Avid Angler: The Catfish Page

• Georgia Adopts New Catfish Noodling and Spearing Laws


• PhotoStory: In Search of Giant Flatheads on the Oconee River


• Catfish Photographs

New Noodling Law

This year the Georgia General Assembly joined the roster of states now allowing catfish to be taken by noodling (aka "grabbling" or "hand grabbing"). Here's an excerpt from the new Georgia Code Section 27-4-37:

Flathead, channel, and blue catfish may be taken by hand without the aid of any device, hook, snare, net, or other artificial instrument and without the aid of any scuba equipment, air hose, or other artificial breathing apparatus between March 1 and July 15 each year.

The law prohibits altering any natural features to aid in the noodling and requires noodlers to have a fishing license. Georgia legislators are noodling "purists", as they specifically disallowed artificial breathing devices, but showed a lack of confidence in people's own good judgment by limiting the sport to a four month season.

Changes to Fish-Spearing Law

The legislature also tackled the pointed issue of fishing by spear. Under the old laws, anglers could only spear non-game fish. This year, the General Assembly buckled under to the spearfisherman lobby and passed a new law allowing the spearing of channel and flathead catfish on the Savannah River. To reassure the general public, however, the legislature did specify that "It shall be unlawful to use spears with poisonous or exploding heads." As always, "persons engaged in the act of spearing must be completely submerged."

Here's a link to the House Bill 301 as passed by the Georgia House and Senate and now enacted into law:

http://www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/2005_06/pdf/hb301.pdf

This weekend, five friends enjoyed a trip on the Oconee River in search of big flathead catfish. As with any fishing trip, we had three goals: one, not to get shut out; two, to catch a big one; and three, to catch a lot of 'em. We went two for three. Here's the story in photos.

Afternoon Preparation: Catching Bait Fish





Preparation for limb-lining takes as much work as the actual setting of the lines. On Saturday afternoon we went out to Brian Clark's pond to catch some bream to use as bait later that night. After feeding crickets to the sneaky blue-gill for a while, Rob decided to cheat by using a casting net.







I, on the other hand, perservered with a good old-fashioned cane pole, and was finally rewarded with a nice little bream.




Our bait bucket was hooked up with battery-powered bubble makers ($5 each from Wal-Mart). Brian's black lab pup, Trigger, tried to help out by staying right under our feet.


Once we got enough bait, we tied the lines, using 75 test-lb catfish line with 6/0 hooks and heavy sinkers. We tied the big hooks up to the styrofoam so they wouldn't be all over the boat while we were on the water.

On the Water


Finally, on the water. Just after sunset, we scanned the banks looking for green limbs overhanging the bank, preferably near a stream-mouth. Once we found a good spot, we put Jason to work tying the lines up to the bushes. We scared a snake away from that tree before we put him under it.



After all that hard work, here's the reward. Seventeen pounds!



Back on the land, he looks he even bigger.

The Next Day

The work doesn't end when the night-fishing finally wraps up. The next day, Rob and I go back out to clean up our mess, taking down tinfoil and lines.


But occassionally, luck strikes the clean-up crew. Another catfish, this one a channel cat weighing in at over seven pounds.





There's got to be a great big one lurking in the murky waters of the Oconee River south of the Dublin bridge, and maybe next weekend we'll find him pulling on the end of a line.