Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Look at a Way of Fishing Called Handgrabbin'

Aired June 05, 2002 - 08:56   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: On the banks of the Big Black River, a group of men has turned fishing into an extreme sport. Never mind the rods and reels in Mississippi; it's just man against fish.

CNN's Bruce Burkhardt has their story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRUCE BURKHARDT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Back in the old days, back before modern fishing equipment...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ricky, I want to go on that (ph).

BURKHARDT: Back before fancy rods and reel...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's jerking too much.

BURKHARDT: There was a different way to catch fish, big fish.

Gerald Moore and buddies, Keith, Mike and Ricky are practitioners of what might be call add an extreme sport, hand-grabbin'.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We live and breathe for this time of year.

BURKHARDT: This time of year along the Big Black River west of Jackson, Mississippi is when the big catfish spawn. They look for hollow logs or holes in which to make their nests.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just like me and you would not like something coming into our house, they will bite you. That's what you want them to do. They have got to bite you in order to catch them, and that's where the fun starts.

BURKHARDT: Fun?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Boy, he's clamping down on my hand.

BURKHARDT: While many hand-grabbers rely on hollow logs already in the river, Gerald and friends came up with their own method. They built wooden boxes that mimic a hollow log.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got one end only open. The blocker blocks it. The grabber will go in and catch a fish.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've got it through. He is a good fish, 30- pound fish.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Me and Keith have been doing it for something like 20-something years. I mean, we know what to do. Just teamwork. We lose fish. We don't lose many.

Get him out. Get him out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got my foot...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You let him come up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got two feet in there. That's all I can get.

BURKHARDT: But that's a rarity. Most of the time if there is a fish in there, they grab him, go back under to get a stringer through his mouth and...

(CROSSTALK)

BURKHARDT: It is their catfish supply for the whole year. They take him home, clean him, freeze him.

(on camera): This sounded like a good idea when you were talking about it on the phone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You right down there, you've got to do it, just get in there.

BURKHARDT (voice-over): Sounds like a ball, reaching easily into a hole which could just as easily be home to a water moccasin or snapping turtle. And the idea of a catfish with teeth chomping down on my hand. Plus, the water was cold, muddy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just go in and reach in with your hand and feel around first.

Go in with your hand like this; if he grabs your hand, you grab him.

BURKHARDT: It was a baptism of sorts. We came up empty here, but at another box -- the baptism continued, induction into the brotherhood of hand-grabbers.

Bruce Burkhardt, CNN, on the big Black River in Mississippi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com