Congrats! You chose wisely. Welllll.... luckily? Catalyst has a ramp up to get into it but it definitely repays later with ease of extension and scale. Here is probably the tack you want-

Instructions in Catalyst::Engine::FastCGI -- see specifically the "standalone server mode," it has two main advantages: 1) apache problems don't affect it, 2) zero downtime production changes. This goes well with it for *nix: Catalyst::Helper::FastCGI::ExternalServer. In the event you use that to make your app into a service, you'll probably want to also use Catalyst::Log::Log4perl.

Further digging if there is a specific that you get stuck on or something is unclear; Google: deploy catalyst fcgi and variations on that theme. The mailing list and irc are generally quite helpful.

Update: I should add that using fastcgi or modperl for development is a bad idea. You have to restart to see changes. You should be using the plain server -- scripts/myapp_server.pl -d -r -- in restart and debug modes to do dev work. It is wonderful to work this way. If you are doing your bit sanely there will be little or even no difference between the dev server and production deployment. Don't get hung up on a production style, bomb-proof deployment to get started or experiment. Have fun!