110?! and a Noodling Festival

This  crazy Oklahoma heat is getting to me... my garden is dying, my girls are swimming fools, and I am just getting to be one big freckle.  I do love the summer sun, but this is a bit much.  It has been sooo hot here!  Yesterday was 110, and the day before 108, it doesn't look like it's getting any cooler until November, so... our air conditioning had better not go out.  Maybe this hot weather has made us crazy, because we decided to get out in it and go to the Okie Noodling festival yesterday.  It has been on my to do list since I discovered this awesome sport.  I would not do it myself of course, but I am fascinated with the people who do... and the ones who hunt alligators, all of those crazy things.  

Noodling is fishing flathead catfish with your bare hands.  You go out into this muddy water, stick your hand in a hole, hope it's not a water moccasin, let the catfish bite your hand, and pull it up out of the hole and out of the water.  It is dangerous and hair-brained- but definitely entertaining.  

 Here are some that were caught for the competition yesterday.  These people fished all over Oklahoma and then had to be in to weigh their fish here by 7 pm.  This guy was a winner- I can't remember if he was a natural winner, or a scuba winner.  There are different categories for this competition.  They were: noodling with just bare hands, no scuba gear, this is the natural division, scuba division- pretty self explanatory, stringer- is their 3 fish all combined to see who's total was the heaviest, and there were youth and female divisions.

I'm not sure what divisions these guys were in, but one of them had a 60.5 lb fish, another a 65 I think.

 Where were these fans???!!!!!  I needed one of my own.

This lady one the biggest fish for the female division.  Her fish was 45 lbs.  Wow, what a lady.  Impressive.  Oh, and the girl next to her won "Princess Noodle" or whatever the title is.

 This kids' fish was as big as he was.

 Here are some catfish up close and personal.  Ugly things.  Taste good though.   Yum.

 Of course, noodling is the ultimate hick sport.  We got a few good pictures of people we saw.

 Some noodlers and me.  Nice guys.  Their fish is under that wood thing.

Here's the line-up of trucks with fish on the back of them trying to weigh-in.

 Here's little Mya- she was pretty good, despite the heat.  

Kenadi and Emma were infatuated with the big turtle there, the fish, and some crazy lady with her pet monkey in a diaper.  

So, it was fun, it was worth it, and now it's crossed off my list. 

Now, YOU need to watch the Okie Noodling documentary.  Click HERE to see it.  It's an adventure.