Noodling

Saturday night, which is our weekly gathering where it is a time for all of us to unwind from work. This usually involves a lot of BS and large amounts of adult beverages, which are about all you can do in this part of the world. On these weekly gathering mant different cultures are represented. I enjoy learning about other countries and even other parts of the US.

This night in particular we were sitting around having a good time when someone mentioned cow tipping. I don’t remember how we got on the subject, but I am sure it had something to do subject of stupid things. Now I’ve heard about this stereotypically hick past time, but I have never participated in this activity. Which I am surprised I have never tried this, since I grew up in Idaho. But besides my lack of experience in cow tipping, there was one guy from Australia that never heard of cow tripping. So a couple of us were telling what the activity consist of when another guy started talking about noodling. Having never heard of this past time, at first I had a hard time believing that someone would actually do this. But at the same time it is believable just due the fact it sounded so stupid just like cow tipping.

Noodling is basic idea of people wading out into water that is known to have catfish and randomly feel into holes, logs, under rocks, and other places that catfish will settle. Once they find a catfish, noodlers will try to pull the catfish out by the mouth or gills and wrestle it to the surface. Since I have actual been fishing for catfish before and actually caught a few in my life time, I know that catfish have some fairly sharp fins and they could actually clamp down on your hand or arm. Speaking of dangerous, not only that but putting your hand into an environment that could actually be worse that a catfish. I was thinking of a poisonous snake or something that actually could bit off a digit.

Remember I was still skeptical and seeing is believing. Hum, I doubt there are any catfish in Iceland and I don’t think there is enough rum/vodka in the world for me to ever try this. So the next best thing, google it. Sure enough there were plenty of articles and pictures.











From what I see is that most people that do this, it is just another form of fishing for them. But I see different, this is just another fishing story (aka bragging rights). I picture it as a group of guys sitting around the camp fire telling how many and how big fish they have caught. Each one of them trying to out do the other, when one of the guy speaks up “well have you ever caught a 100 pound catfish with your bare hands.” But this is only my opinion and I guess fisherman’s need their version of an extreme sport.

I think that I will stick to getting my fish from Red Lobster or skipper, and stay with my current sport of choice snowboarding.