We went noodling Saturday on a local lake and had a little luck. It wasn't as productive as some of our past trips, but I believe it is going to get much better. This was our first attempt to run some drums we set out during the spring and most of the day was spent finding them as they were deeper than they needed to be. We would have had more cats, but we bumped some of the barrels finding them and ran some out. Now we have them set at the proper depth and landmarked for a silent approach next time out.

We ended up with 5 nice cats, 3 OPs and two blues. They weighed 25, 25, 10, 8, and 8. After skinning, filleting, and trimming, I had 5 gallons of clean catfish nuggets.

Those two big boys were fun. I stuck a stick with a hook in on the first, he clamped down, let go, and I had to come up for air. My buddy Mitch went down, ran his arm in, big daddy clamped on, and from all the wrestling in the water I thought I was going to have to dive in and pull them both out. We picked up the 3 smaller cats throughout the day and when we got to the last barrel(the second big cat), it was Mitch's turn again. He gave a fight much like the first and ended up giving Mitch a couple battle scars on his right arm. The cat looked much worse than Mitch :-)

Should be some fine eating.

Ya'll have a good one,

Reloader

Now that would be fun! Nice catch.

Now THAT has to be a rush of adrenaline...

Nice catch, by the way!

Too cool. Can you elaborate on the technique? Are the barrels pictured the type and size you use? I assume you guys sink them, cats will find them and hang out in them? Then what? Reach an arm in in the hopes that one's in there and will clamp on to your arm? I seem to recall reading that this is maybe called noodling catfish? In any event, neat stuff, and surely good for a rush, especially considering some of the monsters I've seen taken this way--like 80-100lbs. +. I'd try it. Once

Sweet. That is on my to do list!

Kamo,

No, those are just some deer "Gut" buckets.

The drums we use are open ended 55gal metal drums. You take the drum and cut it in half long ways, turn the two open ends around and lap them about 6", screw them together, and you have a drum about 6' long that is open on the bottom, closed on both ends, and sits flush on the ground. Then you cut a door way in one end about 8" high and 10-12" wide. It looks sort of like one of those round storage buildings with the garage door on one end and closed end on the other. You set the drum on the bottom in about 3' of water(we had ours too deep this trip and moved them to shallower water) with the door pointed to the deeper water. The fish enter the drum and fan out the mud/sand to make a bed, this often sinks the drum into the mud/sand, but they will always have a channel to exit the door. We anchor the boat near by and one of us will ease up to the drum quietly with a dip net and ease it to the door. Once you have the door blocked, another guy brings in a 6' stick with a large hook secured to the end and bright orange tape around the hook. While one guy holds the net you ease the stick into the door to the back of the drum. If he's home, he'll see the bright hook and clamp down, but we rarely are able to hook them as they often just bite and let go. The stick is to get them to the front of the drum, so you can reach them. You then run your hand in while wearing a cut resistant glove, the cat will bite your hand, you either run your hand in to the gills if he's big enough or grab the bottom jaw and hold on for dear life wrestling him out of the doorway, drop him into the net, and carry back to the boat.

I'm sure there are many ways to do this, but this way is very productive for us and seems to be a very safe method. Some may think our method is silly, but we are out there to have fun and trying to be safe while doing so. Some guys do it with no gloves or sticks and dive into deeper water, I personally do not care to risk my life over a fish.

It's a blast for sure and grabbing hold of a 20+ cat is definitely a rush. Funny thing is the big ones aren't that bad, it's the smaller 8-10lb blues that will give you a fit. Blues are just plain mean.

During the spawn, you can catch a cat from a drum and another will be there in just a few days. We are heading back Thursday evening to run them again. I feel like since we have them shallowed and know exactly where they are this time, we should have a good run. We left a few in about 5' of water as they had good fish in them that spooked. We marked them so we should be able to make a silent approach this time out.

Have a Good One,

Reloader

Thanks much for the answers, and your description makes perfect sense. Once upon a time I believed that maybe guys who did this stuff were nucking futs. Well, you've confirmed my suspicions. The funny part is that now I want to do it.

Good stuff, and thanks again for the explanation.