Yea thats real...and there was a TV show about "noodling"...it described how th e fishermen stuck there arms deep into holes on Mud bottom shallow Rivers and such to catch these CatFish. The Cat Fish would actually bite down on there arm then be pulled out of there hole.
Don't know if they "noodled" that Monster...but on the TV show...they did drag out some Big Ass CatFish...one's big enough that I sure as hell wouldn't stick my whole arm in it's mouth!