Noodling in Oklahoma

Channel surfing last night….skipped by PBS (channel 2) and here was a 1 hour documentary on noodling cats in Oklahoma. They had a tourney for it. Only flatheads, because “Blues, Channels, and Whites” are trophy fish and shouldn’t be part of the kill tourney.

They had biggest fish and biggest stringer.
Biggest fish hit the scale at 54lbs.
Biggest stringer hit the scale of 3 fish @ 140lbs.

All I can say is that I’ll NEVER do it and those that do make me look in disbelief!

I would have thought you would have felt right at home.

My first thought would be “snapping turtle” and my hand would look like this gentleman’s

I read an article about noodling. The guy was missing some fingers. He found a snapping turtle by accident. Oops.

That would be pretty fun to find. And then to pull your hand out looking like this guys.

I’m already down to 9.5 fingers, I think I will stick to rod-n-reel fishing

Snapping turtles, muskrats, beavers, snakes… Those guys are a little nuts.

Gary you better sign up quick for this years tournament. It’s next weekend. Tournament

Sully

And it’s not just the menfolk doing it either!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOjA8Puh1BM&NR=1

At least that one (Next OK Noodlefest) says biologists will be on hand to make sure they get released if they are alive. So does that mean they are spawning in OK? They must have a drawn out period when they will spawn. Especially the river cats who might instinctively hold off say if the river is falling or whatever and wait for an ideal time to get it on.

have some friends down in mo that want to take me noodling,told them i’ll bring some extra poles and leave them,i want to see them with all thier fingers and toes

I couldn’t do that I like my fingers.

Not me either….there’s SNAKES in them damn holes too!!!

I saw it and was just sadened by the massive amounts of fish that were killed

I did like the guy who had a big ole chaw in his cheek, but still did the announcing of the winners We ain’t never bin much fer book lernin