I watched a programme on the telly last night (Nat Geographic) about noodling.
I was amused to learn that it's not about making a real feckin' nuisance of yourself by sitting in a diddley music session and faffing around with a tune you don't know.
But, rather, it's ripping off your shirt and diving into a swampy river looking for the lairs of the N American giant freshwater catfish. Then manhandling (there are women who do it, but it looks pretty manly to me) the creatures out of the water by sticking your arm down their throat. (this catfish has no teeth, you wouldn't want to try it with the Himalayan goonch).
Sounds fun to me. If I'd known about that at age eight or so, I would have said that was what I wanted to do when I grew up. I have not done so, but this is at least partly because I have not grown up, which is probably because my life has lacked the character-building influences of catfish noodling, as a sustained occupation, upon it.
Someone has to do it. I wonder who first came up with the notion that it would be a super jape to jump into a stinking swamp and stick your arm down a fish's throat. Mind you, thousands of years ago some bloke sat around with his mates and swallowed gallons of stinking brown liquid formed from waterlogged barley that had festered in the corner for days. I bet they thought he was a feckin' eejit too.
I caught hairygobs in the river on school holidays in the country.
But the village kids were better at it: they caught far more, and much bigger ones.
A hairygob, btw, is a stone loach - a little fish with barbels (whiskers) round the mouth that is probably under six inches long at the very maximum. But I dare say trick photography could make one of these look pretty fearsome, with or without an image of an arm or indeed a whole human going down its throat.
My dad grew up in the Ozarks of southern Missouri in the early 1900's. He told me about the time he was crossing a creek and stepped on a log. The log turned out to be a catfish that was about 4 feet long.
There were "hidey holes" in those creeks which were deep pools usually with large boulders setting in them where the big fish would hide. It was not unusual to see rainbow trout 2 feet long.
Moral: don't noodle...either with fishes or with the diddley~~~
there's an old tradition in Ireland of "tickling" for trout...I think Seamus Heaney has a poem about it as well? I'll check that out. Idea is you lie on the bank, well back, slowly move forward, put your arm in and feel underneath all along until you feel a trout....by "tickling" its belly you calm it enough that you can pick the fish up with the cup of your hand.
It seems reasonable. Anyone who fly fishes knows that when you're dehooking trout they seem to stay calm if you approach them from underneath on the belly.
Sticky Wiki says: (...and here's mtodd's 'tickling'!)
"Noodling is a southern US practice of fishing for catfish using only bare hands. Many other names, such as catfisting, grabbling, graveling, hogging, dogging, tickling and stumping, are used in different regions for the same activity..."
Also from the Wiki link, gives backing to the notion that man grabbing fish out of the river grizzly-bear-style is a pretty old practice:
"The Argungu Fishing Festival in northern Nigeria is perhaps the biggest noodling contest in the world. This yearly festival held in late February or early March consists of up to five thousand fisherman catching catfish with their bare hands. Small fishing nets are used to secure the fish, but most of the fish are noodled from beneath a vast spread of water hyacinths and then placed in a floating gourd attached to the fisherman."
I wouldn't be worried about Steve charming goldfinches, but if he starts parcelling linnets or sets up a guillemot bazaar, then it'll be time to notify Social Services.
I've heard the strangest stories about this type of fishing; and wanted to give it a try for a while now. To noodle locally, one would have to break into a catfish farm, as there isn't much in the way of wild catfish around here. Could we have a show of hands from all those who don't mind the muddy taste?
I particularly find this passage by "Ron" somewhat disturbing from his online 'trout' tickling article, and I quote:
"You will need a very gentle and delicate touch, much as though you are caressing your *lover*!
Keep your hands *as low as you can* as you try to stroke the underbelly of the *unsuspecting* fish. Remember that you will not be able to see what is going on under the bank, so *you will have to identify by touch. Is it a stone, a tree root, a trout or even something horrid?*"
I had wanted to add that the 'farmed' specimen dosen't look to be much of a challenge. On the other hand, trespassing onto one of the farms to do some poaching......
