Live bait

“I lie in bed and think about when I’m going to get to noodle next,� says filmmaker Bradley Beesley. “I know it sounds completely hokey, but it’s my favorite thing to do ever.�

Using fingers, hands and arms as their bait, hook and pole, noodlers wade into muddy Southern waters and probe the clefts between rocks, logs and slabs of fallen asphalt roads. In the summers, big-old flathead catfish hide out in the dark there, guarding their eggs. If a noodler’s really lucky, a feisty 70-pounder will clamp down hard on his intruding hand so he can wrestle it to the surface, pry it loose and flop it into the boat. (Note: Catching fish by hand is legal only in Oklahoma, Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana.)

If the hand/bait finds a snake or beaver before a catfish, the noodler yelps. If the hand/bait gets stuck between rocks during an underwater probe, the noodler drowns. No wonder the sport, which Native Americans practiced hundreds of years ago, keeps Beesley up nights. He first tried it during the making of his 2001 documentary on hand-fishing and couldn’t let go. Shocked to learn that the forearm-scarred characters in his film lacked a tournament to herald their noodling achievements, he helped organize one. You can catch the drama of the inaugural event in “Okie Noodling,� which will be re-released on DVD in early 2004 Details: www.okienoodling.com.

-- Craig Rosen