TV

Hillbilly Handfishin'

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Hillbilly Handfishin' is an American reality television show about noodling, the sport of fishing for catfish using only bare hands and feet. The series aired on Animal Planet from August 7, 2011 to August 5, 2012. The show stars Oklahoma fishermen Skipper Bivins and Trent Jackson, self-proclaimed "hillbillies" who take tourists from cities on noodling expeditions in muddy lakes, rivers and streams. Hillbilly Handfishin' was developed by Sara Helman and produced by Half Yard Productions, the executive producers for which are Abby Greensfelder and Sean Gallagher. The Bivins family runs Big Fish Adventures, a noodling-exhibition company based in Temple, Oklahoma. Among the participants will be a group of police officers from Chicago, outdoors-loving mothers from the Midwestern United States and a funeral director and his daughter. Although officially set to premiere in August 2011, a pilot for the series first premiered on Animal Planet on September 24, 2010. At the time, it averaged 630,000 viewers, which was 44 percent better than the timeslot average at the time. Subsequent encores of the pilot on December 9 and December 22 drew viewerships of 653,000 and 722,000, respectively.