Y'all were wondering what gigging was here it is

This is my gigging boat waiting for it to get dark this is down in Arkansas below lake norfork

Looking for Fish

putting them in the boat.

I was expecting to see frogs....But the fish is even better.

In the great state of Kentucky, where my wife's family hails from to go giggin' you need frogs, you need an innertube to float in, you need a giggin' spear and most importantly you need beer. Also note that while in the innertube you don't stop to pee.


But I must admit your way looks fun to

thats awesome me and my bro-in-law is going to go gigging frogs and turtles this spring with 22s!

That's a nice looking set up you got there Reload!
Much bigger than the one we use on Big River, ours is just a single man gigging deck, but we usually only take 2 guys, maybe 3?
One guy runs the outboard while the other one sticks the fish, and if there's a 3rd person they usually just sit in the middle and observe, or trade places with the guy on the front and take a shot at killing some fish.

We just go for white and yellow suckers, and a few hog suckers if they are there. The small hog suckers are the best eating, but not as many of them as the white and yellow suckers.
I'll take some pics of our trip next time we go and I'll showcase the whole process from putting the boat in all the way to the fish fry.

If you all have never done this before and ever get a chance to go.......I would highly recommend it! It's a blast!

Thanks for the pics, great rig!
Which one are you by the way?
And do you ever do any bowfishing out of that rig? That's an awesome great time shooting fish with a bow!

I'm the one with the cammo Jacket. my youngest son is next to me the one that got his first buck this year. My eldest son is the one sitting on the rod box my dad is running the motor.. I have never tried bow fishing out of it. usually the water is too deep for that my cousins husband tried once. My son bow fishes with his re curve from a bridge in the Mississippi back water but gigging we usually go for Red horse Suckers... man they are tasty a little bony but in my opinion the best eating fish in the river. well one of em LOL in addition to the suckers you mention. Dont know if you have ever don it or not but they are fantastic if you can them after they have been pressure cooked in the canner they make the best fish pattys there is in my opinion you can keep the salmon give me Canned suckers LOL thanks for the compliment im proud of the rig.

Thanks for sharing. Really nice there. Kinda brough a tear to my eye a bit tho. My father passed away in 03. In the years before that, growing up, he and I had restored a nice boston whaler flat bottom fiberglass open hull boat that he got free out of a barn. We painted it a nice powder blue, built the seats and put a center console in it. Got a hold of an old road sign that needed recycling (nothing more to be said on that) and stripped it and drilled 4 holes and mounted under some lights with glass globes on to keep water out. These went under the water. Then mounted a nice generator a quiet running one to fun the lights. He made out gig poles.

We would go to NC down in Morehead. Had a place we camped over in Beufort at the Riverside Campground. We would head out up to Betty Bridge low tide, put the light in the water and each of us on one side one of another. Using the gigging poles we would pull the boat along looking for flounders. We would slay them it was so much fun....

Thanks for bringing back the memories....... I still have the lights and things. When dad passed away, one of my crack head brothers claimed the boat. Last I heard he sold it cheap to get his hands on something. He does not want to see me......

sorry about your dad My dad passed away 4 years ago and my eldest son in that picture was killed in a car accident 3 years ago. a lot of water has flowed under that bridge but it brings back a special time every time i go or look at those pics. glad y'all are enjoying them

I've always wanted to go gigging. I visit Arkansas every year but don't have access to a boat, plus I don't much care for water moccasins.

Really sorry to hear about your all's losses, I was thinking happy thoughts up until I read that. I've been preparing myself for that with my dad for the past several years, cause he's had several bypass surgeries, stints, and he's on blood thinners, and all kinds of other drugs. I don't think he would still be alive if it weren't for the medication? Who knows, he may outlive me?

It's something none of us want to think about, but we need to mentally prepare for.

On a happier note, here's how we prepare our suckers after gigging them.
First we scale them, then fillet the sides off just like you would a bass except leave the skin on and cut the entire side fillet off the fish. Then we cut the rib cage out and score them from the flesh side down to the skin without cutting through the skin. Leave the scores about 1/8" to 3/16" wide, roll in cornmeal and deep fry in hot oil. The oil needs to be fairly hot, but not to the point of smoking.......this will cook up the tiny bones to the point that you don't even realize they are there.

I think we have a few redhorse suckers in Big River, but I have never caught one or gigged one. I know they get really big.
The suckers we gig are average 1-2 pound size and the smaller ones are actually better eating, especially the hog suckers they have a sweeter taste almost like a blue gill or goggle eye. Very fine eating!
Dang! Now I'm fish hungry!

Dang Mo i'm gettn hungry now too Thats exactly the way we fix em.

