Need Help On Gigging Issue...

[Al Agnew]

First of all, here are the pictures I took of the gigged smallies from yesterday.

This is the 17.5 incher's tail. I marked the entry and exit hole so you can see them clearly.

Here is the second biggest one, around 17 inches, showing the relationship of the wounds that I'd say prove it was from a gig.

Here's another view of that fish's wounds. As you can see, NASTY! It's unbelievable that this fish has survived up to now.

Here is the 16 incher, from the same pool as the other two. As you can see, perfectly spaced scraping scars from a glancing blow with the gig.

I'm wanting to compile everybody's experiences with gigged bass the last few years, in order to put together a paper on the problems with gigging to present to MDC and other organizations. I'd like to ask anybody on here who has seen gigged bass or otherwise knows anything about the issue to reply here with your experiences. Locations and dates would be nice...if you don't wish to have your name used or don't want to give the locations over the internet or something, PM me. I'm also asking MSA members and anybody else I know of the same thing. It's past time this issue got visible and we got vocal.

[fishinwrench]

I contributed quite a bit to an article Kathy Etling did quite awhile back, I think it was printed in the STL Globe and also got CC'ed in Missouri Fish & Game.

She went after the issue with guns ablazing....but got nowhere.

If you have her contact info, rattle her cage again. She's pretty fond of Mo.Smallmouth and has quite a list of verified unlawful gigging incidents.

[Smalliebigs]

Horrifying!!! and disgraceful!!! now I need to go drink a glass of wine and cool down. Thank you Al for this post. I have two different set of pics and locales of this sort of crap I can give you.These are just some that have survived, I wonder how many were sucessfully harvested.....loosers

[LittleRedFisherman]

That is terrible, I think it's clear that is from a gig. The one that was gigged behind the head was obviously released because the barbs had to penetrate, i doubt that fish could of came off before it got to the boat. If that is the case, that fish was possibly gigged thinking it was something else like a sucker. That alone to me would be a good argument to have it stopped. When the water is cloudy, it is probably more difficult to tell what your gigging, that fish could have possibly been mistaken for a sucker, then released in fear of getting caught. ( I may be saying stuff that elementary to you guys on here, but I'm not familar with gigging around here, just thinking out loud).

[Feathers and Fins]

<p style="margin-left: 40px">Al, there is no doubt that is from a gig, I have spear fished most of my life and my primary weapon being an Hawaian Sling and those wounds look very similar to a sling hit. I have seenn and speared countless grouper and snapper with those marks on them. The second and third are without doubt gig hits. Picture 1 could be argued away as some other type of injury due to the scale loss &lt; playing devils advocate &gt;&nbsp; Picture 4 is an interesting one as it shows possibly two difrent hits, one being from a 4 prong gig and then a second hit from something directly above the gill plate,</p>

<p style="margin-left: 40px">&nbsp;</p>

<p style="margin-left: 40px">I&#39;ll start taking pictures as well and see if i can get some of my old dive buddies to start saving some pictures for you.</p>

[Al Agnew]

I'd be just as likely to think that the pinhead who did it was gigging the bass purposely, either just to say he did it, or to check it for one of those reward tags. The fact that in one day I caught three gigged smallies from the same hole of water tells me that somebody was doing it deliberately. I do not buy the theory that they are being gigged accidentally, especially not this past fall when the Meramec was low and very clear for much of the gigging season. I've seen too many gigged fish that were obviously hit hard and would not have escaped on their own. And the fact that most of the gigged bass you see are good sized to really big kinda tells me that some doofus sees a big bass and just can't stand not to gig it. There's little point in gigging 12-15 inchers unless you're going to sneak them out to eat them, and you seldom see a little one with gig marks.

And, of course, mistaken Identity is no excuse under the law, anyway. If you don't know for sure what you're gigging, it should be no different from not knowing for sure what species of duck you're about to shoot. In that case, you don't shoot and you don't gig.

And...I've done enough gigging to know that it takes a rank amateur to not be able to tell the difference between a bass and a sucker.

[Wayne SW/MO]

I think the problem is twofold, one of course is enforcement and second the department doesn't want to eliminate a sport.

My solution Is to limit the lumens and what produces them. It wouldn't be hard for them to enforce the lights and without modern stadium lights they wouldn't see the majority of smallies.

[Al Agnew]

<p style="margin-left: 40px">Al, there is no doubt that is from a gig, I have spear fished most of my life and my primary weapon being an Hawaian Sling and those wounds look very similar to a sling hit. I have seenn and speared countless grouper and snapper with those marks on them. The second and third are without doubt gig hits. Picture 1 could be argued away as some other type of injury due to the scale loss &lt; playing devils advocate &gt;&nbsp; Picture 4 is an interesting one as it shows possibly two difrent hits, one being from a 4 prong gig and then a second hit from something directly above the gill plate,</p>

<p style="margin-left: 40px">&nbsp;</p>

<p style="margin-left: 40px">I&#39;ll start taking pictures as well and see if i can get some of my old dive buddies to start saving some pictures for you.</p>

The thing about the one with the tail injury is that the whole meaty part of the tail was swollen, and both sides looked like that. It appeared that the entire tail was infected, resulting in loss of scales and bad inflammation. And I'm not sure what else would make two holes lined up vertically like that. If it had just been the swollen, inflamed, raw tail, I'd have guessed that a turtle or something else tried to grab the fish by the tail. But the two big holes are pretty hard to explain in any other way.

[Feathers and Fins]

Could be a Kid AL, Im sure you are right about amature. that or someone who doesnt care... Kinda like people going to where high concentration of ducks and geese are that are banded. Trophy hunting for bands. I can easily see people doing it for fish.

[Feathers and Fins]

The thing about the one with the tail injury is that the whole meaty part of the tail was swollen, and both sides looked like that. It appeared that the entire tail was infected, resulting in loss of scales and bad inflammation. And I'm not sure what else would make two holes lined up vertically like that. If it had just been the swollen, inflamed, raw tail, I'd have guessed that a turtle or something else tried to grab the fish by the tail. But the two big holes are pretty hard to explain in any other way.

I'll throw out a few possibilities... Bird of prey hitting it with talons, Maybe Turtle, Maybe bacterial or even trolling motor... To many possibles, I still lean toward a gig but other things are possible in the eyes of some.