Noodling bill aims to legalize hand fishing for big cats
Noodlers have grabbed the ear of a Houston politician in hopes of crafting a new law that will make it legal for them to play their game on Texas reservoirs, rivers and streams.
Noodling, also known as catfisting and grabbling, means catching catfish with your hands. Currently legal in several states that adjoin Texas -- including Louisiana, Oklahoma and Arkansas -- noodling typically takes the noodler several feet beneath the surface. There they feel their way around for a hole or crevice in a river bank, a hollow log or a carefully placed box sitting on a muddy bottom. The boxes are designed with a cavity to simulate a good place for a big ol' flathead catfish to spawn.
Some say it takes grit or guts to carry out the next step, and I have to agree, provided you throw a dash of crazy into the mix. Sticking one's hand inside a dark hole underwater is clearly pressing the odds, but there plenty of guys (and girls) who do it in neighboring states. And they bring home some whopper size catfish as a result.
Adult flathead catfish or "op" are extremely territorial and protective of their spawning nests. Noodlers provoke the fish into a defensive posture by serving up their hand and arm as bait. If a catfish is home, it will often swim forward and latch onto the noodler's hand.
Not surprising, wrestling a 40- to 60-pound catfish on its own turf can at times turn bloody. Flathead cats have pads on the insides of the their mouths that are rough as coarse grit sandpaper.
Most noodlers wind up with scabs, scars and scratches to show for their efforts. A few have lost fingers or suffered worse after chance encounters with snapping turtles, alligators and other aquatic critters that frequently occupy the same types of quarters.
The proposed legislation -- HB 2189 by Rep. Gary Elkins, R-Houston -- would legalize handfishing as a means for taking catfish in Texas by use of hands only and without any other fishing device such as a gaff, pole hook, trap or spear. Noodlers would be required to have a valid freshwater fishing license and a freshwater fishing stamp. Also, the bill would give the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission the authority to adopt specific rules and regulations related to the practice, such as establishing time frames or bag and size limits.
According to Ken Kurzawski, regulations and information director with TPWD's inland fisheries division, the bill passed through the House Committee on Culture, Recreation and Tourism on April 26. It must meet approval from the full House and Senate within the next few weeks before it is passed into law.
Naturally, public opinions are mixed on the idea. TPWD recently conducted a survey of catfishermen, and the results showed a fairly even split down the middle.
Kurzawski said 39 percent of the anglers surveyed were in favor of noodling and 32 percent against. Another 29 percent indicated they didn't care one way or the other.
The TPWD has to remain neutral when it comes to passing judgement on specific legislative bills, but Kurzawski says there are some folks within the agency who are concerned about the potential impacts noodling might have on populations of big catfish.
Since the tactic is most effective during the spawning season (May through early June), it also could hamper the reproductive efforts of the fish. Scientists are most concerned with flathead brood stock, mainly because the highly prized game fish do not reproduce very well in a controlled hatchery setting. Flatheads do best in the wild.
If the noodling bill passes, the TPW Commission could set rules to prohibit noodling when the fish are most prone to be on spawning nests. It also could set creel limits to restrict the harvest of fish that fall with a certain size range.
Like many, I don't really have an opinion on the issue.
Would I stick my hand and arm in an underwater hole where I cannot see? Certainly not. But I do enjoy running a trotline, stump hook and jug line on occasion, and both are effective at taking super size flatheads and blue cat.
Effective as noodling may be, I suspect the number of participants would be less limited than with other means and methods already legal for taking catfish. I may be wrong, but I don't see a rash of new recruits coming down the pike, either.
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