Any of you southern boys done catfish noodling? Saw it on a TV program over the weekend. Crazy sport!

http://www.cabelas.com/information/cabelas-field-guides/Catfish-Techniques/Noodling-for-Catfish-The-Ultimate-Thrill-in-Fishing.html

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'68 220D
'68 220D(another one)
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Current rides:
'06 Lexus RX330
'93 Ford F-250
'96 Corvette
'99 Polaris 700 RMK sled
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'86 Yamaha TT350(good 'ol thumper)

I did it in N LA (for you Kahlifoahnians, "LA"= "Louisiana") along the Cane River Lake. Inside of old tires was best. We even found narrow tires like from the '20's or so. Kind of hard for a sizeable fish to use them. But larger tires were great. Its too dangerous nowadays. Not because of snakes but because of broken glass, barbed wire, and fish hooks.

But back in the olden days, we'd swim or crawl along the banks towing a boat on a long tether. We'd also catch edible turtles (softshell, mainly) and just for fun, the occasional non-venemous snake. usually the truly obnoxious Diamondback watersnake. They get really big and bite like crazy them slime you with copious quantities of white, viscuous, smelly snake doo-doo. We'd get back to the launch and unload stuff from the boat. Other kids would gather to see what we caught and we'd pull one of those rascals out and feign terror. Great stuff for a 12-15 year-old.

B

People actually go after snapping turtles around here using the reverse method, they feel for the turtle's tail and pull.

It's a 50-50 shot.

I still get creeped out by the movie scenes where the guys are wading through the bayous down in the south. I've never seen so many large venemous snakes (Water Moccasins) and gators, as I did down in the bayous around Morgan City in LA. Anyone who voluntarily wades into that kind of water ain't right in the head...

GUILTY! But you knew that. You baited me, Z.

B

Wow Brave or stupid souls.

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Kh-razy 'cajuns around here do that. Ol' man M. Sans Orteils was the best. When he got old he had to buy an automatic tranny car.

B

I've seen this done but never wanted to try it myself. Aligator wrestlin' is about as crazy as I get. My ancestors and my wife's ancestors (no relation we think) used to do it and I have never heard of anyone getting bit by anything other than a fish. The main channel of Gum Swamp has Jack and Redfin Pike which are equipped with sawlike teeth that can do some damage. My wife's grandfather told me once that it was easy to tell the difference between a fish and a snake when reaching under a cypress stump underwater!

Although I was not brave enough to try 'stump fishing' as we call it, some of our members are! Here's a pic of Thrillbilly and El Presidente on a recent visit to my place!

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... and I hope the turtle bites off every single one of their fingers

They harvast and eat them, what's the problem?

Up front, I love turtle sauce piquant. So I'm a wise-harvest kind of guy.

I am concerned about the distinct possibility that we (society) are harvesting certain especially delicious species of turtle at an unsustainable rate--like we have done with sea turtles. Some states and the US Gov have begun investigating the problem but its a pretty low priority. Its hard to get folks interested in ugly critters and only a completely nerdy tree-hugger or a committed hunter/outdoorsman or a herpetologist is going to find an alligator snapper, "beautiful". I love the critters, but they're butt-ugly. The same is true of most other turtles and tortoises of culinary significance.

It is my belief--completely unburdened by any data whatsoever-- that these turtle species could be farm raised and compete successfully with wild-harvested turtles successfully as we currently do with gators and crawfish (for you yankees, that's "crayfish").

Another creature that I think needs immediate study for some sort of harvesting regulation are the various gar species. The size of harvested specimens has dropped dramatically in the past 5-10 years. Their reproductive and growth rates are poorly known. It would be a doggone shame to kill-off a group of fish that have been on earth since before the dinosaurs.

Why can't we do that with roaches?

B

medmech... the problem is like if I were say whats wrong with eating dogs? I suppose you wouldn't dare eat a dog since you have several of your own? Whats also wrong is to hunt these animals when they're threatened and endangered in certain areas.

I raise and breed a couple of endangered tortoises (T. kleinmanni) and makes me sick to hear people, especially in asian countries, eating turtles and tortoises as "delicacies".

The tortoises are CB and require a permit stating what they're being used for. These were purchased from breeders and are not WC.
I never said that they are HIS turtles. But if you meant Aligator snappers in general, they are threatened..
http://www.agfc.com/pdf/monsturtle_bro.pdf
http://www.stlzoo.org/animals/abouttheanimals/reptiles/turtlesandtortoises/alligatorsnappingturtle.htm
http://www.in-fisherman.com/magazine/exclusives/if2902_Snappertime/
ummm.. this "analogy" isn't an analogy of what I said. If you got a rare specie, threatened or endangered... and its being threatened by hunters, then I wouldn't feel any sympathy for the hunter losing any or part of his fingers.

how am I bsing ?