Well since we are both from Missouri, it's not surprizing that we would both prepare them the same way. My ancestors who passed down this tradition probably also came from the same river people as yours, and they all passed it around to each other.
Back in the day when gigging was real popular, it was a big event and lots of people gathered for the fish fry. Friends and family would build a fire on the river bank and wait for the gigging boats to come back in and they would cook the fish right there on the bank. I can barely remember some of that when I was a kid, my uncle had a portable gas cooker that he carried with him down to the river and even if it was just 3-4 of us, he still cooked fish on the river bank.

We don't do that anymore, we've advance to just cleaning them on the river, then bring the fillets back to our garage where it's warm and we have a fire going in the woodstove, then we cook where there's warmth and have decent light. It's so much nicer than freezing your tail off trying to get warm by the campfire, maybe not as much fun but a whole lot nicer.
Small gatherings are the norm around our place, usually 5-8 guys show up at the most. We shoot the bull, fry fish and taters, whop top biscuits, and maybe some onion rings or raw turnip slices all go through the hot grease. On occasion somebody will have some wild turkey breast or deer tenderloin chunks to bread and throw in the grease. That's just a complimentary bonus to the fresh fish that's coming.
Some home made grape or black berry jelly for the redneck donuts, paper plates for the fish and taters, and lots of bullshit to go around.

It's a good time and we all sit around wondering what the city people are doing tonight. Cause from where we are sitting, we ain't missin much.

As most of you can imagine Gigging game fish is Illegal. We used to have a big fish fry on the bank too down on 11 point river the regional we always invited the regional game warden. He was really a great guy but we would tease him mercilessly. (thats the BS part Mo was talking about) tell him that it sure was good bass he was eating LOL. constantly thanking him for helping us eat the evidence. Man those were the days like you we usually go back to the garage where its warm to wash and cook the fish. The fish fries are still a great time but I think its sure missing something not being on the creek bank.

thank you guys for sharing your victories and losses, so That we are all able to share in both.

It is our memories and the sharing of these memories and times that keep our loved ones alive for the next generations.... wow I hear my grandfather saying that to me as I am typing it,

I have seen guys doing this king of giggin..... I have always heard them call it stabbin, stickin, or spearin..... but never giggin.... giggin here in western Oklahoma means a headlamp and a frog giggin stick....

Are suckers just grass carp???? that is what they looked like in those pictures???

I Dont know if Grass Carp are in the sucker family or not but they are different fish. as far as suckers go there are white, black, yellow, Redhorse, Buffalo, and Hog suckers, If you have ever been floating on a river and you come up on shoal you sometimes see the hog suckers they are the motley colored fish on the bottom. They have a rather large head and a skinny body.

I think buffalo are in the carp family.... it is just from the scale and shape of the fish in the pictures they look like what people call grass carp here....

They aren't Grass Carp. I don't really remember what Grass Carp look like. But when I was a kid my dad and uncles all went down to the Current River down By Donniphin Mo. There were lots of Grass Carp there that had gotten in the river from flooding private ponds. Supposedly they were sterile and couldn't reproduce. The Conservation Commission asked us to kill all of them we would happen to see. As I remember though they were fantastic Table fare. Not to be confused with I dont know just Carp which bury themselves in the mud and they taste like it. I'm told if you know how to fix them they are good eating but I dont know how to fix them. So i usually wont kill them if i see them.

grass carp are the ones that cannot reproduce and the have big old down turned sucker lips..... they are good to eat smoke them or cook them for a long time in the deep fryer and the little bones get nice and crunchy....... and you are right the regular carp are nasty smelling and eating.... tried it once and was not pleasant.

Suckers that we gig on the river look more like an algae eater that you would put in an aquarium. Same shape body and head, but different color.
That's actually what suckers in the river do, they skim the bottom for algae on rocks, logs, and gravel. I've stood in a riffle and watched them work their way along sucking up rocks and spitting them back out.
They are lousy thick at the trout parks and at times when I got bored I would drop a marabou jig in front of their nose, wait for them to suck it in and then set the hook........then the Fight was on!

Sounds like a good time Mo....

I noticed reload 30-06 has a smaller outboard on his boat???

explain to me what the purpose of having a kicker motor is all about????

I just bought a boat last year my first with a motor and I am rebuilding it slowly.... so i am not very versed on the whole two outboard motor thing...

I apologize KC i just seen you asked another question. My bad. I have a mercury Jet 30 the big outboard. i have hopped it up to a jet 45. by changing the reed stops carbs and adjusting the timing. its a good running motor. but doesn't handle the slow trolling that you have to do while gigging. its great for jumping the shoals though. the little kicker is a 9.9 horse mercury and its a great little trolling motor it will back down to almost nothing but still has enough butt usually to chase a big red-horse that has decided to run.

oh so the small kicker type motor is just a gas powered trolling motor then???

yep just a trolling motor