A couple of my buddies want to go “noodling” for catfish. Since I didn’t want to appear stupid - I agreed. Can you tell me what I’ve gotten myself into?

Well, if you’re lucky, you may just get the opportunity to participate is what is considered to be one of the ultimate thrills in catfishing. If you’re not, you could end up losing an arm or at the very least a few fingers. “Noodling” is an extremely dangerous sport and is not legal in all areas, so you’ll want to check before you head out. In very basic terms, Noodling is a term used to describe a technique that involves fishing for catfish with nothing more than your bare hands, it may also be referred to as dogging, grabbling, tickling or even hogging catfish. Here’s how it works: You wade into an area of water where you know catfish are likely hang out and simply begin feeling around the holes, depressions, logs, rocks or other cover until you find a catfish. This is extremely effective during spawning season when the male catfish is guarding the eggs. Once you find the fish, you actually encourage it to bite, thereby providing you with the opportunity to get your hand inside it’s mouth and to pull it from the water. The obvious danger is that you’ll never know what might be lurking in the hole until you’ve actually inserted your hand or fingers into it. In fact, you are just as likely to find a snake, beaver or a snapping turtle as you are a catfish. While some noodlers wear gloves to protect their hands and fingers, the die-hards believe the gloves make it more difficult to determine what is the in the hole and how to get a hold of it.