Hand fishing fun? Hanover Park man learns on Animal Planet

Most fishermen angling for catfish debate which type of fresh bait best entices the creatures.

But for Skipper Bivins, it's clear the only lures necessary are some of his own body parts.

Bivins is the star of Animal Planet's new series, "Hillbilly Handfishin'," a reality show that brings city slickers to his home state of Oklahoma to learn the Southern practice of noodling - catching massive catfish with only bare hands and feet.

"It's a family tradition," said Bivins, who caught his first fish by noodling at the age of 4. "There's lot of people who live here locally who wouldn't dare do it. It's not a sport for everyone - and I say sport lightly. It's more of a way of life. My dad's dad taught him and my dad taught me and I'm teaching my children."

This summer, Bivins and co-star Trent Jackson - both self-proclaimed hillbillies - also passed on their hand fishing knowledge while shooting the Animal Planet series. One of their first pupils was Hanover Park resident Neil Martin.

For Martin, the owner of Super Star Shots photography in Chicago, the experience went from scary to rewarding.

"I don't even jump into Lake Michigan," he said. "I'm really weird about water, so it was kind of liberating to find out that I could actually get myself to go jump in the Red River."

"I'm a city boy now," he said. "I'm from Hanover Park, but I love Chicago and so it was kind of weird to take me out of my element."

Martin, who graduated from Conant High School in 2000, decided to submit an application to participate on the show because he wanted to "do something crazy" before he turns 30 next July.

"I figured it was something that I could say I did that nobody else could say they did," he said, admitting he thought it was both funny and embarrassing that he was chosen to be on the show. "My friends have sky-dived, they've bungee jumped, everybody does all that. But I don't know anybody that has caught a catfish with their bare hands."

For five days in July, Martin and close friend Maricela Berrios, of East Chicago, Ind., lived in a cabin in Temple, Okla., without television, Internet or cellphones. The pair woke up at 6:30 a.m. every morning to travel by van and ATV in 100-degree weather to reach remote rivers and lakes.

They spent most of the day trying to get the catfish to bite on their fingers and toes - body parts that are also attractive to the snakes, snapping turtles and other creatures.

"It's a lot of work to talk city slickers into doing and performing the task that we take for granted, something we've been doing our whole lifetime," Bivins said. "We make it look pretty easy. But in reality it's not something that's very easy to do. It takes a lot of coaxing to talk them into being the bait."

Once a noodler's hand or foot is in the mouth of a fish, they use their body strength - and sometimes a rope if they need the help - to bring the creature to the surface while it stays latched on to their flesh.

"It was a way of putting food on the table," Bivins said, mentioning that today the majority of the fish he catches are released. "You could catch enough fish during the summer months that you could eat fish all the way through the winter into the next season. And of course, everybody needs a hobby."

While the sport may sound more gruesome for the noodlers than the catfish they hunt, anti-animal cruelty organizations like PETA think otherwise. According to a statement released by PETA, noodling is illegal in 39 states "with good reason," because they say noodlers jam their arms through the animal's gills in order to drag the fish out of the water, giving them injuries that can affect their breathing or slowly kill them.

"Fish are smart, interesting animals with their own unique personalities, and just as dogs, cats, and humans do, fish feel pain," the statement said. "Of all channels, it seems to us that Animal Planet should be the last to want to relish in the suffering of any animal, and as such, we hope that it decides to terminate the show."

But Bivins said noodlers don't harm the fish in any way.

"We don't put our hands into their gills. That's what he breathes with," he said. "We put our hands through his mouth, which doesn't hurt him at all. It usually just scratches you up a bit."

Martin experienced that pain after Bivins and Jackson dared him to go to a hole alongside a river bank where they knew some big fish might be hiding.

"We get him in a hole and I'm telling you he came up against one of the, well, I would say the most aggressive fish we caught all year long," Bivins said. "He was under the impression that the fish might only bite him once and he's like, 'Why does he keep biting me?' He's yellin' and screamin' at the top of his lungs and it was really, really hilarious."

The catch was a blue catfish that Martin estimates weighed about 25 pounds. Martin had to release the fish because of state regulations, but he said he went home with an award from Bivins and Jackson for meanest fish, as well as bragging rights for himself and Berrios, as they both managed to catch two fish.

"They are overcome with emotion to begin with and then that fear actually turns to joy," Bivins said of the first-time noodlers.

Bivins said his visitors are allowed to keep Flatheads, another kind of catfish they noodle for, but about 99 percent of them decide to turn their catch loose.

"They'll give him a name, give the fish a kiss, send him on his way to live again and bite another noodler," he said.

The episode featuring Martin wrestling fish in the murky waters premieres at 9 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 25.