Who needs a fishing line when you can just use your hands to grab a catfish? There are still plenty of states where it is totally legal to use your bare hands to nab a catfish out of the water.

If I were to flip you the bird left-handed, which I sometimes do to mix things up, you’d notice that my middle finger is crooked, with a bulged knuckle. Why does it look like that? Catfish noodling.

Noodling is when people catch catfish using their hands as both the bait and the hook. It is legal in only 17 states in the U.S. Thousands of people from all over the world make the pilgrimage to ...

The Capitol’s dome is seen during the first day of the legislative session at the Iowa State Capitol in Des Moines on Jan. 13. (Nick Rohlman/The Gazette) Buy Photo The Gazette offers audio versions of ...

PAULS VALLEY — Keita Tanida and Hirotoshi Azuhata have scaled the horizons of the Kanagawa Prefecture in Japan, but for the mountain men, nothing was more glorifying than what waited for them in ...

A bill to make it legal to go “noodling” for catfish in Iowa lakes, streams and rivers is under consideration in the Iowa House. Representative Ray “Bubba” Sorensen of Greenfield sponsored the bill to ...

All the countless details are getting the final touches as a committee made up of volunteers is preparing for one big fish story to unfold in Pauls Valley with the Okie Noodling Tournament. The 25th ...

AUSTIN -- Catfish fans who prefer using their hands to grab and haul in the big ones might get the chance to noodle legally in Texas. State Rep. Gary Elkins of Houston has proposed legislation that ...

A little bluegrass music, a mess of fish in the fryer, some shade trees, a summer breeze and a big catfish weigh-in - that's a great way to spend an afternoon and that's what hundreds of people ...