish; to have a lot of fun; and to utilize a resource not many people know about, try fishing small streams for catfish. These are the same streams most anglers would consider as smallmouth bass streams. However, many of these meandering, rocky waterways are also havens for channel and flathead cats, and these fish are quick to bite, and they offer all the fight an angler wants on light tackle.

Outdoor writer Keith Sutton of Arkansas is knows as "Catfish" for his knowledge about how to catch these fish. He says these streams offer an overlooked abundance of catfish. He likes to float-fish from a canoe, and he concentrates his fishing efforts on the deep, slow holes beneath a stream's riffles.

"You'll have deeper water, and then you'll have a smaller riffle where you might have to pull your canoe through because it's too shallow to float. Then you'll have a deep pool at the base of the riffle.

"Catfish like to lay in the downstream ends of these pools, where the current is slower. Here they can watch for food washing into that deeper water, and that's where I start fishing. I'd say 99% of the time that's where I catch them, in the lower ends of these pools below the riffles."

Sutton continues that his method for catching these catfish is both easy and exciting.

"I'm a bobber fisherman," he avows. "I guess it's the kid in me. I love to watch a bobber go under. So I'll rig a bobber above a nightcrawler. I don't put a lot of weight on the line, and I adjust everything so that night crawler hangs just above the bottom as it drifts downstream. This way the catfish can see it when it's coming to them. It looks natural just drifting along, and when one hits, you won't have any doubt about it. He'll put a bow in your rod, and you'll have a lot of fun."