DCHP-1 Online

jigging † earlier, spelled gigging

• 1 n. fishing with jigs or jiggers (def. 1).

  See also: jig ((n.))  jigger (def. 1)  jugging  

  • 1859  When bait is scarce, considerable numbers of cod are caught by jigging. . . .
  • 1948  The jigging of all game fish is strictly forbidden.
  • 1962  When this happened the rest of us resumed our jigging at a furious rate.

• 2 n. See quote.

  • 1942  The waiting fisher, from above, could drift his hand out . . . and run the fingers caressingly along the belly, his hand moving tenderly toward the fish's head. At the head, the fingers suddenly and viciously could clasp into the open gills as though they were handles. Such was the game. To take the prey this way is known among the east-coast men as 'gigging' (perhaps corruptly for "gilling' the fish). Only when they were sluggish from the spawning could the salmon be taken by 'gigging.'