Who needs a fishing pole and bait when you have good hands

Here are some picks from the big cats we caught grapplin' Sunday afternoon after church:




That's a 150qt ice chest for size reference. The big Op was 30lbs.

Out of just the 3 ops, I had quite a pile of boneless filets. Ops are some of the finest fresh water fish to eat.

For those of you that do not know what noodlin' or grapplin' is: This time of year big cats hollow out holes under boat ramps, sea walls, etc to create beds to lay their eggs. There is usually one small hole leading to this bed and we take a stick with a gator hook attached to one end and insert the stick into the bed. The cats will bite the stick, you set the hook, and the fight is on until we can get our hands in their mouths and pull them out of the hole. We also hold a dip net next to the hole, as they often blow out of the hole and into the net. This time of the year you can run the holes about three times a week and often get big fish from the same holes.

It's not as scary as it seems. It is quite exciting to say the least. The odds of catching these big cats on the traditional "hook,line, & bait" are very slim and as you can tell, noodlin' can be quite productive.

Ya'll have a good one,

Reloader

That is one hell of a nice batch of fish. Me and a friend of mine just went to a nearby lake last night and caught 10 nice bass and cooked them for dinner last night. Nothin like fresh fish cooked hours after they were caught. Nice cats!!

"Old Sparky" the telephone was a lot easier back in the day. They take a dim view of that now.

I thought that was called "noodling."

No?

Back when I was just a lad we could go down to local country store when I visited my grandparents and buy dynamite and I will let you guess what it was used for besides fireworks.

Rad

Nice flatheads and blues. Man, I haven't done that in years!! I used to go with my grandfather and one of his buddies. About the biggest flathead we ever noodled was in the neighbor of 45lbs. It took all 3 of us to drag her out.

I still remember the day, too, when a 5 or 6 lb blue broke 4 fingers on my grandpa's hand. He stuck his hand in the hole and the fish bit him and started rolling as they do. He pulled the fish out because it was still latched on his hand and not because he had the fish!

Thanks for bringing back the memories!!!

Nice job!!!!

How do you avoid water moccasins? Ever have trouble with them when you stick your hands in the water like that?
Shotgun

Hey Reloader, Nice mess of Cats. Just had some two days ago with BIG thick Fries and Hushpuppies. No need for the filler-foods when Cats are on the plate.

I might just need to schedule a Cat expedition for tomorrow.

Hey Greybird, you go that right! Those blues are just plain mean! Last year was the first year I ever experimented with Noodling and even with gloves on, I had a 7lb blue teach me alittle lesson. Ever since, it's been a stick with a hook for me The ops are not near as bad as those blues. Another thing about it is that in most holes the fish are too deep to reach with your hand so the sticks of varying lengths have proven best.

Yeah Doc, it's Noodlin', Hoggin', Grapplin', etc...

HC, yeah, those cats on a plate are hard to beat. For an Op to be such a big ugly fish, they sure have some fine tender meat. The meat is so tender it almost falls apart.

Ya'll have a good one,

Reloader

Shotgun,

We are always on the lookout for snakes, but they usually hang out on the bank and not out in the under water holes. I would imagine if one made the mistake of entering one of the holes that those cats would teach them a deadly lesson.

Have a Good One,

Reloader

That's a mess of good eatin' ya got there.

Were they all females ready to spawn?

I thought the danger was snapping turtles ? A nice catch there !

we use tire traps hanging off the boat dock.

or stepping on a gator laying on the bottom

That noodling gives me the creeps. I don't put my hands into holes that I can't see! Besides snapping turtles, there is always the potential to tie into a cat that's big enough to pull you under.

quote:

Originally posted by yukon delta:
That noodling gives me the creeps. I don't put my hands into holes that I can't see! Besides snapping turtles, there is always the potential to tie into a cat that's big enough to pull you under.

sorry i cant help it seeing your from AK...
Noodling in AK

It's not that bad. I too used to have the same opinion of it until I went with these guys last year and found that it can really be done in a safe manner.

We are in a fairly clear lake, water waist deep and most of the holes we run are in man made structures. My hats off to the guys that dive down and run their hands into holes under trees etc, not my cup of tea.

We ease up to the hole, place a large dip net over it, insert a stick with a gator hook. They either blow out into the net or clamp down on the hook most times. We have kevlar gloves on as well. Just run you hand down the stick and grab the cats by the gils. Most of them are too deep in the hole to reach with your hand anyway.


Planning a trip this weekend. If we have some luck, I'll post pics.

Bull frog season just opened this week as well. Some more good Southern fun! We grab those with our hands, a gig is not sporting enough

Ya'll have a good one,

Reloader

Used to do it a lot when I was a kid in Grand River, wasn't exactly legal at the time. I have caught a number of 50-pound plus flatheads in and around the roots and holes in the riverbanks. I haven't seen a problem with turtles, but did see my dad flush out a muskrat once. We just called it hand fishing, and it is a hell of a lot of fun. My mother has some old pictures of my great grandfather with a couple of flatheads taken in the 40's, he is holding them up with his elbows locked, and he was six feet tall, the tails are curled up on the ground. The story was that the two weighed 100 pounds each, but they may have grown some since the 40's. I have handled 50-pounders and they are surely bigger than that.

We dragged 17 out Saturday. I was too worn out and forgot to take pics sat. Before I cleaned the Ops, I took some pics of the two ice chests and I'll post them up this week.

We had 9 Ops and 8 blues. Out of the 9 Ops we put up 18 bags of boneless and trimmed white meat! We didn't get any monsters, one 28, one 20, a couple 12s, and some 4-6s. Had a blast.

Ya'll have a Good One.

Reloader