I've caught trout by tickling. But I've not succeeded in doing it and flicking them onto the bank with one hand only. If you use two hands, you can get one of them in front of the trout's head to stop it darting forward as you grab it behind the gills with the other. Locating a trout under the bank and cradling / tickling it with one hand is not too hard to do - but getting it from there onto the bank is more tricky.
Trout, for all their cleverness, are too small for a real, up-close-and-personal, mano-a-boca contest between man and fish. The big catfish, such as the have in the South-Eastern US, would be just the thing.
"... ripping off your shirt and diving into a swampy river looking for the lairs of the N American giant freshwater catfish ... manhandling the creatures out of the water by sticking your arm down their throat."
The question remains: Should it be tolerated in a session?
There is something really odd and "fishy" (said the bass player) about this discussion which he originally thought would go right pasta him because it was about spaghetti.
I'm sure, I remember from 'Swallows and Amazons' or suchlike, this was simply called tickling, as in tickling trout.
Isn't there already a rule about no tickling in sessions ?
SWFL, Does this mean you do not favor the practice of noodling in a session? If this is so, then I must respectfully disagree. Time will tell who is right.
i think there's a very good reason why farm-raised catfish aren't grown to extreme sizes. as a young kid in the country we grew 4 fout zucchini squash but they were not good to eat-we fed them to the pig (who was delicious, we named him Dinner) For the matter of that, I never understood why anyone would eat a catfish when they could eat a trout! I wonder do you need a regular fishing license to noodle? Or is there a special noodling license? If so, it should be presentable upon demand at any session where there is noodling going on.
Nothing better than a waterproof license-cover on a lanyard around the torso, where a warden can see it from a distance -- say, from the restaurant across the street. These should also come in handy for identifying drowned noodlers.
Hail Master Quigley! I side with Mssr. mtodd on this, I do believe it is a case-by-case basis.
For example, if some vagrant picked up my pint and took a gulp, I may indeed use the 'arm down the throat' method to force said freeloader to relinquish possession of my porter.
However, in the case of a poorly played bodhran or guitar, I think it’s a little extreme.
Then again, others may think it’s too lenient, and opt for outright amputation or other such methods of corporal punishment for wayward goat skin bashers or six-string strummers.
Now, in the case of wayward melody players, one could conceivably use ‘noodling’ as punishment for ‘noodling’, if one was so inclined.
I’ll put in an inquiry to the local session sergeant-at-arms and see what he has to say about all this. We’ve really come across some serious grey areas here. Fascinating stuff. Makes me hungry too.
A quick read of "Wandering Angus" turned up nothing about licenses, or catfish. The State of California requires a fresh-water license for taking fresh-water fish. It has nothing what- so-ever to say about sessions.
My partner noodles in the kitchen on his guitar or banjo, while I cook dinner. It is annoying as hell when I know he is dropping beats or practicing measures over and over. If I say anything negative regarding the noodling, it never fails to get blown out of proportion. There are times that I fantasize seeing him noodle a catfish.
Speaking as a bass player, I still say this discussion is "fishy".
Unlicensed sessions--especially in California--could be dangerous but I don't know if that might be equally true of fishing.
Atahualpa Quigley, I thought you were supposed to drown the noodles in water to cook them? Oh, wait, you said "noodlers" instead of "noodles". That comment went right pasta me.
mtodd, if to noodle is to angle then is the reverse of that true? To angle is to noodle?
OR, maybe we could say: "Noodle-angle-noodle-angle-noodle,
OR: Angle-noodle-angle-noodle-angle".
Speaking of using your noodle.....perhaps you could tickle a noodle slash; or slash a tickled noodle; or tickle a slashed noodle?
SWFL Fiddler, are you going to cook all of these fish with some hushpuppies for us?
Since that is my last name, I like getting into those areas of a certain color. It is such a lively, vivid, active color.
O.K...so, I watched the YouTube video of the noodle-masters at work, and all can say is EEEEeewwwwwwww!! Personally, I think this video simply provides proof to the red neck sterotype, and makes me very, very grateful that I was born and raises as Michigan yankee.
OK, so no noodling for the Michigander sessions; probably for sessions in the entire NE as well. Fine. You're all just a pack of pink-neck wusses. As for me, I would enjoy a good noodling at our session. It would liven things up. Just think, if the catfish wins, he's under no obligation to throw me up on the bank. That's drama.
