A Winter Night on the River
John Moore
It was a crisp December evening, clear as a bell with a new crescent moon reflecting coldly on the river to the west. There was certainty of a heavy frost by morning. A slight breeze stirred the trees, now skeletal with their leaves long gone. A wood fire on the river bank cast long shadows, offsetting the chill for the men backing the specially rigged boat down the ramp into the water.
At a time when most folks were at home enjoying dinner in a warm house, our crew was preparing to gig a mess of suckers on the lower James River. This is an age old preoccupation, akin to running hounds for coons at night, for those (crazy diehards) who love the outdoors and the river. Frosty winter nights and gin-clear lower river levels are the ingredients for sucker gigging success.
Also essential is a boat equipped with a platform in the bow, a restraining bow rail to stand against and a bank of bright, generator powered lights with a reflector directing the light onto the river bottom ahead of the boat. The gigs are long poles tipped with a steel trident point used to spear the fish. One man steers the boat from a small outboard motor in the stern while one or two in the bow spot the fish and endeavor to spear them with their gigs.
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| Dinner cruise sets sail |
I had joined several of my buddies that evening, Jerry Mackey and Johnny Bridges, who were accompanied by Bo Davis and Eric Henderson, both experienced and devoted to this sport. They also had the right boat for our enterprise and we were ready to go by about 6:30, well after dark.
I joined Bo in the bow for the first run down the river below the Kerr conservation access, with Eric steering the boat adeptly through the riffles and around the rocks as we sought the holes filled with suckers. Bo was quick with his gig and soon began to fill a cooler with fish. He was patient in coaching me through a number of misses, but I soon got the hang of it and added some nice suckers to the haul.
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| Mackey with dinner contribution |
Mackey and Bridges made the second run with Eric again steering the boat. Bo and I meanwhile set up an old ironing board on the river bank near the fire and began cleaning fish. We had quite a bucketful and by the time the boat returned we had the first mess cleaned. We added their take to the bucket, pulled the boat out of the river and headed to my cabin just down Horse Creek Road.
I had everything ready there for the fish fry with propane fish fryers and a big bonfire awaiting our arrival. Eric scored the fish, cutting the flesh along the sides into thin slices. Bo did the cooking, coating the suckers in corn meal and dropping them into a kettle of oil roiling from the hot fire. Meanwhile Mackey cooked another kettle of potatoes, freshly peeled and cut. Both men are more than competent chefs and the results of their efforts were quickly devoured by us all, including my friends John and Connie Johnson who came down the hill to see what a sucker feast was like.
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| Cooking dinner at the cabin |
The community of Nixa's annual "Sucker Day" (I've always been suspicious if they really cook suckers!) never had it so good, and I told Mackey that McDonalds never fried potatoes as good as his. We concluded that some things in life, like the credit card ad suggests, are truly priceless.
Our evening on the river was one of those priceless adventures, a connection to Ozark traditions from times gone by, and another benefit of having the precious water resources that characterize our region. Ozarks Water Watch, along with other allied organizations and a growing legion of friends, is devoted to sustaining our rivers and lakes, so they will be there for gigging suckers---and for many other outdoor pastimes----in years to come.
Quote of the Week
If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there'd be a shortage of fishing poles.
~Doug Larson
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