My father used to tell me that they would catch 60 pound flathead catfish in Missouri by using a similar technique. They would find these river edge caves in the Missouri river with their feet. Then they would block the outer opening and drill a hole down through the top. I'm sure success percentage varied depending on the blood moonshine level. I would think one would have to be pretty shnookerd to stick thier foot in a hole under muddy water where 60 pound catfish are lurking. My father told me to look up the word noodling and here what I came up with in wikipedia.
Noodling is a
southern US practice of
fishing for
catfish using only bare hands. Many other names, such as
catfisting,
grabbling,
graveling,
hogging,
dogging,
gurgling,
tickling and
stumping, are used in different regions for the same activity. Noodling is currently legal in eleven states.
[1].
The term "noodling", although today used primarily towards the capture of
flathead catfish, can and has been applied to all hand fishing methods, regardless of the method or species of fish sought. Noodling as a term has also been applied to various unconventional methods of fishing, such as any which do not use bait,
rod &
reel,
speargun, etc., but this usage is much less common.