New State Record Gizzard Shad Gigged for Alt Method.

[jdmidwest]

I am guessing they may not know what it was at the time of the gig hitting the fish. Not too many gig shad for food or pleasure, but just guessing. 

I am not a gigger, nor do I condemn them and the sport. My point was knowing the target before you shoot, gig, spear, or otherwise kill something. 

[fishinwrench]

Game fish get gigged all the time.  It's a fact that even dedicated gigging guru's don't deny.  

Seeing a gigging boat puts a bad taste in my mouth even when I am making easy money working on it.  I can't help it, that's just the way I am, and I got that way for a reason.   I don't hate crackheads just because they are crackheads (like everyone else who has never been done wrong by a crackhead does)....so I don't think I'm a general unreasonable profiler.  

[Chief Grey Bear]

21 hours ago, jdmidwest said:

I am guessing they may not know what it was at the time of the gig hitting the fish. Not too many gig shad for food or pleasure, but just guessing. 

I am not a gigger, nor do I condemn them and the sport. My point was knowing the target before you shoot, gig, spear, or otherwise kill something. 

I totally agree. Im not arguing that point. My point is that the OP was edited, if you will, to cast a dark shadow on the sport of gigging when nothing illegal was done. 

They knew the target was not a game fish.  They stated that. 

[rumrunner]

As much as you two like to argue,I would think you'd both be glad you found each other.Just sayin...

[jdmidwest]

2 hours ago, Chief Grey Bear said:

I totally agree. Im not arguing that point. My point is that the OP was edited, if you will, to cast a dark shadow on the sport of gigging when nothing illegal was done. 

They knew the target was not a game fish.  They stated that. 

The quote was not edited to cast a dark shadow, it was as posted on the MDC Website.  The phrase states, they did not know what they had.  The following line states, at the time they got it into the boat, they thought it was some kind of shad, but still not certain.  I am making a guess, at the time of impact of the gig on the fish, they did not know what they were gigging based on their reaction and the fact that most do not gig shad for food.  But I am just making a wild guess.

Once again, know what you are aiming at.

In this situation it is all glory, they get their names in the record books.

[Chief Grey Bear]

Look, you knew exactly what you were doing when you posted that in the context that you did. And it worked on those to lazy to read the whole story themselves. 

And then you add in all of the assumptions and you have painted them as outlaw, rogue giggers that have no knowledge of species. 

Once again, they knew they were not aiming at a game fish. Because they do not know the exact name of a legal to gig, non-gamefish, doesn't make them outlaws. 

You state you are not a gigger, but you know what giggers gig? They only gig for food? 

[fishinwrench]

45 minutes ago, Chief Grey Bear said:

 

They only gig for food? 

What are some other reasons to gig ?

[Chief Grey Bear]

What about bow fisherman? What's the difference?

[MOPanfisher]

I like to gig on occasion, it is a lot of fun when the are fish present.  More often than not we end up eating some and somebody takes the rest home.  Most folks I know that gig would be quite happy if they had someone who would take the fish, especially uncleaned.  Used to see a lot of bowfishermen when I worked on upper bull shoals and TR.  They had a local hog farmer whom they would deliver barrels full of carp, gar, buffalo and drum to.  The hogs loved it.  Having gigged a little I can say it would be very easy to see a huge shad and know "hey that's a shad" but upon getting it in the boat to be second guessing it simply because of the size.  Sometimes folks say things and are quoted correctly but it still doesn't always convey their meaning well.  And as I have said befor there are folks who will gig a bass or catfish, just as there are those who will keep over limits of crappie, shoot a deer or turkey  whenever they see one etc.  Thy are poachers, lawbreakers, whatever you wish to call them.

[fishinwrench]

2 hours ago, Chief Grey Bear said:

What about bow fisherman? What's the difference?

Good point.  As much as I think Bowfishing is a really cool sport I'm not too wild about the ethics of it.  

As long as they stay focused on Buffalo, Carp, and Gar, and don't kill them ALL I guess it's ok.  Those species do need some thinning from time to time.   As the sport gets more and more popular though I can see it going in a bad direction.

When the carp/buffalo/gar start getting scarce....Those guys are going to get anxious to stick something.  You know it's true.  And for whatever reason most of them aren't interested in Asian carp at all.