Redneck Fishing Tournament Videos
If you haven't read Ian Frazier's story about Asian Carp in this week's New Yorker yet, you should. (You'll have to pay cash, but that's okay.) It's an excellent piece about a serious subject, but it also entertains—as any story about fish that jump out of the air and into people's boats is liable to. The most entertaining part, I thought, was Frazier's account of the 2010 Redneck Fishing Tournament, an annual event held along the Illinois River in Bath, Illinois.
"Prizes are given for the most fish and best costumes. This year, a hundred and five boats (at a fifty-dollar entry fee apiece) competed before a crowd of about two thousand in the events two days. The method of fishing was straightforward: flush the carp from the water with boat engines and snatch them from the air with nets. There was also barbecuing, beer drinking, karaoke singing, games for children and teenagers, bluegrass bands, booths selling T-shirts, etc. Among the crowd, T-shirt adages were on the order of 'Friends Don't Let Friends Fish Sober' and 'What Happens in the Barn Stays in the Barn.'"
Here are some YouTube videos people made at this year's tournament.
BBQ, beer drinking, and bluegrass bands? I'm game!
This really reminded me of weekends spent outside of St. Louis.
NOODLING
I'm insecure about whether I'm actually replying to Art, as I mean to be. But Burke Bilger's Noodling for Flatheads is classic, classic, and I suspect that's what you meant anyway.
And if you don't want to pay to read this Ian Frazier, there's a whole lot of other Ian Frazier all over the place and all of it's good. Especially the one about the Navajo shawl dancer. But they're all good.
As the Awl's white trash/The South correspondent, I can confidently report that the only thing more boring than watching people fish is having to do it yourself.
It’s like the Hamptons, except with people who can’t afford to be Juggalos because of probation issues.
This makes me uneasy. Is it making fun of the poor? No fair saying they're making fun of themselves! It's not that I'm against making fun of the poor, although I am, but that I am against also the public acceptance of making fun of the poor. Which bodes all kinds of ill. Mostly for the middle class. I don't know, it's hard to tell when you have this pay wall up.
actually, it's not making fun of the poor. more accurately, not all the participants are poor. i live in central illinois, and i know "these people". some of them are ass poor, but some of them are upper middle class, at least in relation to the cost of living in downstate illinois: three bedroom house in a subdivision, new camry, new full size pickup truck or suv, bass boat, etc. and the 50" hdtv with dish network. gotta have that. i'd actually say that the most pervasive trait among the participants is a general redneck mindset, and i have no qualms about openly mocking that.
@obfuscator: I'd venture to say that the guys in the 3 bedroom house, new pickup & bass boat, and a general redneck mindset wouldn't have any qualms about you mocking it either. Most of those guys are half-way laughing about it themselves.
This whole thing bears a pretty strong relationship to the hipster/poseur dichotomy explored elsewhere in these parts. You have your poseur rednecks, who look down their nose at anyone who doesn't fit in with their social scene and are trying too hard, and also your "real" rednecks, who are not so judgmental and are just having fun with it – which includes appreciating good-natured joking. Members of either group can be rich or poor.