I'm Really, Really Sick Of This...

[troutfiend1985]

I can only speak from personal experience, but I've never caught 300 of anything in an hour and a half, even with high-end gear and electronics. Gigging is an awfully efficient way of harvesting fish.

OK, I'm not trying to be a jerk. If you guys want to have pissing contest do it on another forum, either that or this forum is going to die. We know, gigging is effective, so are electronic fish finders lets move on.

Lets get to the real stuff, ideas on how to reach poachers through education.

Any ideas? Any thoughts or comments?

[ness]

Lets get to the real stuff, ideas on how to reach poachers through education.

Any ideas? Any thoughts or comments?

I got yer syllabus right there in post #174.

[Kicknbass]

I can only speak from personal experience, but I've never caught 300 of anything in an hour and a half, even with high-end gear and electronics. Gigging is an awfully efficient way of harvesting fish.

I can't believe no one has call BS on the 300 fish in an hour and a half. But, if you believe giggers take this many fish in an evening ya better look in the mirror on the whole naive concept. You could take this many fish if you were gigging in the hatchery. 300 fish in 1 1/2 hours is a quicker pace than one every 20 seconds. I'm sure w/ your personal experience, you have never even seen this many fish in a 90 min time frame on the water.

10 - 20 fish is a good night for most boats (2-4 men per boat). 20 - 40 is a great night. The limit is 20 per man. 300... Wow, I can't believe anyone would believe this. Ignorance is a dangerous thing. I agree with the whole education thing. If you have never tried gigging, or been with other while gigging, you might consider a little education before you keep bashing the sport.

I'm sure that there are a few in the gigging community that aren't the most sporting of sorts and will take game fish. Not unlike there are folks in the rod and reel community that keep more that their limit or keep fish out of season. Bad apples are bad apples. I just don't get the folks that would (if given the opportunity)ban the sport with out even having 1st hand knowledge of the sport.

Gigging is a tradition that is unique to the ozarks region due to the low gradient of the streams, the water clarity and the abundance of suckers as well as a variety of other reasons.

I doubt gigging has the impact on the mortality of SMB in streams that tournament fishing has on the same streams. How many large bass die out of a 20 boat tournament after been yanked from their habitat by their lip (or gills), beat about in a live well all day (bleeding from the hook-set and worn down from the fight), driven 10 miles up or down stream from where they were caught and then released at the end of the tournament (or when culled) bearly able to swim. Tournament fishing is the direct targeting (legally) of the largest bass in the stream.

I doubt starting a thread on the woe's of tournament fishing would get the attention that gigging has in this thread.

[jdmidwest]

Tournament fishing sucks.

Fishing should be for fun and relaxation. Add money and competition then it becomes work........

[Wayne SW/MO]

Before jumping all over giggers and their fancy lights, lets not forget the major advancments in electronics in these fancy bass boats buzzing up and down the lake at God knows what speed.

Its hard to compare a sport this is largely catch and release with one where there's no choice.

[Paola Cat]

Found yesterday while trout fishing .... upper Niangua (64 Access). Gigged behind the head .... 10-11" .... been dead for at least a week. Saw another one about the same size but the water was too deep to retrieve it. Must have been perpetrated by an evil heron. PC

[fishgypsy]

10 - 20 fish is a good night for most boats (2-4 men per boat). 20 - 40 is a great night. The limit is 20 per man. 300... Wow, I can't believe anyone would believe this. Ignorance is a dangerous thing. I agree with the whole education thing. If you have never tried gigging, or been with other while gigging, you might consider a little education before you keep bashing the sport...Bad apples are bad apples. I just don't get the folks that would (if given the opportunity)ban the sport with out even having 1st hand knowledge of the sport.

I've gigged before, and I'm not bashing giggers, I just made the point that it's an efficient way of killing fish. If it was inefficient, I doubt there'd be a whole lot of people out on dark rivers in freezing temperatures to do it. Not necessarily a reason to ban the sport, and as I've said before in this thread, I have no desire to pursue that route.

As for education, I'm with Al on this one. You may get change at the margins, but there's always those who will do what they want, period and it seems like a lot of those folks are the ones who are having the most negative impact on consumptive sports, from a public persona standpoint.