Ah! sergeant fox..you might be right!....I have one book of Montague's maybe at home...can't remember which one....would you have the poem? there was some line or other about "tickling for trout"....but maybe I'm misremembering? thanks for the lead though! loved Montague. He came across the pond once and gave a reading here. Lovely man.
Nicholas...second was as SWFL accurately pointed out [man, this is sounding like Jeopardy] Will Shakespeare....it was one of the few quotes i remembered from 3rd year English....many many moons ago now. I've never really had a chance to use it much...trouts and peculiar rivers so seldom come up in polite conversation anymore...& more's the pity.
I have it back in my flat I think but I'm working out of a hotel at the moment. I remember something about his feeling the trout's terror. I'll try and find it and send it to you.
Atahualpa....before you slag those Michiganlanders...remember, they almost invented fishing! ;) I mean, consider Ernest's The Nick Adams Stories! Manly. Lots of trees. Pristine trout. Firewood cutting. Quite a bit of moss and north woods lore.. A brush with native american women etc.
Would Ernie have tickled though? Would that have been a manly north Michigan thing to do as a lad? we know he noodled in other jurisdictions, but I'm not sure about the trout stream itself. Certainly not in sessions.
Many thanks! I'd love to see that. Yes, it's ringing a bell now. I'll check tonight at home. I've got the book sitting right there above the old easy chair ready for my forced retirement due to the 2nd Great D. I loved that trout poem by Heaney too.
My dad who was from Belfast said they used to do it...esp the old boy anglers/farmers he knew...so that'd be going back into the late 1890s early 20th century. Noodling/tickling apparently was quite the art....like dowsing! Another arcane talent you rarely hear about anymore.
Sergean F... quck google turned up this from some Grade 11 poetry crit class or other. I think you're dead on. Must be that poem...*AND seems he was noodling!*
In The Trout we meet Montague who is examining a trout. Montague’s detailed examination of the trout is due in part to the newness of the rural life his move to Ireland brought him when his parents returned him to Ireland at the age of four, in 1933. It is he who “parted/ Rushes to ease my hands/ In the water without a ripple”. He tells us “I hung briefly above him/ Savouring my own absence,/ Senses expnding in the slow Motion,” Montague tells us because he “was so preternaturally close/ I could count every stipple/ But still cast no shadow,”. After Montague “gripped” at the poem’s climax he remarks that even today “I can/ Taste his terror on my hands.”
John Montague, The Trout
By kind permission of the author and The Gallery Press, Loughcrew, Oldcastle, County Meath, Ireland from Collected Poems (1995)
Flat on the bank I parted
Rushes to ease my hands
In the water without a ripple
And tilt them slowly downstream
To where he lay, tendril light,
In his fluid sensual dream.
Bodiless lord of creation
I hung briefly above him
Savouring my own absence
Senses expanding in the slow
Motion, the photographic calm
That grows before action.
At the curve of my hands
Swung under his body
He surged, with visible pleasure.
I was so preternaturally close
I could count every stipple
But still cast no shadow, until
The two palms crossed in a cage
Under the lightly pulsing gills.
Then (entering my own enlarged
Shape, which rode on the water)
I gripped. To this day I can
Taste his terror on my hands.
noodling
noodling
I watched a programme on the telly last night (Nat Geographic) about noodling.
I was amused to learn that it's not about making a real feckin' nuisance of yourself by sitting in a diddley music session and faffing around with a tune you don't know.
But, rather, it's ripping off your shirt and diving into a swampy river looking for the lairs of the N American giant freshwater catfish. Then manhandling (there are women who do it, but it looks pretty manly to me) the creatures out of the water by sticking your arm down their throat. (this catfish has no teeth, you wouldn't want to try it with the Himalayan goonch).
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by llig leahcim
Re: noodling
Sounds fun to me. If I'd known about that at age eight or so, I would have said that was what I wanted to do when I grew up. I have not done so, but this is at least partly because I have not grown up, which is probably because my life has lacked the character-building influences of catfish noodling, as a sustained occupation, upon it.
