Caught Thirty Paddlefish This Season!

[hoover25]

There's a lot of guys we have seen that gaff everything even if it's clearly a short fish, which realy pee's me off but what can you do.

I was at Warsaw this weekend and I saw the same thing.....there are goobers everywhere I guess. They were even gaffing big gar which they threw back anyway.

[Wayne SW/MO]

I haven't snagged in decades, but I have to ask, with that big handle out front, why would anyone gaff a Spoon?

I don't want to start anything either, but giving fish away doesn't change your possession limit, they are still yours technically.

[hoover25]

I haven't snagged in decades, but I have to ask, with that big handle out front, why would anyone gaff a Spoon?

I don't want to start anything either, but giving fish away doesn't change your possession limit, they are still yours technically.

The paddles are slippery things....most guys will grab them by the jaw...or gaff 'em

[Seth]

Spoons get to be really big and when they get to flailing around with two 10/0 hooks in there sides, it's sometimes safer to use the gaff and lift them in the boat so that you can hold them away from your legs. Even then they will sometimes get you. Anymore, we just have somebody hold the fish in the water until we can remove the hooks and then bring them overboard so we don't have to worry about getting a hook in the leg/hand/etc.

I did not know that about the possession limit. It just made sense that since the fish our not in my POSSESSION any longer that they don't count towards my possession limit. Even then, most people I give fish to eat them right away so the next time that I go, I'm still legal. Thanks for clearing that up for me though.

Also I read the regulations and it says you have to quit snagging after "TAKING" two legal paddlefish. Does this mean just catching in general or actually taking them from the water to clean and eat?

[vonreed]

I talked to the local Game Warden about snagging spoonbill after the limit has been reached. He said that legally you can still snag after you've reached your limit of 2, although it is in a way unethical to some do degree was what he told me.

[Seth]

Thank you Von Reed for clarifying that. I've always wondered what the REAL answer to that question was.

[Wayne SW/MO]

We always fished out of a boat, generally where the Pomme entered the Osage, but we generally grabbed them at the base of the bill, and kept a lasso for anything really large, which we used on the tail. We used single hooks. The old man that ran the livery in Fairfield showed us how to rig them, and they do give a bigger bite.

[Troutfishn]

vonreed I am not disagreeing since it came from a game warden but that just sounds wrong. I have always heard once you have that last fish on the stringer you cannot even cast. Since if you caught another you would technically HAVE 3 fish. Many of the fisheries biologist I work with will not fish with me since the rules are so vague. You pretty much have to use good judgment on things like using a gaff and your "possession" limit.(unless you talk to the county agent like you did) The fish are still active and I think the recent warmer weather and rain is pushing them back up to the dam just FYI.

[Leg Buster]

hey troutfshn when are you gonna go again. i think i might go back to that spot maybe tomorrow or thursday. and if not we will go crappie fishing in a couple weeks out at indian hills. call me and let me know what you think

[CBNMO]

I think, after you keep your second Spoonbill, your done snagging for them, because you have your taken your limit. But you can continue snagging for other non-game fish.

Except the regulations specify, from page 11 of the State Code:

"3. On Lake of the Ozarks and its tributaries,

Osage River below U.S. Highway 54

and Truman Lake and its tributaries, no person

shall continue to snag, snare or grab for

any species after taking a daily limit of two

(2) paddlefish."

This appears to me, that it is legal to continue to snag for other non game species after taking your limit of two Paddlefish, everywhere else in the state.

I think you can keep snagging for Gar or Carp etc.

We caught 4 Sunday down by McCord Bend in about 2 hours, one was a big female full of eggs, still down that far.