Can you shoot a fish caught with rod and reel?

[tblt]

When I hunted south GA. we would go out at night fishing I used my 44 mag it worked real good,shoot next to the fish and he will be dead or stuned long enough to pull it out of the water.If you hit it,it will be no good.I would go 22 if I wanted to hit the fish.

 

[Cosmoline]

Well-heeled guys probably charter a boat solo but anytime I've gone there are at least 6 guys fishing off the deck, not a good place for a flopping ankle-breaker!

That's the key to it. When I get to go fishing in salt water it's only by throwing in with five or six other people to go out on some meat boat with limited space, a pitching deck and a lot of slime and blood all around. There's no crew of guys rooting you on and grabbing the fish with multiple gaffs. Also if you go overboard it's not a matter of getting wet and having a laugh. The water itself is quite lethal, and there's a good chance you'll die before you can get brought back on board.

Besides, I have a hard time remembering the last time I went fishing WITHOUT a firearm. It was probably down in Oregon in the last century. A firearm is standard equipment here, salt or fresh water.

 

[blackcash88]

DTD, quit whining and go read The Old Man and the Sea by this guy.

Ironic how ol' Ernest bagged and tagged himself in the very way we're talking about dispatching fish.

What about using a spear gun? Or a pike through the brain? No firearms involved...

 

[hankdatank1362]

For us in warmer climes, a tuna bat has always done the trick for anyting I've ever caught. But I've never done better than mid-sized tuna or marlin.

Well, one big tarpon, but I never considered him a threat.

We all still had guns anyway.

 

[XDKingslayer]

You don't shoot it when it's swimming by. You raise it up to the surface and shot its brain out, then hoist it up. To do otherwise is to put everyone's safety at risk esp on the deck of a crowded boat in a giant washing machine full of lethal cold water. I don't think the jerks who make these rules have a clue about the conditions people fish in up here, even on "good" weather days. I think they're a bunch of upper crust jerks with their own pleasure craft used to having a team of underlings lift their marlin or whatever on board. But I digress ;-) I'm really just burning with petty envy.

I'm thinking that before you complain about not being able to shoot the fish you should probably learn more about the record qualifying process.

Record fish DO NOT have to be boated. The 1280 lb. record hammerhead my buddy caught was never brought on board his 24 foot bay boat. It was brought to the boat with rod and reel, subdued with 2 flying gaffs, secured to the side of the boat with a tail rope, then transported to the dock and loaded onto his boat trailer and taken to the weigh station.

The shark never saw the inside of his boat...

 

[lance22]

I used to live in South Florida - spent plenty of time out on the water. The law is paranoid towards firearms, but not gaff, bat, et cetera.

I used to freedive spearfish and the stringer of speared fish would be attached to a float which is part of our gear. Since we and the catch are both in the water away from a boat there are sharks and cuda which are attracted to thrashing. At the same time, we don't want more blood in the water than necessary because this is also bad for spearfishing.

Short of it - the stringer would go through the eye sockets and this ends the fight in most fish. If they persist, the point of the stringer is used again through the eye socket in search of the brain. NOT up the chest cavity as that produces massive bleeding.

Your needs of taking a fish into the boat may be very different - if you are within sight of shore you will get yourself into a load of crap if you discharge a firearm as the fish and game watch you with binoculars - they always think you are stealing reds or snook - and a firearm will certainly gain their attention.

HankDaTank's suggestion of the tuna bat might be what the doctor ordered.

 

[Cosmoline]

I'm happy he was in a circumstance where that was possible. It is not always. Imagine a trillion gallon washing machine set on extra soiled and that's PWS on a windy day. As far as I can see, the official record requirements favor rich folks who go out with the intention and equipment to catch huge fish. The ordinary fisherman who happens to catch a barn door but isn't set up to hang the beast on the side of his small craft is SOL, since he has to shoot the animal to bring it in.

 

[Markbo]

I am more a hunter than fisherman, but I have fished the bays, surf, offshore, way offshore and in other countries.

I have free-dived and scuba-dived with sharks and other toothy critters. I have caught, boated and just drug ashore big toothy fish of all kinds. In none of these cases did I ever feel the need for a firearm to fish.

 

[XDKingslayer]

I'm happy he was in a circumstance where that was possible. It is not always. Imagine a trillion gallon washing machine set on extra soiled and that's PWS on a windy day. As far as I can see, the official record requirements favor rich folks who go out with the intention and equipment to catch huge fish. The ordinary fisherman who happens to catch a barn door but isn't set up to hang the beast on the side of his small craft is SOL, since he has to shoot the animal to bring it in.

Again, let me refer to my buddy who caught his record hammerhead on a 24 foot bay boat designed to run in 12" or less of water. Was drug 12 miles out to sea by this shark and was still able to subdue it with just him and another person.

He's nobody special. He's not rich. He doesn't have a special boat. He doesn't have a crew of people to grab his fish and give him a manicure while the fish aren't biting.

How do the requirements favor the rich? If you actually read the rest of the rules past "you can't shoot them" you'll see that it's a very fair system and is in no way custom tailored to rich people.

The fact remains that if you want to land a record you need tackle capable of doing so. If you do, then you don't need to shoot them. If you can't land that record fish, oh well. I've released record fish at boatside simply because I didn't have the means that day to get them into a weigh station.

And I'm by no means rich or special.

Check out the rules if you're interested: http://www.igfa.org/BookRule2004.pdf

 

[Wolfeye]

be careful!

This went down as one of those "I can't believe anyone is that stupid" urban legends, but: a guy back in my hometown in Alaska once shot a halibut while it was in his boat. He supposedly used a .44 magnum, and he ended up with a neat .429" leak in the bottom of his skiff.

 

[Tyris]

This thread has me itching to shoot a salmon or large mouth bass.

-T

 

[MechAg94]

In Texas, shooting game fish is not allowed. At least that is the case for people who bowfish. Game fish include bass, catfish, and others. Don't know if they have the same rule in Oregon.

Not sure how that applies off shore.

 

[wally]

The biggest Alaskan Halibult landed, that I can recall, was a little over 500 pounds. It was caught by a longliner.

Geez!

What would you do with all the meat?

At $20+/lb for Halibut around here, it'd be quite a windfall! Sell it and buy more guns

--wally.

 

[Cosmoline]

If you actually read the rest of the rules past "you can't shoot them" you'll see that it's a very fair system and is in no way custom tailored to rich people.

It essentially excludes anyone from the record books who wasn't planning on getting there. The fisherman who hooks a giant but must shoot it in order to bring it in is excluded. They have a book for the elite trophy hunters, and they don't want some unwashed Alaskan grabbing the record with his S-Mart tackle and a snake charmer.

 

[Don Gwinn]

There isn't much in life that isn't easier to do if you're rich. That's just the way it is.

Anyway, the legal question has been answered. I think you might have to agree to disagree on the fishing records.

 

[jhco]

i would think that you would have to hit a vital organ since the fish cant realy bleed to death so it might be hard to kill unless you are carefull to place the shot well

 

[QuakKillz]

don't know if it has been posted.....but.....get a gaff.....