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Two men in Texas were up to some noodling on Lake Tawakoni when they hauled in a potentially record-setting flathead catfish with their bare hands.
If you are thinking ‘bare hands’ and ‘noodling’ is redundant, you’re right. Noodling is the sport of catching catfish by digging around in the mud, in holes in a pond or lake, and pulling out catfish by hand and without the use of a rod and reel or spear gun.
Justin White and Drew Moore were circling a hole that’s 14 feet deep underneath a bridge on Lake Tawakoni, a lake that’s due East of Dallas.
The duo told Sage Marshall of Field & Stream they had caught a pair of 30 pounders on their first trip to the hole but returned days later thinking they could find a much bigger fish hanging around. That they did.
Using a Hookahmax Dive System to be able to stay underwater longer in search of a massive fish, they set themselves on the path for a potential catfish noodling record. They first had to swim under a concrete ledge and then 6 feet further to where the fish were hanging out.
Drew Moore told Field & Stream “We knew we were getting close to the bed when all hell broke loose.” Saying as they got close an enormous catfish began ramming them.
Rising to the catfish noodling task at hand, they sprung into action and subdued the fish but then still had to swim 14 feet back up to the surface holding a 100-pound angry catfish.
Moore said “We still had to swim up 14 feet with this fish, which is a pretty tricky thing to do. Anybody can grab one of these fish, but not everyone can hang onto them.” He added “We didn’t know what to think at that point. The fish’s head was as wide as our chest and the lips were the size of a Gatorade bottle. It was really hard to judge exactly what we’d caught.”
They checked two scales which read 103 and 108 pound but needed to get the fish to a certified scale. Then they headed for the nearby marina to use their certified scale but stopped every couple of minutes to allow the fish to swim in order to keep it alive.
On Facebook, Justin White wrote:
“Well here she is, 98.7 LBS on certified scales. Me and Drew Moore swam in this hole side by side at 14 feet deep and got beat up by her. She WAS NOT HAPPY that we were there 😂 but we got her controlled and got her back to the boat. never thought we would run into such an animal but so blessed to have the opportunity to do so. Still waiting on the paper work to go through, but looking at the biggest catfish ever noodled and weighed on certified scales, she was released to fight another day. GOD IS GOOD!!”
Asked why catfish noodling, Justin White said “The biggest thing about hand fishing for me is the adrenaline rush.”
He added “I did it one time, and I’ve been hooked ever since. You go down there and get bit. It’s something that don’t ever get old.”
There are countless noodling resources on the Internet for the curious. Start with some YouTube tutorials. See where that road goes before getting in the water.
This ‘basic noodling’ tutorial says the #1 rule of safety is never noodle by yourself. You always want to noodle with other people.
One massive concern is you can stick your hand down in a hole to get a catfish and grab a dangerous snake. So be prepared and don’t go at it alone.
This 106-pound flathead catfish was caught via noodling back in 2021. That fish, however, was not weighed on a certified scale and it was released.