Its a year round thing if you can stand the water temp,get after it.
As with all things on the planet,let a human have a time with it,its F'd in short order
Let a bunch rally up in "defense of" and its a sure fire implosion in progress

No Tom, not allowed to keep blues or channels caught noodling in Oklahoma.

WOW! I've never seen two sides of an issue so well thought out and articulated. I fall on the "to each his own" and "don't tread on me" side of the fence. It is legal, therefore more power to them. My team has caught well over 100 30lb plus flatties since it became legal. Each time we go, we find just as many fish. Seems to me that the stock is OVERPOPULATED! Just because the R&R crowd can't catch em, doesn't mean noodlers are catching to many!!! IF the BIG fish stock gets depleted, noodlers will find new/better water. That's how/when TPWD will know to implement a rule change. Sacrificing a few fish at a tourney weigh-in for the good of the species seems wise to me. Knowledge gained will benefit ALL fisherman! I will remove myself my soapbox now and resume your normal programming.

I will bet anything you want that R&R guys catch 10x as many big fish in a YEARS time than a noodler!!! And i'll take the words from your mouth "If the Big fish stock gets depleted, noodlers will find new/better water." THATS the whole point of the heated thread.....it's irresponsible for ANY fisherman to over fish a lake to the point of a depleted fishery.....you cant just fish out a lake and move on to the next one...pretty soon you will have NO LAKE!

If we deplete the lake at current BAG LIMITS, using all legal means, then TPWD needs to change them. Time of year seem to be the burr in peoples drawers. Does anyone suggest we stop taking flatheads by R&R during their spawning season? Or Trot-lines? Limb-lines? Where does it end. The law is clear, taking 5 a day by any legal means.

What sticks in my craw, is the fact that TPWD had nothing to do with making noodling legal here. It was the politicians in Austin who passed it trying to cash in on some dang tv shows!! It was illegal here for a reason, now the TPWD has to spend resources and $$$$$ to make it right.

I like giving smoky hell so 9 times outta 10 I'll disagree with him just to do it, but I couldn't agree more on this one. There are A LOT of RR guys here that will catch a bunch of fish over 30 lbs in a year, all year long. What has everyone worked up is EVERY fish will be killed in this tourney. And for nothing. I'll pull out my crystal ball and say 90% of catfish over 50lbs are 20-30 yrs old. That's about all the ear bones will tell us, fish don't have to die to know that. Before someone chimes in about tags being turned in, I called in 2 tags last year and released the fish.

I just spoke with Mr Opt at TPWD. He will be collecting the fish at the tournament. The only fish to be sampled are ones that the contestants wish to keep. LET ME BE CLEAR, all fish will NOT be killed. They are also planning another collection of sacrificed fish in July.

7 out 255 tags reported means ABUNDANT population in the system according to Mr Opt. TPWD data so far says hand fishing has had no measurable impact.

His opinion is that hand fishing thus far is underutilized as a means of taking flathead catfish! There's simply not as many noodlers as people might think.

Lastly, it does not matter what time of year you remove a fish. It is irrelevant if they are nesting or not. Caught and removed in December = never spawning again. Same as every other month on the calendar.

They don't want to deal with actual data and facts Mike. They want to deal with conjecture, hearsay, and assumptions. I like the "TPWD doesn't like noodling, bit". I've personally had 3 separate GW's ask how to do it or if they could go with me.

It's okay to put out a trotline with 25 hooks baited with live perch, 25 jugs baited with live perch, or 15 rods baited at the same time while continuously chumming a spot, but don't you go out and try to catch one with your bare hands... that's much too easy

Anyone that says noodling is easy hasn't done it... period. Just like anything else, if you put your time in you can get better. I'm a pretty good damn noodler and have spent upwards of 4 hours on a single fish and wasn't able to catch it, because either the fish will blow out or you can't get it aggravated enough to bite you and he runs to the back of the hole out of reach. I probably keep 4 flatheads a year out of the 40-50 I catch per year, that's less than my daily limit per year. Most of the people I know that noodle do about the same as far as keeping fish unless they are sponsoring a local fish fry. We do it to get bit by the biggest fish we can find... period. That's the thrill. I find it extremely monotonous to sit in a boat and wait for them. Trotlines and jugs are even worse, you want to talk about trashing out lakes (just look in the trees next time your local lake is down) there's old jugs and trotline EVERYWHERE. Try to pull up to a courtesy ramp in the evenings in a boat without sucking up 500 yards of 30 lb big game and a 2 ounce bell sinker into your lower unit.

Bottom line is, bag & size limits are what will affect trophy fishing (since that's what everyone seems to be so concerned with). Harvest method is irrelevant as long as bag and size limits are lawfully observed (or else why even have them?). Noodlers don't want to piss in anyone's cheerios about how they catch their fish, so please don't piss in ours.

7 out of 255, and we know 2 of those were caught by a rod and reel guy as mentioned in the post above. That's an actual study conducted IN Texas relevant to the waters we utilize.

When all else fails, feed em the facts!!!

http://sdafs.org/tcafs/tc-meetings/2014-meeting-home-page/technical-session-3/


STRAIGHT FROM TPWD

Sounds like the facts say it's hard to get info from them and they harvest about like trot liners!! Lol

Keep what you will eat, turn the rest loose. If you are doing it legally, more power to you. The main focus should be on the ones who break the law by poaching and illegal harvest/overharvest. Go after the obvious lawbreakers...

If you read about flatheads you will seevthat with the low water levels it will make for a tremendously low spawn rate anyway. Kill all tournamentsvlike this should pretty much whipe out the spawn all together.

I agree.....Catfishing needs a true voice, a collaborated group of well established R&R guys, noodlers, trotliners, bank fisherman, etc.....A group that can meet with TPWD and express their concerns just like the B.A.S.S. boys. Or you can take an alternative action and speak to local representatives and have them push for things like "slot limits" "fewer hooks per person" "Heavy penaltys for trotlines left in water". Like you mentioned TPWD get trumped by the politicians. Forgive me if i'm wrong but I believe that's how Oklahoma had their slot limits passed......

Can I get info on the noodling tournament am interested in entering
Where is the weigh in and is it open water