Okie Noodling Tournament: An event like no other

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.

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.

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