Here's a better explaination of the cnn story I posted a couple of replys back.
Fishing - it's a REAL MAN'S sport!
Column: Hand fishing provides new challenges, risks for those willing to get dirty
Published on Thursday, April 25, 2002
So you don't think that fishing is a sport, huh?
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This isn't your grandma's fishing -- not unless the lady has forearms the size of baseball bats. This outdoor sport doesn't use lures, bait or hooks. The Walt Disney company doesn't make rods and reels for noodling.
There are no bobbers, either, unless you include your body floating face down in a stream or river -- I probably should back that one up.
For those among you who are not from the back country, noodling, also known as hand fishing, hogging and stumping, consists of fishing for catfish with your bare hands.
The hunt goes something like this. Find an innocent-looking female, take her out to a country road where an unusual species of bird lives, let her out of the '76 Chevy truck so she can hunt the bird and then drive off.
Wait a second, that's snipe hunting.
Back to hand fishing, which is almost as ridiculous.
The first step is to find someone who is knowledgeable about the river and can find holes along the bank. Once the hole is found, then the two of you walk out into the water in jeans, T-shirts and tennis shoes, and stand near the hole looking at one another.
Eventually, the expert will tell you to -- I am not kidding -- dive down to the hole, which usually is about four or five feet under water, and stick your hand in. If you're lucky, a 20-60 pound catfish will be waiting inside the hole. If it's an unlucky hole, a snapping turtle or beaver will be waiting, but either way, it's all part of the fun.
If a catfish is home, the technique says to -- again, I am not kidding -- stick your hand in the fish's mouth and grab its throat, upon which the cat will begin thrashing wildly.
At this point, I feel it is important to warn readers that even though fish have no teeth, they do have what is informally called "80-grit sandpaper" in their mouths. As a result, any true noodler has giant scrapes and scars on their hands.
But I digress. Once the fish is on the hook -- hand -- just pull it out, and wrestle it to shore.
Of course, the hard part is actually finding a fish. While many might consider each empty hole a failure, each hole is actually a laugh riot for the expert for one reason -- experts are jerks.
It takes a lot of courage and/or testicular fortitude to stick one's hand down a hole that might or might not have teeth or sandpaper in it. As a result, the newcomer usually ends up jumping up and swallowing approximately two gallons of riverwater the first time he or she touches anything that could even resemble a fish, such as his or her own foot.
The expert proceeds to laugh a lot, and makes the newcomer look stupid by diving down, checking out the hole, and coming back to surface to tell the newcomer that, "Hey, I think there's something down there." It is then, of course, the newcomer's turn.
Now, as much fun as this sounds, it is important to know that the game wardens in Kansas and Missouri do not think it is fun, as it is illegal in those two states. The reasoning behind the ban is that noodling isn't fair to the fish and could diminish their numbers.
I disagree.
The noodlers earn every last fish they catch. Plus, I have never seen a fish nearly lose bladder control when a newcomer stuck a hand down its hole.
prisoner6