CAUGHT BAREHANDED

Since man’s earliest days, he’s fished for food, sport and survival. For most, the tools are rod and reel, spear and net. But for some, it’s personal. To catch whopper fish, they use extraordinary bait. Their own bodies. Nothing more than fingers, hands, even whole arms. Noodling. Tickling. Grabblin or hoggin. Whatever you call it, it’s catfish wrangling. For these obsessed anglers, handfishing’s the toughest test of strength and endurance. Dedicated and determined, they carry on traditions old and new of mad melees between man and fish, from the oceans off Papua New Guinea to Sardinia’s Mediterranean shores to the depths of America’s swampland.