"In southeast Mississippi, after Katrina, a lot of our coastal rivers, connected streams and their backwater lakes were devastated," he said. "A lot of old pothole ponds and lakes in the swamps and forests were hammered. Then when Rita hit in Texas and Louisiana, it brought heavy rains to the Delta as it moved northeast. All that fresh water from both storms caused fish kills in their wakes. Lakes either turned over prematurely or suffered heavy oxygen depletion.

"We have begun restocking in all of the affected areas, and they will recover soon enough, but right now fishermen will notice a shortage of big fish. Of course, we've still got hundreds of choices of places to fish that were not affected. You just need to pick one and go."

To help get fishermen started, we've listed some of the top choices for 2007, based on history and from reports posted in 2006. They are listed in no particular order, and our list includes all kinds of waters from rivers to reservoirs to state lakes.

ROSS BARNETT RESERVOIR
The big lake near Jackson is best known for its crappie and bass, but for many fishermen like those in the Partridge family, "the Rez" is mostly a catfish hole.

"What's great about it is that it doesn't take a whole lot of rocket science to figure out," said Keith Partridge, who spends a lot of time on his pontoon boat with three excited anglers -- his wife Leigh, and boys 9-year-old Austin and Wesley, who is 7. "We can go out there, pull up on a deep flat near the river channel and there will be channel or blue catfish. We bait up with night crawlers, cast out our lines, turn on the music and get comfortable.

"About every 10 or 15 minutes, if that long, one of the rods will start twitching and the boys start hollering. Without any work at all, we can take enough 1- to 3-pound catfish -- with an occasional 5- or 10-pounder -- home for dinner for a night or two that week. Then we go get some more the next weekend."

While the Partridges do most of their catfishing in the lower part of the main lake body by tightlining, many others do even better by running jugs or trotlines in other areas. Jugging and trotlines are not allowed in the lower main lake.

The stump fields in Pelahatchie Bay and upper main lake areas are ideal trotlining holes. Two or three lines set at night keep a team busy and quickly fill an ice chest.

But jugging has become a popular sport on Barnett Reservoir, mostly because it's just so darned easy.

"All you have to do is have a couple of dozen plastic bottles or jugs, a few feet of line, a weight and a hook for each, and some cut bait and you're in business," said Tony Holeman of Florence. "We spent two or three nights a week up there, either in Pelahatchie Creek or in the upper river. We pitch them out and then drift along with them waiting for one of the jugs to start bobbing. Usually, it doesn't take long."

PICKWICK LAKE
One visit to this big, pretty lake on the state's northeast corner border with Tennessee and Alabama, and you learn that catfish is king. It may be best known as Mississippi's top smallmouth bass destination and a crappie haven, but locals know it for what it really is: One big old catfish pond.

"As good as this lake is for bass and crappie, the vast majority of people up here spend their time chasing catfish," said Larry Pugh, the state's fisheries biologist for District 1 in the northeast. "Unless they're having a big bass tournament up here on a weekend, two out of every three boats you see from May through July will be people chasing catfish.