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by nicholas
Re: noodling
ridiculous, isn't it.? catfish do, however have stingers in their dorsal fins that pack a pretty fearsome wallop
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by pipewatcher
Re: noodling
it's true: http://www.ansalonmud.com/new/fish/index.php?content=catfish
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by RichardB
Re: noodling
Someone has to do it. I wonder who first came up with the notion that it would be a super jape to jump into a stinking swamp and stick your arm down a fish's throat. Mind you, thousands of years ago some bloke sat around with his mates and swallowed gallons of stinking brown liquid formed from waterlogged barley that had festered in the corner for days. I bet they thought he was a feckin' eejit too.
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by Steve Shaw
Re: noodling
I'll bet they thought even worse of him when they all woke up in bits next day! "World's First Hangover"
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by pipewatcher
Re: noodling
I caught hairygobs in the river on school holidays in the country.
But the village kids were better at it: they caught far more, and much bigger ones.
A hairygob, btw, is a stone loach - a little fish with barbels (whiskers) round the mouth that is probably under six inches long at the very maximum. But I dare say trick photography could make one of these look pretty fearsome, with or without an image of an arm or indeed a whole human going down its throat.
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by nicholas
Re: noodling
I saw that gobsh*te Gordon Ramsey do it on telly - all looks a bit too dangerous to me.
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by Sugarfoot Jack
Re: noodling
True story:
My dad grew up in the Ozarks of southern Missouri in the early 1900's. He told me about the time he was crossing a creek and stepped on a log. The log turned out to be a catfish that was about 4 feet long.
There were "hidey holes" in those creeks which were deep pools usually with large boulders setting in them where the big fish would hide. It was not unusual to see rainbow trout 2 feet long.
Moral: don't noodle...either with fishes or with the diddley~~~
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by rogfox
Re: noodling
there's an old tradition in Ireland of "tickling" for trout...I think Seamus Heaney has a poem about it as well? I'll check that out. Idea is you lie on the bank, well back, slowly move forward, put your arm in and feel underneath all along until you feel a trout....by "tickling" its belly you calm it enough that you can pick the fish up with the cup of your hand.
It seems reasonable. Anyone who fly fishes knows that when you're dehooking trout they seem to stay calm if you approach them from underneath on the belly.
Ah, here we go, an English trout tickling guide:
http://www.woodlands.co.uk/blog/practical-guides/trout-tickling/
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by skin&bow
Re: noodling
I've never tickled a trout but I once charmed a goldfinch.
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by Steve Shaw
Re: noodling
Once ya catch 'em, here's how you cook 'em:
http://southernfood.about.com/od/catfishrecipes/Catfish_Recipes.htm
Sticky Wiki says: (...and here's mtodd's 'tickling'!)
"Noodling is a southern US practice of fishing for catfish using only bare hands. Many other names, such as catfisting, grabbling, graveling, hogging, dogging, tickling and stumping, are used in different regions for the same activity..."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noodling
I'll take mine breaded and fried, with a side of hush puppies. Mmm...
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: noodling
Also from the Wiki link, gives backing to the notion that man grabbing fish out of the river grizzly-bear-style is a pretty old practice:
"The Argungu Fishing Festival in northern Nigeria is perhaps the biggest noodling contest in the world. This yearly festival held in late February or early March consists of up to five thousand fisherman catching catfish with their bare hands. Small fishing nets are used to secure the fish, but most of the fish are noodled from beneath a vast spread of water hyacinths and then placed in a floating gourd attached to the fisherman."
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: noodling
Steve....re goldfinches
what's your secret? you play it some tunes? ;)
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by skin&bow
Re: noodling
"there's an old tradition in Ireland of "tickling" for trout..."
My dad used to tell me about doing that. I tried it once and caught a crawfish. Or, rather, it caught me.
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by Bob himself
Re: noodling
I wouldn't be worried about Steve charming goldfinches, but if he starts parcelling linnets or sets up a guillemot bazaar, then it'll be time to notify Social Services.
http://bit.ly/CtpL
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by MacCruiskeen
Re: noodling
What happened to the Chinese ( or was it the Japanese ? ) with their mixtures of flour, water, and egg ? Or is that something completely different ?
