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Noodler event draws crowd

Perennial Okie Noodling favorite Don Brewer holds up a 40-pounder for the crowd to admire in front of Bob's Pig Shop during Saturday's weigh-in for the 10th annual Okie Noodling Tournament. KELLY BOSTIAN/Tulsa World photos

 
By KELLY BOSTIAN World Outdoors Writer
Published: 7/12/2009  2:29 AM
Last Modified: 7/12/2009  5:38 AM
Go to Kelly Bostian's blog

Use an interactive map to find out the best places to fish in Oklahoma, get advice on picking lures and rods, watch videos and more.


ALL IT TAKES is boating and swimming and probing your local fishing holes every night for a couple of weeks, just two or three times a week prior to that, and then spending a couple hours under water, blind, groping around in the mud to catch an angry catfish with a head as wide as an average man's chest.

Do that, and you might be like Jon Bridges of Bartlesville, who now holds claim to catching the largest catfish in the 10 years of the Okie Noodling Tournament — a 68.6 pounder that came to the weigh-in at Pauls Valley Saturday with a near-twin as part of the same three-fish stringer.

The 10th annual event was larger than ever with more than 170 individual noodlers signed up and unquestionably thousands of onlookers crowding shoulder to shoulder into Pauls Valley in and around Bob's Pig Shop.

The event that started small for the 2001 "Okie Noodlers" documentary film by Brad Beasley has elevated the activity to extreme sport status.

Police barely managed to part the street crowd for noodlers' pickup trucks and trailers as onlookers formed a street-wide scrum, each trying to get a photo, video or just a good close look at the noodlers and their large fish.

The National Weather Service said the temperature was 102 with a 110 heat index. On the street it was hotter, but most people only seemed to care about those giant fish.

The crowd roared as Bridges and partner Marion Kincaid of Peru, Kan., shouted out and raised the pair of 60-pound (or more) catfish to their shoulders in unison.

Calling themselves the "Third Lung Extreme Noodling Team," Bridges and partners Kincaid, Mark Shull of Sedan, Kan., Larry Plisek of Bartlesville and 19-year-old Keely Crook (Kincaid's niece) from Stella, Mo., broke some barriers Saturday.

The hand-fishing tournament has two categories — natural and scuba.

To boot, Keely Crook brought in the biggest fish for a woman noodler at 32.6 pounds and the biggest stringer for a woman at 86.8 pounds. "Oh yeah, they bite!" she said when asked if the big fish were aggressive.

Pointing to Kincaid and the others, Bridges laid credit where it was due. "If it wasn't for them guys, we wouldn't be here," he said. "They know how to put you on the fish, I guarantee you."

Kincaid said it was all about doing the homework. "Just like hunting," he said. "You can't sit at home when you get off work. You got to go to the lake, got to go to the river, got to go to another river, or to another lake or another river and find 'em. You just got to get out there."

Still it took them two hours to extract that largest fish from its hole. "He was way back in there," Kincaid said.

Kincaid and Bridges were shoulder-to-shoulder, blocking the fish's hole, blind, with air tubes in their mouths leading to an air pump up on their boat. "We'd rake him forward with a forked stick and he'd get close but then go right back in," Kincaid said.

The team has been out looking every night for the past two weeks, Bridges said. Not revealing their fishing location, they said they fished "way north." The tournament offers a 24-hour fishing period so anglers can fish their home waters and hurry to the weigh-in with fish in aerated tanks. Fish must be alive to count. Bridges and company were taking their live fish back to their home waters after the event Saturday.
By KELLY BOSTIAN World Outdoors Writer

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COMMENTS 
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6 comments have been made for this team so far. Tell us what you think below!
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Report Comment
Chuck Foxen, Tulsa (7/12/2009 4:13:42 PM)
Makes me proud to be an Okie.
Report Comment
M_Sizzle, Tulsa (7/13/2009 12:08:20 PM)
These guys are a different breed.
Report Comment
cs, (7/14/2009 6:40:52 AM)
I could use a cold beer and some funyons.
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52favoriteteacher, Washburn--used to be Broken Arrow (7/14/2009 8:00:56 AM)
Check your rules

Still illegal guys in Okieland
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Steff M, Claremore (7/14/2009 8:50:00 AM)
Only in Oklahoma. Well, maybe also in Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama, Louisiana, etc. Honestly though I'd probably tune into it if my other choices were the WNBA and cricket.
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Fastbird, (7/21/2009 10:36:36 AM)
52favoriteteacher,

You need to read the rules....

Its only illegal to take gamefish with your hands, non game fish are 100 percent legal.
 

 
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