Off the hook for ‘noodling?’ Iowa bill would legalize catching catfish with bare hands

DES MOINES — Along with fly, ice and sport fishing, Iowans would be able to legally catch catfish with their bare hands under a bill being considered by state lawmakers.

Noodling — a method of fishing where someone uses their bare hands or feet to catch catfish — is currently illegal in Iowa. The form of fishing is legal in multiple states along the Mississippi River, including Illinois and Wisconsin, though it is most popular in the Southern U.S.

House File 832 would establish a noodling permit allowing individuals to catch up to three catfish per license that are at least 10 inches long. Noodling would have to take place during daylight hours and the use of equipment — including scuba gear, fins, bait, gloves and breathing tubes — would be prohibited.

It was advanced by a House Ways and Means subcommittee on Tuesday.

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Republican Rep. Ray "Bubba" Sorensen, who’s never been noodling and is from Greenfield, a town far from any major rivers, said constituents have been pushing him for years to introduce the legislation, with a girl in her early teens primarily leading the cause this session.

“I don't think it harms what everybody says it's gonna harm,” Sorensen told reporters Tuesday. “For me, it's another bill on freedom.”

Sorensen said he will give noodling a try if the bill becomes law.

Conservation groups argue noodling harms and disrupts catfish populations by harming or killing larger catfish, which are essential to extending healthy gene pools.

“Noodlers generally don't then take that catfish and then filet it or eat it, they just send it back,” James Obradovich, representing the Iowa Conservation Alliance, said during a subcommittee meeting on the bill. “This causes damage to the fish. The larger fish, which they go for in this activity, are the gene pool that we want to keep around and keep healthy. That's for catfish procreation to allow for traditional fishing.”

Noodling typically involves sticking one’s bare hands near holes in the waterbed where catfish burrow in the mud and wait for them to latch onto the person's arms.

Rep. Dave Jacoby, D-Coralville, who has tried noodling before, did not sign off on advancing the bill over concerns about the toll noodling takes on catfish spawning and habitats.

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“Believe me, when a fish bites down on your hand, your first response is not to pull it out of the water, it's to get your hand the hell out of there,” Jacoby said. “I do have a concern that noodling would take place during a spawn. In other words, you're reaching for a catfish while they're spawning, and we need to keep our catfish numbers robust for sports fishing.”

Republican Rep. Derek Wulf, of Hudson, said he supports legalizing noodling, but would like to see the permit process streamlined and include noodling under the typical Iowa fishing licensing.

Wulf and Republican Rep. Chad Behn, of Boone, signed on to advance it to the full House Ways and Means Committee.

The bill was advanced out of the House Natural Resources Committee 14-7 in March.