In the middle of summer, making the choice to sit in a boat and broil in the middle of a lake with the sun beating down unmercifully may cause some to question your sanity. By midmorning when it really starts to heat up, you'll probably be asking yourself the same thing. Hours of sunburn and sweat with little to show for it can make summertime angling more a chore than a pleasure in the Deep South.

There is a way to beat the heat though, while still getting your fix of a tug on the end of the line. The bonus is the main course of a fine backyard fish fry. Summertime catfishing is hot, but the pain and suffering is not if you just take things slow and easy.

There are many small lakes in the northern part of the state that meet the two main requirements for this type of easy-does-it fishing. The first is plenty of catfish, and the second is shoreline trees under which to kick back in the shade and enjoy the breeze while waiting for a bouncing rod tip to let you know Mr. Whiskers has found your bait.

Channel catfish are going to be the main target in small lakes. The species has been widely planted in small lakes and ponds all across the state, and usually thrive wherever they are stocked. Because of a lack of suitable spawning habitat, channel catfish often don't naturally reproduce in small lakes. Periodic restocking is required. Depending on the lake and when it was last stocked, fishing may cycle up and down every few years.

Small waters can produce some big channel cats, but "fiddlers" of a couple of pounds are the most common catch. Channel catfish can be identified by their deeply forked tails and small dark spots on the bodies, although the spots are often very faint or absent in large specimens.

Along with channel cats, small lakes sometimes have one or more bullhead species too, especially if a stream feeds the lake. Brown, yellow and black bullheads are three common bullhead species you may run into in North Georgia, depending on where you are fishing. Distinguishing them isn't really all that important to the average catfish angler, most of whom are content to just lump the fish together as bullheads.

Bullheads don't typically grow as large as channel cats, but are fun to catch nonetheless. Bullheads lack the channel catfish's deeply forked tail, so telling the two apart isn't going to be difficult.

Like many anglers, as a kid I spent hours and hours sitting on the bank soaking night crawlers for whatever would bite. More often than not, that was bullheads. It was a fun way to spend time outdoors when it was too hot to do anything else back then, -- and it still is today.

For a summer fishing trip that involves smaller kids, you can forget about a long, hot day spent sitting in a boat. Kids have short attention spans, and when they are hot and uncomfortable, the span gets even shorter still. Much better is to take them fishing where they can run around on the shady banks exploring when they get bored waiting for the next bouncing rod tip. Many public small lakes have other amenities like play areas and nature trails to feed a youngster's need to be constantly doing something.