Girls Go a Grabblin'

DVD producer takes outdoor entertainment in bold new direction

Sometimes a new product comes along that meets such an obivious need you can't believe you didn't think of it.  In this case, Marty and Fostana Jenkins got the jump on the rest of us by recognizing that the world needed a DVD that combined the water-thrashing thrill of catfish noodling with scenes of coeds and Southern moms splashing around in a river.

     The result of their epiphany is Girls Gone Grabblin', which features more than 30 scenes of women battling monster catfish with nothing but their gloved hands.

     "After we made our first catfish grabblin' video, several people suggested we do one featuring all women," says Marty Jenkins, who sells the DVDs on his website (catfishgrabblers.com).  "We asked a bunch of women if they'd be interested in trying it and letting us film them.  To our surprise, there were more women who wanted to try it than we imagined."

     Priscilla Simms, a 23-year old graduate nursing student at the University of Tennessee, was one of those women.  She learned about the project from her dad, and outdoor writer, who knew the Jenkinses.  Simms grew up fishing and hunting but had never tried noodling.

    "It was really scary at first," says Simms.  "I wondered what could be in this hole I was putting my hands in.  The first time you reach in a hole your're a little bit nervous."  It wasn't long before she was giving her all to pull the big cats-some topping 40 pounds-to the surface.  In one scene, she is timed holding her breath underwater for more thatn 40 seconds as she struggles to bring one to the surface. 

     So what did she think of the experience?

     "Everyone should try it at least once," Simms says from Memphis apartment.  "It was a blast.  I'm trying to get my boyfriend to go, but he's not so sure."

                                                      -Doug Howlett

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