Beautiful
Southern women splashing about
in their mud-covered bikinis,
tangled up, dripping wet because
they’ve been wrestling 50-pound
catfish … Confused? Get your
mind out of the gutter; it’s
just a Girls Gone Grabblin’
fishing trip. Grabblin’ is
the Southern sport of catching
catfish using your bare hands.
Sometimes called noodling,
participants stick their hands
under large rocks where they
wiggle their fingers and wait
for a fish to bite down so they
can wrestle them to the surface.
Despite the title, there’s
nothing sexual about this
collection created by Marty
Jenkins. Girls Gone Grabblin’
2 focuses on Marty’s wife,
Fostana, helping rookies wrangle
their first catfish. The whole
thing feels like an extended
episode of America’s Funniest
Home Videos (Country
Fried Home Videos for
Country Music Television fans)
as Jenkins handles the camera
and eggs on the participants—and
therein lies the appeal of the
DVD, the sport and the hell of
the South itself. The whole
thing has a down-home feel that
focuses on good friends and good
times without a hint of
pretension. From the opening
theme song, penned by the son of
Jenkins’ high-school
auto-mechanics teacher, it feels
like you’re watching old home
movies.
The biggest laughs are at the
expense of guest stars that are
completely unaccustomed to the
sport. Seasoned grabblin’ girls
mock Jackie Bushman, host of
Buckmasters, as he panics at
every nibble or threat of a
nearby snake, but it is the
eye-popping scream of world
archery champion Joella Bates
that’s worth numerous rewinds.
Still, the real stars of the
show are the fish. It’s amazing
how powerful fish are as they
drag girls underwater or toss
them about as if they were rag
dolls. After watching the
excitement, the only question
that remains is who will be the
first brave soul to go grabblin’
in Lake Natoma?
