Okie Noodling Tournament: An event like no other
Okie Noodling Tournament: An event like no other
By Ed Godfrey
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7
Published: July 13, 2008
PAULS VALLEY — "Hope no one is down there yet,” Jesse Arthur of Pauls Valley said, as he and some buddies prepared to go noodling for flathead catfish early Saturday morning on nearby Rush Creek.
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Matt Norman, 17, jumps back into the water while noodling near Pauls Valley on Saturday.
BY BRYAN TERRY, THE OKLAHOMAN
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Arthur, like dozens of other noodlers across
Oklahoma, were on the hunt Saturday for big flatheads in the ninth annual
Okie Noodling Tournament, an event like no other in the world.
The tournament, made famous by the award-winning 2001 "Okie Noodling” documentary, has gained international fame.
Keith Erickson, 34, a computer consultant from
Calgary, made the trip from
Canada to Pauls Valley just to stick his hand in a flathead catfish's mouth.
"We don't have catfish in Canada,” he said.
After watching a You Tube video on noodling in Oklahoma, he bought the "Okie Noodling” DVD and decided it was something he had to experience.
Tournament director
Bradley Beesley, who produced the documentary, hooked Erickson up with legendary noodlers Scooter and Skipper Bivins of Temple.
Erickson got a taste of Okie noodling on the Red River Friday and Saturday and caught two flatheads, the biggest being a 37-pounder.
"Just having my hand in its mouth was fantastic,” Erickson said, proudly showing his gnarled knuckles as battle scars. "Pinning the fish up against the rock was really cool.”
Erickson plans to go noodling again today and Monday.
"It's very different,” he said.
Oklahoma is only one of a handful of states that allow handfishing for flathead catfish, also called catfisting, grappling, graveling, stumping, hogging and dogging in other places.
But in Oklahoma it's called noodling, although nobody knows why.
And on the day of the tournament, you better get an early start. Another noodler was sitting on Arthur's spot Saturday morning, so he and his buddies jumped back in the Ford pickup and headed to another hole on Rush Creek.
Parking in a bean field, the noodlers jumped out and hiked a quarter-mile to the river, sliding down a steep bank to reach a collapsed highway where it appeared beavers had been busy.
A search under the old road turned up one small catfish.
"Perfect for eating but not perfect for entering,” Arthur said.
The hunt moved 100 yards down the creek around an old pipeline but produced no fish.
So it was back in the pickup for a five-mile drive to the
Washita River, a spot known to the local noodlers as "Hole Bend,” with water from the 250-gallon tank in the pickup bed sloshing out along the way.
Randall Ezell of Paoli had noodled flatheads of 35, 40 and 27 pounds last month, but those were in the freezer.
Game warden
Brandon Brown said flatheads are usually on the back end of the spawn in
Garvin County in mid-July, and a search under logs, stumps and the underwater holes on the Washita River also left the noodlers empty-handed.
"C'mon let's move to another spot,” fellow noodler
Matt Norman of Paoli said. "Quit catching rocks!”
Some other noodlers had jumped ahead of them, so it was back in the truck for a four-mile drive to another spot on the river.
"Probably been checked three times already, but we're going to check it again,” Norman said.
Passing by a tall corn field along the way, an old farmer stopped the truck to give the young noodlers some advice.
He had hooked a 52-pound flathead last year, and knew of some holes on the Washita River where catfish could be.
"They're in there if you can find 'em,” he said.
Blanked again, they had one spot left on the river to check.. When they arrived, some other noodlers were sitting on the hole.
Arthur threw down his cap in disgust. Ezell recognized the villains. The group included his father and brother.
It was past noon and the noodlers were about ready to quit, but Ezell decided to go back to the original spot the noodlers couldn't get on in the morning.
There was a concrete slab noodlers often walk over there, not knowing it's there, he said.
The hunch paid off, and Ezell and Norman teamed to land a 30-pound flathead.
It didn't win the tournament, but they didn't get shut out.
At the weigh-in, curious spectators came from as far away as
Louisiana to gawk at the flatheads that had been brought to Bob's Pig Shop.
One man shook his head and said, "Only in Oklahoma.”
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Unless "Noodlin'" is going on statewide, it'd take a lot to empty all of the potential spots in Oklahoma.
Sounds to me like most of the Noodlin' being done is around the Pauls Valley area. That'd be about the only spot the big ones may show some signs of disappearing.
I'm more worried about Oklahoma being tabbed as the hot spot for such redneck revelry than anything.