Water finally warms enough to draw flatheads into action
In Oklahoma, where they shoot TV shows about the sport, it is called noodling.
In Mississippi, it is called either grabbing, or, more correctly, grabbling.
In Bobby Cleveland’s vocabulary, dipping below the water, sticking your hand into a hollow log, stump or Lord knows what in hopes of pulling out a monster flathead catfish is simply called crazy.
Not no how or no way will I ever do that.
My stock answer each time I am invited is simply “%$#@ no!”
And if pressed, I explain “look, I don’t even stick my hand in my closet without first turning on the light.”
That said, I rarely turn down the opportunity to go and watch a bunch of insane idiots grabble.
(Yes, grabble is proper. Look it up — verb, to feel around with the hands, to grope.)
Last Saturday (June 15), at Barnett Reservoir near Jackson, I hit the jackpot. I tagged along with Team Mississippi from the Animal Planet’s Catfishin’ Kings TV’s show — Mike Willoughby, Stephan Bowden and Gerald Moore.
Included in their party was Lee Jenkins, executive director of the Brain Injury Association of Mississippi. She dove in and grabbed a catfish, which led me to say to myself: “Not only is she head of the Brain Injury Association of Mississippi, but she’s also a former…”
Just kidding … sort of.
And there was Eddie Smith, a certified public accountant. Smith actually paid money to participate in this craziness, buying a trip with Team Mississippi at a Brain Injury Association fund-raiser.
Yeah, he’s certified all right.
Just kidding … sort of (this is way too easy).
“That’s right, I bought this trip,” Smith said, shortly after wrestling a 43-pound flathead out of a wooden box. “This is my first time and I am happy to have these guys out here to teach me. My first fish was a big one.”
Was he a bit apprehensive?
“Sure, a little bit,” Smith said. “But it is something that I’ve always thought about doing and something I always thought would be fun. And it is fun. It’s exhilarating. It’s like being on the edge.”
With Willoughby and Bowden overlooking and sharing their expertise, Smith learned quickly to ease down into the water instead of a noisy plop, and he learned how to get his hands on the fish and what to do next.
“What you want to do is go in and feel around on the bottom of the box, and if you don’t feel him, turn your hands over and feel around the top,” Willoughby coached. “When you find the fish, try to get your hands on top of its head and then slide it down easily until you get in front of its face. Usually, it’ll just bite you and you can grab it by the lower jaw.”
The hard part for Smith was getting the fish to bite.
“They must not like my hand, or maybe it’s this glove,” he joked.
Smith said the price paid, which was not shared, was worth every penny.
The day ended with at least 10 fish pulled out of houses — wooden boxes placed by the team in about 4 feet of water — and six carried home to be eaten. Those six exceeded a total of 200 pounds.
“We only keep the big ones,” Willoughby said. “When we catch anything under 20 pounds, we let them go. We are interested in conservation. We also let a lot of the big ones go during a season.”
Mississippi’s grabbling season opens on May 1 and ends July 15, which coincides with catfish spawning. The 2013 season has been a late and tough one, so far.
“I was beginning to worry about getting Eddie’s trip in this year,” Willoughby said. “We have not had a great season. As a matter of fact, I think this trip today is probably going to be the best day we’ll have this year.
“The water has been too cool for the flatheads. We had some blues in the boxes but until this week, we had not had a single flathead. Today, you see the difference — no blues, all flatheads. We want flatheads. They are the most fun. They are the best eating.”
From a spectator’s viewpoint, they are certainly exciting. My highlight Saturday was when Smith, Willoughby and Bowden pulled two 40-pound flatheads out of one box.
Willoughby got his lineups on the box and started walking to it, sliding his feet along the bottom of The Rez until he found it. He slowly sank down to check for inhabitants. Without coming back up, he got his message across.
Suddenly, his feet were flopping on the surface, then a few seconds later, he was waving with one hand.
“There’s something in that box,” Bowden said.
Willoughby had gone down and felt around in the box, touched a fish, and then another fish, and flopped his feet as a signal. Then he readjusted and got his feet in front of the hole to block any escape attempts by the fish. Only then did he come up and deliver the news.
“Big ones, two of them,” he said.
By then, Moore had pulled the boat near the spot and Bowden and Smith had jumped in the water and joined Willoughby. Between them, they got the two mammer-jammers out of the submerged box and into the icebox in the boat.
Typing that was a lot easier than the task actually was.
Getting the fish to bite your hand and then locking on to its lower jaw is only the beginning.
“Once you grab them, they aren’t too happy,” Willoughby said. “They will shake back and forth hard and if that doesn’t work, they start rolling on you and that is the hard part. When you get a 40- or 50- or 60-pound flathead starting to roll on you, it feels like they are gonna knock your elbow or shoulder out of joint.
“Then when you get them out of the box, you have to subdue the fish to your body, locking to your stomach and chest and holding on until you can get it up and your partner can get a stringer in it. Once that is done, you can let it go.”
The excitement doesn’t end there.
Once released on the stringer, the big fish go bonkers, jumping like tarpon and swatting at anything within reach with a powerful tail.
Crazy? Darned right.
“Oh come on now, it’s not that bad,” Smith said.
I resisted their attempts to coax me into the fray.
“Two years ago, during the ALLIGATOR season, I hooked a SNAPPING TURTLE that I couldn’t have fit in my boat,” I told them. “Its head was as big as a tree trunk. The biologist said it would easily go 250 or 300 pounds.I know gators, and loggerheads and snakes are not supposed to be in those boxes, but I am not so sure they know that.
“And until I am, I’m alright right here in my boat.”
***
For more on Mississippi Catfishin’ Kings, visit their Facebook page at Team MS “Catfishin Kings” Animal Planet.
For more information on or to contribute to the Brain Injury Association of Mississippi, visit their website at www.msbia.org.
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