Handfishing is a sport that you will not every find me doing! In my opinion, it takes a crazy person stick their hand in a catfish’s mouth, grab him, and put a stringer on him. To find this cache, you don’t need to put you hand in a mucky hole in the hopes of finding a cache…unless you really want to for the adrenaline rush!
Noodling is fishing for catfish using only bare hands, practiced primarily in the southern United States. The noodler places his hand inside a discovered catfish hole. Many other names, such as catfisting, grabbling, graveling, hogging, dogging, gurgling, tickling and stumping, are used in different regions for the same activity.
The term "noodling", although today used primarily towards the capture of flathead catfish, can and has been applied to all hand fishing methods, regardless of the method or species of fish sought. Due to concerns over either the safety of noodlers or sustainability of fish populations, or both, the technique is illegal in some states where it was once traditionally practiced. It is legal in Texas.
