The other day I was fishing with a couple friends on Mountain Creek Lake in southwest Georgia and one of them started talking about grabbling. I had no idea what he was talking about. He said you stick your arm into the fish’s mouth, let it bite you and pull it out of the water. I thought he was making it up. Then today I read a story in the Clarion-Ledger about grabbling. Not only does it exist, there is actually a season for it.

“Mississippi's May 1-July 15 grabbling season has had a slow start, thanks to a surprisingly cool spring and high Delta waters.

But, finally, with surface temperatures in the upper 80s to low 90s and the flood waters gone from inland oxbows, flathead catfish, the preferred target of the heartiest of anglers, are moving up into the spawning mode.

"They've really just started in the last couple of weeks and it's just now getting right," said Tony Holeman of Sand Hill, who, along with partner Zack Young of Flowood and sports designer Dustin Frucci of The Clarion-Ledger, snatched three flatheads out of Ross Barnett Reservoir Thursday. "My friends in the Delta are telling me the same thing. We all got a few blue catfish earlier with the flatheads starting about a week ago."

That was good news for Young, who in his second year of grabbling has yet to come to terms with the meaner blue catfish. He's heard stories.

"They're just evil," Young said. "This is only my second season and I just got my first flathead last week. I've heard about those blues. Flatheads will bite you, a blue will attack you."

Frucci, born in California and raised in Michigan, got his first taste of grabbling, also called noodleing, and liked it. He stopped short of pulling out a fish, instead helping block escape routes and pushing fish to the right side of the box.

"It's not a fear of the fish, but the unknown of what else might be in the box," said Frucci, whose father and uncle run fishing charters on Lake Michigan. "I'm OK with the whole idea of reaching in to let the catfish bite you, so you can grab it. But, an alligator snapping turtle ... that's what I have a problem with.”
 

Not long after I found this story, I came across catfishgrabblers.com. It explains the “sport” of grabbling/noodling and sells “Girls Gone Grabblin.”  The site describes,

“Be one of the first to watch & be amazed as 35 Southern Women bring you the thrill of catching catfish weighing up to 44lbs. with their hands and wrestling them to the bank.”

Others call it “hand grabbing” as the camouflaged man explains in the video, “cause your grabbing it with your hands.”

    Honestly, this is what happens when people don’t have football.