The noodling snobs of California and Missouri
Noodling for flathead catfish is underway around the state. But in most states the practice of hand fishing for catfish is illegal.
I read an interesting article out of California the other day.
A reader, who used to enjoy noodling for flathead catfish back home, asked an outdoor writer if noodling was legal in his new place of residence.
The answer from the scribe was that noodling was illegal in California because the sport was dangerous. People have drowned while noodling, he said.
This is true. People have drowned while noodling. They have also drowned while swimming, boating, fishing, scuba diving and everything else you can do on or in the water.
Noodling, like anything else, can be dangerous if you don’t use a little common sense. But I don’t think safety is the real reason noodling is illegal in California.
I think California – like every other state that outlaws noodling – doesn’t want to be associated with the redneck image of the sport.
Filmmaker Bradley Beesley certainly found some colorful characters for his “Okie Noodling” documentaries, which branded Oklahoma as the king of the handful of hand-fishing states.
Sure, there are toothless and tattooed Okies who enjoy noodling. Several Oklahoma game wardens also enjoy noodling.
Missouri is another state that doesn’t allow noodling. As a result, some fishermen there formed “Noodlers Anonymous,” a modern day group of Jesse James types who practice hand-fishing outside the law.
Missouri uses a wildlife conservation argument to ban noodling. They say the catfish population would be severely harmed if noodling were legal.
Since flathead catfish are on the nests when they are noodled, too many catfish would be taken and too many eggs destroyed if hand-fishing were allowed, according to Missouri wildlife officials.
It’s a better argument than noodling is dangerous, but I don’t buy this theory either.
Jug liners and trot liners harvest more fish. There are not enough noodlers out there to do that much harm to catfish populations.
According to the 2007 angler survey by the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, only .03 percent of all fishermen in the state are noodlers.
Noodlers get more than their share of publicity because it is an extreme sport, but there are only a few thrill seekers brave enough – or crazy enough – to blindly stick their hands and wiggle their fingers in an underwater crevice to get a flathead catfish to bite them.
So, in my opinion, California and Missouri are just noodling snobs. Instead of making criminals out of noodlers, they should embrace the sport, like Oklahoma.
Look at all of the attention we have gotten from noodling. I still say a flathead catfish on our state quarter would be a better conversation piece than a scissor-tail fly catcher.
Last year at the annual Okie Noodling Tournament in Pauls Valley, I even met a man who brought his whole family from Canada to Oklahoma, just so he could stick his hand in a huge flathead’s mouth.
He went noodling on the Red River and had a great time. Those are tourism dollars that California and Missouri will never see.
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Comments
This post may be outdated but I would like to add my input to your comments. Unlike most noodling states, Missouri manages its catfish populations (channels, blues, and flatheads) as game fish and they treat it as such with hatchery rearing and stocking, etc etc. Catfish is ranked #2 as game fish, and is the reason that many anglers are drawn to Missouri’s waterways. Most states that permit noodling do not do so as, so priorities on the part of MO Conservation differ to that of other states’ Fisheries and Wildlife.
Another piece of information that should provide some insight as to why noodling destroys nests and “regular fishermen” do not, is that catfish DO NOT FEED while they are nesting. They will stay with the eggs/fry until the young have left the nest, then the adults will leave to feed. Noodlers reach in to pull the nesting adults out which does destroy up to 65% of egg viability as recent research shows.
Like I said, priorities are focused on maintaining healthy populations of catfish, and that means more tourism $. As for my personal opinion of noodling, I think its poor sportsmanship, very much like baiting catfish with dog food and netting them as they surface. The fun is in the hooking and reeling in.
[...] bathing, and fishing. The only activity for women in the river involved jumping into the river and noodling catfish. Their clumsy Victorian and Edwardian style bathing costumes were often quite burdensome. Making it [...]
I’m a Californian and I have always wanted to try noodling. I wish my state would allow it. Besides Oklahoma, what other states allow noodling? I would go in a heartbeat, but would want some guidance for a safe(sans snapping turtles and water moccasins) and successful trip. How many fish are you allowed to keep?
Enjoyed this article.
My guess is fish traps account for a whole lot more big catfish being poached in MO waters than noodling. If noodling was legalized, MO would get a whole new group interested in reporting and removing illegal fish traps.
When you can legally set trotlines, limb lines and float jugs through these same waters during the same times of the year, it is hard to imagine legalized hand fishing having much impact one way or the other on large fish.
As someone who has been entangled in a trotline while swimming in the river, I would prefer banning trotlines and legalizing hand fishing in rivers. More big fish would survive. I have never seen a trotliner throw one back. That would be counter to the purpose of the trotline which is not so much sport as harvest.
Killing the quarry would seem to be counter to the interest of true sport noodlers. Just like the catfish guides in the area never keep the really big fish, because their interest is not so much in the harvest as the sport.