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by Guernsey Pete
Re: noodling
I've heard the strangest stories about this type of fishing; and wanted to give it a try for a while now. To noodle locally, one would have to break into a catfish farm, as there isn't much in the way of wild catfish around here. Could we have a show of hands from all those who don't mind the muddy taste?
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: noodling
Those farms are breeding filet sized catfish.
Not much sport in riding those little ones.
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by Ben Steen
Go fish
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/06/photogalleries/giantcatfish/index.html
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by Ben Steen
Re: noodling
I particularly find this passage by "Ron" somewhat disturbing from his online 'trout' tickling article, and I quote:
"You will need a very gentle and delicate touch, much as though you are caressing your *lover*!
Keep your hands *as low as you can* as you try to stroke the underbelly of the *unsuspecting* fish. Remember that you will not be able to see what is going on under the bank, so *you will have to identify by touch. Is it a stone, a tree root, a trout or even something horrid?*"
that last bit is great.....
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by skin&bow
Re: noodling
I had wanted to add that the 'farmed' specimen dosen't look to be much of a challenge. On the other hand, trespassing onto one of the farms to do some poaching......
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: noodling
AQ
Tunnel in the way they did in that movie Stalag 13....
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by skin&bow
Re: noodling
I've caught trout by tickling. But I've not succeeded in doing it and flicking them onto the bank with one hand only. If you use two hands, you can get one of them in front of the trout's head to stop it darting forward as you grab it behind the gills with the other. Locating a trout under the bank and cradling / tickling it with one hand is not too hard to do - but getting it from there onto the bank is more tricky.
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by nicholas
Re: noodling
Trout, for all their cleverness, are too small for a real, up-close-and-personal, mano-a-boca contest between man and fish. The big catfish, such as the have in the South-Eastern US, would be just the thing.
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: noodling
such as THEY have
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: noodling
That bit about trout tickling is pretty steamy stuff. Little kids read these discussions.
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: noodling
"... ripping off your shirt and diving into a swampy river looking for the lairs of the N American giant freshwater catfish ... manhandling the creatures out of the water by sticking your arm down their throat."
The question remains: Should it be tolerated in a session?
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by CreadurMawnOrganig
Re: noodling
There is something really odd and "fishy" (said the bass player) about this discussion which he originally thought would go right pasta him because it was about spaghetti.
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by fauxcelt
Re: noodling
"Should it be tolerated in a session?" I vote for a trial period.
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: noodling
I say use your noodle as the situation requires.
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by skin&bow
Re: noodling
Put it in a pot, pewter or otherwise.
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by Guernsey Pete
Re: noodling
A simple unbuttoning of the shirt would be satisfactory. All the other rules would apply. Afterwards, there could be a very big fish fry.
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: noodling
Someone has to add these to the unwritten session rules.
"Keep your shirt on"
"No reaching down throats"
"No cradling, tickling, etc."
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: noodling
I'm sure, I remember from 'Swallows and Amazons' or suchlike, this was simply called tickling, as in tickling trout.
Isn't there already a rule about no tickling in sessions ?
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by Guernsey Pete
Re: noodling
SWFL, Does this mean you do not favor the practice of noodling in a session? If this is so, then I must respectfully disagree. Time will tell who is right.
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: noodling
i think there's a very good reason why farm-raised catfish aren't grown to extreme sizes. as a young kid in the country we grew 4 fout zucchini squash but they were not good to eat-we fed them to the pig (who was delicious, we named him Dinner) For the matter of that, I never understood why anyone would eat a catfish when they could eat a trout! I wonder do you need a regular fishing license to noodle? Or is there a special noodling license? If so, it should be presentable upon demand at any session where there is noodling going on.
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by pipewatcher
Re: noodling
Nothing better than a waterproof license-cover on a lanyard around the torso, where a warden can see it from a distance -- say, from the restaurant across the street. These should also come in handy for identifying drowned noodlers.
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: noodling
Piperwatcher...you raise an interesting legal point....
would a tickler slash noodler require a license at either session or stream?
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by skin&bow
Re: noodling
that is, is to noodle to angle?
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by skin&bow
Re: noodling
Hail Master Quigley! I side with Mssr. mtodd on this, I do believe it is a case-by-case basis.
