I bet if I asked most anglers in Georgia to define noodling, only a very few would have any idea what I was referring to. Even though noodling became legal in Georgia in 2006, I also bet very few anglers have attempted the art of noodling. You can legally noodle for catfish in Georgia between March 1 and July 15 during any hours of the day.

Noodling involves the taking of catfish without benefit of hook and line or boat. All that is required by the angler to noodle is his arm or leg — and I’m not kidding. Noodling is called by many different names, but the practice dates back to the time of the Native Americans. Some of the other names given to this sport are grabbling and tickling. Looking at some of the surrounding states, I found that the sport is legal in most of the local states including Kentucky (tickling), Tennessee (grabbling) and Alabama (grabbling).

To noodle, a person simply wades out into the water and sticks either his arm or leg into a promising catfish hole. The idea is that if a big old catfish is in that hole, maybe protecting its nest or a brood of young catfish that it will instinctively grab hold of the arm or leg and all the person has to do is pull the catfish out!

Noodling in Georgia gives you the right to legally catch catfish with your bear hands. Now you may ask who on earth would want to reach up under a shoreline bank or log and feel for a big old catfish? There are some folks who are crazy enough to try anything, and I guess noodling qualifies as anything.

It is a very inexpensive way to catch a good mess of catfish, but you do need a Georgia fishing license to engage in noodling. All you have to do is feel around with your hands, and when you find the catfish is at home, just thrust your hand or foot in his mouth, grab him by the throat and pull him out. Now that might sound real exciting to some folks, but exciting is not the word I would use. Noodling might sound simple at first but after considering this sport for about 10 seconds, I came to a whole different conclusion. The definition of stupid is lacking in normal intelligence. I do not think someone engaging in noodling would be considered normal or intelligent.

I say that based on some of my own actual experiences I had as a young boy. I went gigging for red horse suckers at night as a young boy with my daddy. We waded several creek and river banks and I saw so many snakes that I swore that I would never do that again if I had a choice and if I was in my right mind. Now where do you think those great big old snakes that I saw while gigging like to hide? You guessed right — under the creek and riverbanks and around logs where the catfish also hide. The same place where these normal and intelligent folks are planning to noodle!

In addition to snakes, there are other creatures that use the undercut banks and logs as a sanctuary or hiding place. That includes snapping turtles that can easily remove a finger or possibly your whole hand with one bite. Probably not a major concern here in middle Georgia, but where I was born in south Alabama, alligators also liked those same locations.

Now maybe there is some sport and fun to noodling, but why would anybody in their right mind risk arm and limb when you can sit safely in a boat and catch those same fish with a rod and reel?

Recently some noodling events have been shown on TV and this past weekend I watched a show that covered a noodling event in Arkansas. The guy who won the event was interviewed with his 60-pound catfish that he caught noodling. The guy wasn’t much bigger than the catfish. Up to this time, I had thought only the arm was used in noodling but this guy explained that initially he could not reach further enough back into the hole to get the catfish with his arm so he stuck his leg into the hole. Guess what? That big old catfish grabbed his leg (from his foot to almost his knee) and the battle was on. That young man had the scars of battle. His leg had abrasions and cuts as did his arm.

Once he got the catfish to grab his leg, he then had to grab the catfish with his hands and free his leg. He talked about the fact that he could have drowned since the catfish at one time had him completely under water for some time with his leg up to the knee in its mouth. That just did not look like fun to me, and I do not think I will be engaging in noodling anytime soon.

Now maybe I am wrong and there may be many noodlers out their just chomping at the bit to wrestle a big old catfish with their bear hands. If you’re a noodler and you are into this relatively new sport, send me an e-mail about your noodling experiences. Good noodling and see you next week.



Outdoor columnist Bobby Peoples can be contacted via e-mail at brpeoples@windstream.net.