Need Help On Gigging Issue...

[Stoneroller]

I've put in a records request from MDC on the breakdown of last year's violations. Overall they handed out 7,184. I will have a breakdown of that number when I get all the data. i can tell you 11% were for police power violations which include illegal consumption, nudity, boating violations and 6% were for littering. I specifically asked for a breakdown on gigging/snagging violations, although I now think I should have just asked for method violations. But we'll see what I get.

[Mitch f]

Went fishing on the Meramec today, 30% of the smallies we caught had gig marks, here are some of the pics. Virtually every hole where we caught fish had a fish with gig marks.

[Greasy B]

Good Grief, It’s difficult not to be incredibly angry. Stream Smallmouth are one of the joys of my life, this is an outrage.

[Smalliebigs]

Aw, Mitch you know how I feel....It hurts and it's a disgrace. Greasy, I couldn't agree more.....when one of the things you feel good about is under assalt, it sucks.

[oneshot]

Why? They know it's against the law.

If you're going to put a dent in it you have to do something that makes enforcment easy. There are too many accesses, fords and other areas to drop a boat in. You can't wait for them because they already have eyes and ears waiting for them a phone call away. They don't put the fish in the trucks so the window to find illegal fish is small.

I still contend they should limit their ability to gig the wrong fish, whether accidentally or on purpose, by making them do it with traditional equiptment. Tradition is their argument for continuing and there is precedence for it. You can't use a crossbow during archery season or centerfires during black powder, it's not traditional.

Guess you didn't hear this year you can use Modern Centerfire Pistols durring so called Muzzleloader Season.

oneshot

[Forsythian]

Bass are easy to identify when gigging. Trout are difficult to differentiate from suckers, which is why gigging is banned on many trout sections. If somebody gigs a bass, they are poaching plain and simple. Same poaching as bait fishing in an artificial-only area, keeping bass before Memorial weekend, etc.

If you decrease the lumens, you increase the chance for ethical giggers to make ID mistakes.

Word of mouth is very powerful down here in your playground. It would not take a great deal of effort for the local MDC agents to simply become more visible, and co-op with the sheriff and other local leaders to clean up the behavior. A little enforcement would go a long way. As it is, there is zero enforcement. I gigged a dozen or more nights this season, and never saw one agent.

[Wayne SW/MO]

Word of mouth is very powerful down here in your playground. It would not take a great deal of effort for the local MDC agents to simply become more visible, and co-op with the sheriff and other local leaders to clean up the behavior. A little enforcement would go a long way.

I know this is true.

[Brian Jones]

Here are some pics of some Meramec fish from the past year. I am not sure if they are gig marks or not. The smallmouth had the same black mark on its other side which made us think that it was possibly a healed up wound. The first two crappie pics are of the same fish and the last two are of the same fish.