competitive noodling tournament<\/a> is also held in Oklahoma each year.<\/p>\nBut arguably the most visible promoters of noodling have been outdoor TV and social media influencers. After all, catfish noodling is perfect for the social media age. It\u2019s impossible not to watch a half-naked person of questionable sanity grapple with a 60-pound flathead. Still, the popularity of the practice is tricky to gauge: Noodling might have gotten more press, but the number of permanent converts to this way of catfishing seems minimal.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really hard to try to quantify the number of people that go out and [noodle catfish]. We suspect it\u2019s a pretty small percentage of our total number of anglers, but a small percentage of a very large number, so there\u2019s still a lot of people out there,\u201d says Sager. \u201cOur suspicion is, yes [noodling] has increased. If it has increased, I think the obvious reason is because of social media. People are posting pictures of giant fish. Here in Oklahoma \u2026 we definitely have seen an increase over traditional \u2026 noodling pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n
FAQs for Noodling Catfish<\/h2>\nWhat is another name for catfish noodling?<\/strong><\/section>\nWhile noodling is the most universally recognized term for catching catfish by hand, there are plenty of ways to describe the fishing technique. Most are regional terms; a few are universally accepted. Other names for noodling include tickling, grabbing, grabbling, hand grabbing, hogging, dogging, graveling, stumping, handfishing, hillbilly handfishing, and outlaw fishing.<\/p>\nWhat is a catfish noodler?<\/strong><\/section>\nA catfish noodler is someone who wades or swims into freshwater to catch cavity-dwelling catfish with their hands, or with the aid of poles or hooks.<\/p>\nWhat is the biggest catfish caught by hand?<\/strong><\/section>\nThe biggest documented catfish caught by hand is probably a