Gigging Is Stupid

[Tightline]

Hey ness,not bashful here or scared and I believe your right.

Smalliebigs, this ( IgnoranceBlissAnglers ) isn't that the Forum you visit and like the most.

Flyflinger, 10 pages hasn't helped you either.

Al, you say yes and I say no, around and around we go.

I don't think we will ever agree on the biggest demise of our quality smallmouth fishing.

But, I do wish you guys the best of luck on catching those poachers on the Meremac, It sounds like they are really putting a hurt on the smallmouth, and giving legal giggers a black eye.

[Mitch f]

Did you guys miss the legitimate question I posed???? Would it be a viable???

I'll answer your question...maybe, but it wont be as convenient. I'm convinced many of the poachers never put their boat on a trailer. Then own property within a mile or 2 of the best wintering holes and when they're done they just fillet the fish somewhere then run up and tie up to their personal dock. No, it won't completely stop them from gigging but it will make it more difficult for them.

[Al Agnew]

Hey ness,not bashful here or scared and I believe your right.

Smalliebigs, this ( IgnoranceBlissAnglers ) isn't that the Forum you visit and like the most.

Flyflinger, 10 pages hasn't helped you either.

Al, you say yes and I say no, around and around we go.

I don't think we will ever agree on the biggest demise of our quality smallmouth fishing.

But, I do wish you guys the best of luck on catching those poachers on the Meremac, It sounds like they are really putting a hurt on the smallmouth, and giving legal giggers a black eye.

I'm certainly not saying that your concerns about the catch and keep bait fishermen/poachers aren't valid. It's just that different streams have different problems, or at least different degrees of a lot of the same problems. On the smaller, wadeable and canoe floatable streams I usually fish, the main problem I see is a few very greedy catch and keep anglers who descend upon whichever stream has gotten really good, and pretty well clean it out by pounding it to death and keeping every LEGAL fish they catch. I've seen it happen over and over...a stream will be good for a year or two, and then I get word through the local grapevine that the same few guys have "discovered" it, and the next year the fishing is way down. It's the reason I don't publicize the names of the good small streams I fish. The only reason I will name Big River is that these guys are serious fish eaters but they are a little scared of the lead residue in Big River fish, plus the limit on smallies over much of the river is just one fish/15 inches.

But the problem we have with gigging in the Meramec and some other streams is not "cleaning it out", it's cropping off all the big fish. A gigger can pick and choose which fish he wants to gig, and the bad ones don't bother with small bass, they gig the big ones.

[Seth]

The original post makes me laugh. Are you one of the people that blame guns for killing people and not the shooter? Just like anything, you always have a few bad eggs who poach and do things illegally which puts a shadow over the good guys who follow the laws. I gig a lot in the fall and have a blast doing it. Sometimes we stab an illegal fish by accident. It's very rare that it happens, but it does. It's almost always a new gigger though and after they do it once, they start paying better attention to the fish they are stabbing.

Gigging a mess of suckers and frying them on the bank is one of my favorite fall and winter events. Anybody who hasn't participated in one should try it. If it weren't for gigging, you would have a hard time getting enough suckers to be able to do it. Gigging is not stupid, illegal gigging is stupid.

[Smalliebigs]

The original post makes me laugh. Are you one of the people that blame guns for killing people and not the shooter? Just like anything, you always have a few bad eggs who poach and do things illegally which puts a shadow over the good guys who follow the laws. I gig a lot in the fall and have a blast doing it. Sometimes we stab an illegal fish by accident. It's very rare that it happens, but it does. It's almost always a new gigger though and after they do it once, they start paying better attention to the fish they are stabbing.

Gigging a mess of suckers and frying them on the bank is one of my favorite fall and winter events. Anybody who hasn't participated in one should try it. If it weren't for gigging, you would have a hard time getting enough suckers to be able to do it. Gigging is not stupid, illegal gigging is stupid.

lol....sure Seth I want all guns banned....give me a break... I own quite few legal guns and have a certain permit classifcation listed on my state id.....I don't want guns banned.

you pointed out the what I was saying how gigging is dangerous to game fish....if you can't identify game fish from suckers gigging is bad for game fish even if you are doing it with the best of intentions and trying to be legal.This gets compounded when you are accidently gig a game fish that takes an extremely long time to mature and grow big in our rivers......**Smallmouth Bass**

Label me all you want Seth as some sort of wack job lib........you are far from the truth buddy