{"id":4350,"date":"2018-11-30T17:18:26","date_gmt":"2018-11-30T23:18:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/?p=4350"},"modified":"2019-02-18T10:51:07","modified_gmt":"2019-02-18T16:51:07","slug":"goin-giggin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/2018\/11\/30\/goin-giggin\/","title":{"rendered":"Goin’ Giggin’"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

Goin\u2019 Giggin\u2019<\/h1>\n

by Dale Grubaugh<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s comin\u2019 on to dark and time to load the boat into the back of the pickup. Let\u2019s make sure we have everything else; light shields, 300 watt lamps, gig, and don\u2019t forget the paddle.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a clear, cold November evening. There\u2019s been just enough rain to keep the creek flowing (but not so much that the water will be murky).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a good night to go giggin\u2019.<\/p>\n

No, we\u2019re not going after frongs (you do that in the summetime when you have to fight the snakes fer the frogs). We are going after sucker fish, hog mollies and red horse. They make some mighty fine eatin\u2019.<\/p>\n

I started goin\u2019 fish giggin\u2019 with my dad when I was ust big enough to handle a boat paddle. I would paddle as best I could with his direction and he would do the giggin\u2019. We had a great time as well as put food on the table.[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”4363″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_rounded”][vc_column_text]The set up we used back then was a bit different that what you see today. Nowadays, fellas have bars across the front of their boats to keep from fallin\u2019 in the water, large, plated light shields powered by generators and motors for propulsion. Seems mighty noisy to me.<\/p>\n

I like to hear the night sounds on the water and to be able to talk. I like the smell of the creek instead of exhaust fumes.<\/p>\n

We stood on the front seat of our flat-bottomed boat, using the gig pole as balance. never once did any of us go swimming off the front of the boat. Our light shields were \u2014 and still are \u2014 two aluminum shop shields that clamp on the front of the boat… powered by the truck battery.<\/p>\n

If we stayed on the water too long, it was a long, cold walk home.<\/p>\n

Giggin\u2019 is not hard.<\/p>\n

You just have to have a good sense of balance and a fair eye for aimin\u2019. Giggin\u2019 fish does take some accuracy \u2014 being able to hit a swimming target with a very unyielding wooden pole does take a little practice.[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”4364″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_rounded”][vc_column_text]My dad is the best gigger I\u2019ve ever seen. When he let me gig while he paddled? I thought I had really grown up.<\/p>\n

As I did get older \u2014 and my dad was working nights \u2014 I would go with friends, cousins, and even my sister Rae Jean. She was a great paddler and wasn\u2019t scared of being on the water at night.<\/p>\n

One night we were on the creek and kept hearing splashing ahead of us. We thought maybe someone was trying to scare us by throwing rocks in the water.<\/p>\n

No one answered when we hollered and I was getting irritated. Then I finally saw what was makin\u2019 all the racket: an old beaver was building a dam upstream.<\/p>\n

He was makin\u2019 noises to warn us away. That beaver finally swam by the boat a few times just to make his presence known.<\/p>\n

Not long after that, I saw a big carp layin\u2019 on the bottom and I reared back and hit him with the gig. Now, he was big, nearly 30 pounds, and the water began to boil as he thrashed his tail and tried to get away.[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”4365″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_rounded”][vc_column_text]The gig pole was shakin\u2019 and I was havin\u2019 trouble getting him into the boat.<\/p>\n

Rae Jean was screamin\u2019 at me because she hadn\u2019t seen what I was giggin\u2019 and thought I\u2019d gigged the beaver. She was ready to get out of that boat!<\/p>\n

So, after you\u2019re done giggin\u2019? What then? You gotta clean those fish.<\/p>\n

And the best place to clean the suckers is right at the creek. You scale them down and then filet them. Score them when you get the filets home (scoring is the process of cutting the filets from the flesh-side down the skin side without breaking the skin). Make small cuts of about a quarter of an inch wide all along each filet.<\/p>\n

Suckers have a lot of small bones and the scoring makes those bones kinda disappear during the cooking process.[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”4367″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_rounded”][vc_column_text]Then roll the fish in corn meal and drop them in a skillet of hot grease. Add some hush puppies and fried \u2019taters and you have a meal fit for an Ozark king.<\/p>\n

Well, if you\u2019re ready, let\u2019s head on down to the creek and get set up. If yer a good paddler, I might even let you try your hand at giggin\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u2019Till next month.<\/p>\n

Elias Tucker<\/b><\/p>\n

Originally published November 22, 2009[\/vc_column_text][vc_text_separator title=”Story Credits”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

About the columnist:<\/h3>\n

Dale Grubaugh, writing as \u201cElias Tucker from The Holler\u201d is a valued contributor to State of the Ozarks. He is a man who loves his Ozark culture deeply.<\/p>\n

As a Southern Baptist preacher and pastor, Dale has dedicated his life to the people of these hills.<\/p>\n

Also, he has worked hard in many facets of the Branson show industry. And he has lived the Ozarks, fishing, hunting, appreciating the wilds that are so close \u2014 but so closely forgotten.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Joshua Heston, editor[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

Photo credit, Joshua Heston. \u00a92009 SOTO<\/h2>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Goin\u2019 Giggin\u2019 by Dale Grubaugh It\u2019s comin\u2019 on to dark and time to load the boat into the back of the pickup. Let\u2019s make sure we have everything else; light shields, 300 watt lamps, gig, and don\u2019t forget the paddle. It\u2019s a clear, cold November evening. There\u2019s been just enough rain to keep the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4366,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[466,937,582,581],"tags":[1025,1026],"class_list":["post-4350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ozarkshistory","category-ozarkwriters","category-sotoarchive","category-sotofeature","tag-ozark-gigging","tag-winter-ozarks","category-466","category-937","category-582","category-581","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4350"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4383,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4350\/revisions\/4383"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}