You just read the phrase "could expose them" because the exact time you intend to be fishing will be cause to alter your approach at least a little bit. Think of this as not unlike figuring out where to put your tree stand when deer hunting.

You want the stand closer to feeding areas for afternoon hunts because the deer will be moving to food after bedding for most of the day. In the morning, you want to try to get closer to the bedding areas because deer will be coming in from food plots and other areas to bed.

When fishing adjacent to wing dams built to provide current breaks on truly large rivers, you can put a bait out on the bottom in the calm water of the eddy, and then cast another bait out into the current, slightly upstream, and drift-fish that offering. Both should prove effective at catching cats.

If you fish in the late afternoon and into the evening, you may want to start out fishing the deep water almost exclusively. Once dusk turns into night, you can move one of the rods into shallower water to target cats that have moved up. If you'll be fishing in the early morning, start out plying the shallow spots first, then move deeper as the sun rises and light intensity grows with it.

Something that likely has occurred to you as you've read this far is that the kind of "prospecting" for catfish described so far could require making casts with fairly significant lengths. You might need only to lob a bait 20 yards from shore into shallow water, while you'll need to fling a bait a few hundred feet from the same spot to reach deeper water. This is where tackle selection becomes important.

Generally speaking, longer rods give you the ability to make longer casts. From here, you can get away with a short rod that you might use for bass fishing for those short casts. The longer ones definitely will require rods of at least 6 feet. Seven would be even better.

This catfisherman prefers stout rods, regardless of length, with fast actions. There are those who will argue that slower rod actions will help offset the stiffer, less forgiving fishing lines on the market today and reduce the overall shock to your gear of a powerful hookset. I respectfully disagree.

Today's fishing lines offer both less stretch than ever before and more overall strength. As a result, they're much better suited to handling the stress associated with trying to cross a catfish's whiskers with a powerfully hard hookset.

Rods with plenty of backbone and a fast tip will allow you to get down to the business of hooking a cat quickly and efficiently. In my view, they're definitely the way to go.

Whenever possible, mount reels on your rods that are equipped with bait-clickers to alert you to strikes. They're wonderful, as they provide another measure of security for you during those long nights of fishing when dozing becomes a distinct possibility. That's not something any catfisherman wants to do -- but we've all done it. That clicker can wake us up and keep us from losing the fish of a lifetime.

You might want to consider spooling your reels with one of today's high-tech braided or "power" lines because they offer among the best combinations you'll find of strength, hook-setting power and abrasion resistance. If you don't think the latter is important when you're after cats, then just let a big cat bull its way into thick cover after you set the hook. And they'll do it if you let them!

We're down to the business end of your rigs now, and here is where the sharpest hooks you can find come into play. Catfish have tough mouths. Anything you can do to improve your hook-setting ability also will improve your overall percentage of bites to landed fish. With that in mind, don't spare any expense in the hooks you use. Get the best you can afford, and don't be afraid to touch them up with a sharpener before you ever fish them.

My rig of preference for still-fishing on the bottom involves a barrel swivel with an egg-shaped slip-sinker above that swivel. I add a foot or two of line to the other end of the swivel, and I tie my hook to that. Using this rig lets a cat pick up a bait and swim off with it, pulling line through the slip-sinker as it goes. The lack of resistance will help the fish hold onto the bait longer, and that will help you get a better hookset.

If you're going to be doing some drift-fishing, think about investing in some of the "bait-walking" styles of sinkers available these days and used a lot by walleye fishermen. These weights are great for using when you're drifting a bait through moving water, as outlined already. Some might disagree, but arguably, the key to this kind of catfish success involves achieving the most realistic-looking drift possible. These kinds of sinkers will help you get there.

One final thought on making a catfish trip this month. Bring along the insect repellent. You're possibly going to be on a boat or at the water's edge from dusk to dawn -- the time when biting bugs of all kinds are out in force. You'll never regret having bug spray along to provide some important protection.

You wouldn't spend a summertime day on the water without sunscreen. Similarly, you won't want to spend an evening on the water without insect repellent.