For example, if some vagrant picked up my pint and took a gulp, I may indeed use the 'arm down the throat' method to force said freeloader to relinquish possession of my porter.
However, in the case of a poorly played bodhran or guitar, I think it’s a little extreme.
Then again, others may think it’s too lenient, and opt for outright amputation or other such methods of corporal punishment for wayward goat skin bashers or six-string strummers.
Now, in the case of wayward melody players, one could conceivably use ‘noodling’ as punishment for ‘noodling’, if one was so inclined.
I’ll put in an inquiry to the local session sergeant-at-arms and see what he has to say about all this. We’ve really come across some serious grey areas here. Fascinating stuff. Makes me hungry too.
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: noodling
Where the wandering water gushes
From the hills above Glen-Car,
In pools among the rushes
That scarce could bathe a star,
We seek for slumbering trout
And whispering in their ears
Give them unquiet dreams;
Leaning softly out
From ferns that drop their tears
Over the young streams.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by skin&bow
Re: noodling
A quick read of "Wandering Angus" turned up nothing about licenses, or catfish. The State of California requires a fresh-water license for taking fresh-water fish. It has nothing what- so-ever to say about sessions.
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: noodling
Well done gentlemen. I wonder if ol' William ever stuck his hand in the stream?
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: noodling
My partner noodles in the kitchen on his guitar or banjo, while I cook dinner. It is annoying as hell when I know he is dropping beats or practicing measures over and over. If I say anything negative regarding the noodling, it never fails to get blown out of proportion. There are times that I fantasize seeing him noodle a catfish.
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by Leendah
Re: noodling
Bill liked noodling too it seems:
POMPEY
Yonder man is carried to prison.
MISTRESS OVERDONE
Well; what has he done?
POMPEY
A woman.
MISTRESS OVERDONE
But what's his offence?
POMPEY
Groping for trouts in a peculiar river.
MISTRESS OVERDONE
What, is there a maid with child by him?
POMPEY
No, but there's a woman with maid by him. You have
not heard of the proclamation, have you?
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by skin&bow
Re: noodling
'canoodling'
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: noodling
Speaking as a bass player, I still say this discussion is "fishy".
Unlicensed sessions--especially in California--could be dangerous but I don't know if that might be equally true of fishing.
Atahualpa Quigley, I thought you were supposed to drown the noodles in water to cook them? Oh, wait, you said "noodlers" instead of "noodles". That comment went right pasta me.
mtodd, if to noodle is to angle then is the reverse of that true? To angle is to noodle?
OR, maybe we could say: "Noodle-angle-noodle-angle-noodle,
OR: Angle-noodle-angle-noodle-angle".
Speaking of using your noodle.....perhaps you could tickle a noodle slash; or slash a tickled noodle; or tickle a slashed noodle?
SWFL Fiddler, are you going to cook all of these fish with some hushpuppies for us?
Since that is my last name, I like getting into those areas of a certain color. It is such a lively, vivid, active color.
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by fauxcelt
Re: noodling
@m.todd - Is that Yeats?
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by nicholas
Re: noodling
Different William, I believe. Glen-Car and Angus is dear William Butler, while Mistress Overdone is ol' Shakey Egg, er, Speare.
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: noodling
...and of course fauxcelt! Y'all come over, we'll chow and have tunes. First you have to head down to the river and (literally) grab dinner.
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: noodling
O.K...so, I watched the YouTube video of the noodle-masters at work, and all can say is EEEEeewwwwwwww!! Personally, I think this video simply provides proof to the red neck sterotype, and makes me very, very grateful that I was born and raises as Michigan yankee.
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by Quarter Irish
Re: noodling
OK, so no noodling for the Michigander sessions; probably for sessions in the entire NE as well. Fine. You're all just a pack of pink-neck wusses. As for me, I would enjoy a good noodling at our session. It would liven things up. Just think, if the catfish wins, he's under no obligation to throw me up on the bank. That's drama.
# Posted on December 2nd 2008 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: noodling
mtodd I think I know the trout tickling poem you are referring to but I seem to remember it being either by John Hewitt or John Montague.
