Okie Noodling

Kids try their hands at noodling in a demonstration tank at the 12th annual Okie Noodling Tournament in Pauls Valley on Saturday, July 9, 2011. JEFF LAUTENBERGER/Tulsa World

Having just been in Missouri for four years, I know a little bit about noodling. If you’ve never heard of the (remarkably fast-growing) sport, noodling involves wading or swimming into muddy lakes or rivers, blindly sticking your arm down a hole, waiting for a giant catfish to bite, and then wrestling with the fish to snag it out of the water with nothing but your bare hands. For whatever reason (probably something to do safe conservation practices and/or not wanting to perpetuate redneck stereotypes), noodling is illegal in the Show Me State. So, if you’re a Missourian, and want to noodle, going down to Oklahoma is the next best thing if you don’t wanna get slapped with a fine. And there’s no better event or tournament in the world to show off your skills than at the Okie Noodling Tournament in Pauls Valley, Okla., about an hour south of Oklahoma City.

As soon as I discovered this gem of an event, back in May, I knew it was something I’d want to cover if I could get the time off or fit it into my schedule. Turns out I had to work that Saturday, but pitched the idea to my editors and they agreed to let me go, along with an outdoors writer who was going anyway. It’s something the paper had covered before (it was the 12th-annual, after all) but not in recent memory.

I was expecting a much lower-key, laid back environment than what I got. Everything seemed just a little bit too commercialized and uppity, for rural Oklahoma at least. I blame that feeling on a very overzealous, pushy documentary TV series from a station that will not be named, who happened to be filming (read: dictating) many elements of the tournament. So much to the point that the show’s producers would herd away noodlers who had come in, and isolate them from the media, wanting “exclusives.” In other cases, it was simply intentionally blocking shots, or asking noodlers and competitors to repeat or act out scenes two, three, five, eight times for their own camera and sound guys to get multiple takes.

I don’t mean to complain, they’re doing their job as a big-time TV show. It just really interfered with the tradition and vibe of what the festival used to be (based on what I gathered from talking to people who had attended multiple years).

Kids stand in a large mobile tank filled with catfish at the 12th annual Okie Noodling Tournament in Pauls Valley on Saturday, July 9, 2011. The tank was used for noodling demonstrations. JEFF LAUTENBERGER/Tulsa World

Buster Garrett, of Eufaula, walks past spectators with two of his team's fish at the 12th annual Okie Noodling Tournament in Paul's Valley on Saturday, July 9, 2011. Garrett's son Dakota, 15, won the 18-and-under division. JEFF LAUTENBERGER/Tulsa World

Rusty Earl, of Choctaw, poses with two of his fish at the 12th annual Okie Noodling Tournament in Pauls Valley on Saturday, July 9, 2011. JEFF LAUTENBERGER/Tulsa World

A group of friends cool off in a baby pool brought onto the festival grounds at Wacker Park in Pauls Valley on Saturday, July 9, 2011. JEFF LAUTENBERGER/Tulsa World

Lee McFarlin fries up catfish at his vendor stand during the 12th annual Okie Noodling Tournament in Pauls Valley on Saturday, July 9, 2011. JEFF LAUTENBERGER/Tulsa World

Jason Hibbler, of Choctaw, grips a catfish by the gills. JEFF LAUTENBERGER/Tulsa World

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 9th, 2011 at 2:05 am. It is filed under Blog, Intern Diary and tagged with catfish, fishing, noodling, okienoodling, oklahoma, pauls valley, tulsa. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.