In nearby Hamilton County, Eagle Lake and Lang Lake are also designated as fish-management areas and they may offer "the best catfishing in northeast Florida," according to Dewey Weaver. The fact that both lakes are a little off the beaten path means they get less fishing pressure.

Both Eagle and Lang are old flooded phosphate pits owned by PCS Phosphate. Some years ago, the FWCC reached an agreement with the owners to manage these fertile lakes as public-fishing waters.

Both are stocked annually with channel catfish, whose numbers depend on the availability of fish from the hatchery. In addition to channel cats, both lakes have plenty of brown bullheads.

As you might expect with former phosphate pits, both are deep. Eagle measures 35 feet deep in places, and Lang is a little shallower. Both lakes have good boat ramps, and their limited bank access means you definitely want to fish by boat.

Weaver said that he and a son were fishing Eagle Lake recently, using minnows and crickets -- and had the best catch of catfish they'd seen in a long time.

"We were actually after crappie and bream, but we got into big channel cat," he said. "We caught several that were 7 to 8 pounds, and got one to the boat that we didn't land that was probably 12 or 13 pounds.

Unlike channel cats, the brown bullheads tend to move and feed in schools. If you catch one or two, it's a good idea to keep fishing the same area. There are probably more of those bullheads nearby.

On both lakes, the daily bag limit for channel cats is six. But there is no limit for bullheads.

If you plan to fish Eagle and Lang for catfish, you probably will need to fish with rods and reels, due to the depth. Most serious catfishermen on the lakes go to the deeper holes and typically use earthworms and stinkbaits.

Both lakes are open to fishing during daylight hours only. No gasoline motors may be used on either lake.

To get to these lakes, take U.S. 41 north from White Springs. Turn right on County Road 137, then look for the signs.

A good catfishing lake just east of Gainesville on the Putnam and Marion County line is Rodman Reservoir. This impoundment was part of the ill-conceived, ill-fated Cross Florida Barge Canal that President Nixon stopped in 1971.

Rodman tends is a fairly shallow reservoir, but offers excellent fishing for channel cats, white cats and brown bullheads, particularly near the old river channel.

A couple of years ago, a friend and his son drove down to Rodman for a few days of bass and bream fishing. They caught a few largemouths and some bream, but then ran into a local man with a box full of 1- to 2-pound channel cats. The fisherman told them his secret was to fish near the old river channel with red worms.

They anchored in water 9 to 10 feet deep and had the time of their lives, pulling in channel cats on limber bream busters.