# Posted on December 3rd 2008 by sergeant fox
Re: noodling
Ah! sergeant fox..you might be right!....I have one book of Montague's maybe at home...can't remember which one....would you have the poem? there was some line or other about "tickling for trout"....but maybe I'm misremembering? thanks for the lead though! loved Montague. He came across the pond once and gave a reading here. Lovely man.
Nicholas...second was as SWFL accurately pointed out [man, this is sounding like Jeopardy] Will Shakespeare....it was one of the few quotes i remembered from 3rd year English....many many moons ago now. I've never really had a chance to use it much...trouts and peculiar rivers so seldom come up in polite conversation anymore...& more's the pity.
# Posted on December 3rd 2008 by skin&bow
Re: noodling
I have it back in my flat I think but I'm working out of a hotel at the moment. I remember something about his feeling the trout's terror. I'll try and find it and send it to you.
# Posted on December 3rd 2008 by sergeant fox
Re: noodling
Atahualpa....before you slag those Michiganlanders...remember, they almost invented fishing! ;) I mean, consider Ernest's The Nick Adams Stories! Manly. Lots of trees. Pristine trout. Firewood cutting. Quite a bit of moss and north woods lore.. A brush with native american women etc.
Would Ernie have tickled though? Would that have been a manly north Michigan thing to do as a lad? we know he noodled in other jurisdictions, but I'm not sure about the trout stream itself. Certainly not in sessions.
# Posted on December 3rd 2008 by skin&bow
Re: noodling
Sergeant Fox
Many thanks! I'd love to see that. Yes, it's ringing a bell now. I'll check tonight at home. I've got the book sitting right there above the old easy chair ready for my forced retirement due to the 2nd Great D. I loved that trout poem by Heaney too.
My dad who was from Belfast said they used to do it...esp the old boy anglers/farmers he knew...so that'd be going back into the late 1890s early 20th century. Noodling/tickling apparently was quite the art....like dowsing! Another arcane talent you rarely hear about anymore.
# Posted on December 3rd 2008 by skin&bow
Re: noodling
Sergean F... quck google turned up this from some Grade 11 poetry crit class or other. I think you're dead on. Must be that poem...*AND seems he was noodling!*
In The Trout we meet Montague who is examining a trout. Montague’s detailed examination of the trout is due in part to the newness of the rural life his move to Ireland brought him when his parents returned him to Ireland at the age of four, in 1933. It is he who “parted/ Rushes to ease my hands/ In the water without a ripple”. He tells us “I hung briefly above him/ Savouring my own absence,/ Senses expnding in the slow Motion,” Montague tells us because he “was so preternaturally close/ I could count every stipple/ But still cast no shadow,”. After Montague “gripped” at the poem’s climax he remarks that even today “I can/ Taste his terror on my hands.”
# Posted on December 3rd 2008 by skin&bow
Re: noodling
Ah. here it is Sergeant:
John Montague, The Trout
By kind permission of the author and The Gallery Press, Loughcrew, Oldcastle, County Meath, Ireland from Collected Poems (1995)
Flat on the bank I parted
Rushes to ease my hands
In the water without a ripple
And tilt them slowly downstream
To where he lay, tendril light,
In his fluid sensual dream.
Bodiless lord of creation
I hung briefly above him
Savouring my own absence
Senses expanding in the slow
Motion, the photographic calm
That grows before action.
At the curve of my hands
Swung under his body
He surged, with visible pleasure.
I was so preternaturally close
I could count every stipple
But still cast no shadow, until
The two palms crossed in a cage
Under the lightly pulsing gills.
Then (entering my own enlarged
Shape, which rode on the water)
I gripped. To this day I can
Taste his terror on my hands.
# Posted on December 3rd 2008 by skin&bow
Re: noodling
Beautiful poem! Thanks for that offering. Just the thing to start a morning.
# Posted on December 3rd 2008 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: noodling
PS Ernie probably would have shot the fish.
# Posted on December 3rd 2008 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: noodling
;) Atahualpa. You're welcome. It's a great poem.
# Posted on December 3rd 2008 by skin&bow
Re: noodling
marvelous sunday mornin laugh fest, thanks! The first trout poem IS Yeats though: http://www.online-literature.com/yeats/816/
# Posted on December 7th 2008 by khandro