Kin Hulamm tried to calm his nerves as he waded deeper into the murky lake water. Joined by five other amateur fishermen — including friend and junior electrical engineering major Louis Lam — the 2009 alumnus crept closer to what appeared to be a large beaver dam nestled in the brush.
And then they saw it — an enormous dark shape swimming straight toward Hulamm. It was a 50-pound catfish he had to catch with his bare hands. And the Animal Planet cameras were rolling.
“They were all like, ‘Get it between your legs,’ and I was just like, ‘Why would I want to do that? It’s going to bite me!'” Hulamm said of the experience.
In July, Hulamm and Lam ventured to the backwoods of Oklahoma for six days to film an episode of Hillbilly Handfishin’, a reality show on Animal Planet in which hosts Skipper Bivins and Trent Jackson teach city tourists the sport of noodling — catching catfish using only one’s bare hands and feet. Hulamm and Lam’s episode premiered Sunday night.
For two self-proclaimed computer nerds from the Washington suburbs — whose previous fishing experiences involved the typical rod and fishing line — it was quite the summer experience.
Hulamm said it began in May when he heard the producers were holding a local casting call and looking for “two nerdy guys.”
Hulamm convinced Lam to join him — except Lam didn’t even find out the show involved catching catfish barehanded until the duo was already being interviewed.
“[Hulamm] just asked me if I was given the chance to go off somewhere I’ve never been and do something I’ve never done before, would I do it, and I said ‘yes,'” Lam said.
And two months later, they joined four other cast members at a Dallas airport and headed off on a two-hour van drive to rural Oklahoma. Hulamm described the ride as a real “culture shock,” looking out at mile after mile of flat landscape, farms and the occasional house every half-mile.
“And then the van just pulled off into this dirt path,” Hulamm said. “And before we knew it they were mic-ing us up and then we’re being on camera. And then we would be filming six to eight hours a day.”
While Lam and Hulamm — who went by “Moose” and “Gary,” respectively, on the show — had done plenty of research on noodling beforehand, they said nothing prepared them for the anxiety of first wading into the water, searching in muddy holes where catfish often dwell.
“They were just like, ‘Hey, put your hand in this [hole],'” Lam said. “And then there was just this fear that something might be in there that could bite you.”
The den was empty that first time. It wasn’t until later that day that Hulamm found himself face-to-face with the 50-pound catfish he had to hold between his legs while one of the hosts tied a string around its mouth. And while Hulamm said he was initially frightened by having to hold such a large and slimy creature, seeing the catfish once it was finally pulled out from the water made the experience worthwhile.
“The adrenaline just takes over,” Hulamm said. “It’s the most awesome feeling, because you never know how big it is until you lift it out.”
That particular fish would be the biggest catch of the trip — 4 1/2 feet long, which when measured next to Lam extended from his head to his knee.
After five more days of wrestling angry catfish and sustaining bumps, bruises and bites from their efforts, the tally came up to two catches for Hulamm, one catch for Lam — plus a carp he caught mid-air after it jumped out of the water — and another the duo caught as a team effort.
And while the week had plenty of scares, Lam and Hulamm said they would do it again in a heartbeat.
“It was the best ever,” Lam said. “Six days and it never got boring.”
villanueva at umdbk dot com