Zebra mussels are a prime example. Offhand, MDC has put out:

-At least two different pamphlets.

-Wallet-sized trading cards with info on them.

-At least two different pamphlets.

-At least two different stickers- plus there's info about zebra mussels on those adhesive fish ruler stickers you can get.

-There's info on them in the native mussel brochure.

-Multiple articles in the Conservationist.

-Blurb about them in the Summary of Fishing Regulations.

-Blurb about them in the Fishing Prospects.

-Displays at the state fair, county fairs, and FFA events showing what mussels can do to intake pipes and the lower units of outboard motors.

-Signs at hundreds of accesses making boaters aware of zebra mussels, how to check for them, and how to properly clean and maintain boats.

-Focus groups regarding zebra mussels at several locations throughout the state.

Yet zebra mussels are still infesting various waterways throughout the state, often a result of the activities of boaters and anglers. I guess I see the education angle the same way some folks see legislation- you can pass all the laws or pass out all the brochures you want, but it'll only affect those people amenable to change.

Maybe I'm way out in left field, I think it's more of an ethical thing- if someone sees nothing wrong with sticking a smallmouth, they'll do it no matter how many laws or pamphlets are out there. But when it' becomes an ethical issue, akin to baiting or spotlighting, an issue where your peers knowingly dissapprove of it- I think that's when you'd see the biggest shift.

[ColdWaterFshr]

I just came back from paddling around my little local pond, the Ozark Park section of the Finley River. Right at the boat ramp is a mess of cleaned suckers - about 13-14 total. Hard to tell as the filleted remains were thrown in a pile right there by the ramp in about 4-foot of water. Classy. Right where all the town folk park to walk around the park, or throw rocks in the water with their kids.

Good point, and thats my next big bone of contention I have with some giggers . . . not all of them I'm sure, but from what I've seen of the Washington/Jefferson county variety at least --- they tend to be SLOBS. Aw heck, throw Oregon, Dent, and Phelps County in there too.

Who hasn't been to a boat ramp and seen exactly this same thing? Scales everywhere, rotting smelly fish entrails either on the bank or right there in inches of water. It ain't exactly littering, but its pretty durn hoosier-ish, not much different than finding sawed off dear limbs right near a hunting access.

Maybe they can't be busted out on the water in the dead of night, but I'd sure like to see some tickets written AT the boatramps to the knuckle-draggers who are fouling them in such a way. I bet these would be the same crowd who don't mind gigging the sportfish too.

[Chief Grey Bear]

Its hard to compare a sport this is largely catch and release with one where there's no choice.

Fishing with rods and reels is largely catch and release? That ain't what you were screaming in the last thread.

[Kicknbass]

I've gigged before, and I'm not bashing giggers, I just made the point that it's an efficient way of killing fish. If it was inefficient, I doubt there'd be a whole lot of people out on dark rivers in freezing temperatures to do it.

Since you have gigged before, then you understand that 300 fish in an 1 1/2 hour stretch is an extreme exaggeration a little more than efficient. It's crazy talk.

I don't think the outdoor sports need to be efficient for folks to enjoy the experience. Maybe you expect to catch a limit each time you hit the water or woods, but I believe most just enjoy being out on the water or field and the pursuit or chase is actually what is desired, not the catch or the kill. Folks that gig are a little hardier that most. Kinda like waterfowlers, Ya gotta be a little goofy to head out into the cold damp darkness, some times breaking ice to get into the river, using salt on your gig-pole to keep the ice from freezing on your gig-pole, just to pursue a bunch of bony fish.

As I'm sure you know, most game is more active at night, and being out on the river is no exception. You'll see beaver, coons, deer, all kinds of game at night while out on the river. Fishing is just a minor part of the reason most go, an excuse to get out. It is quite challenging to get the gig in the water in a manner to spear a spooky sucker. It's a lot like sight fishing for trout, you make the wrong move and the fish are gone, too deep to see or behind cover. For the experienced gigger, it becomes natural, kind of like throwing a baseball or riding a bike, but for the novice, it is very frustrating being made look so simple by the experience gigger, but yet deeming extremely difficult for the novice.