A 19-year-old former cheerleader has become in Oklahoma, an aquatic competition where contestants wrangle catfish with their bare hands. fended off 200 other competitors to win first place (and $1,500 to boot) in the “Big Fish” category.
“My dad asked me if I wanted to fish in the women’s division,” said Millsap, who is part of an all-female noodling collective called the Bare Knuckle Babes. “I said, ‘Heck no.’ I don’t want to fish in the women’s division. I want to beat the men.” Millsap caught the prize-winning 72-pound catfish at Lake Texoma at about 3 a.m. the morning of the competition.
Noodling, which is illegal in all but 11 Southern states, involves the fisherman, or noodler, waving their arm around in a catfish hole until it bites. The noodler then reels in the catfish with their bare hands. It is very possible to lose a few fingers or worse. Video of a standard noodling procedure can be seen here: