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JEFFERSON CITY--Cool nights and clear waters are conditions that lure many anglers to Missouri streams mid-September through January. They are drawn by opportunities to capture nongame fish with multi-tined gigs.
The regular gigging season opens Sept. 15 on most streams. Gigging is not permitted in the designated trophy trout waters of the Current and Eleven Point rivers or on Roubidoux Creek. The hours for stream gigging are from 10 a.m. until midnight. On lakes, the season opens Sept. 15 and runs through Feb. 15, with daily hours of sunrise to midnight.
Gigging allows Missourians to take advantage of a little-used resourcenongame fish. The limit is liberal20 nongame fish daily and 40 in possession. On the Current River from Cedar Grove downstream to the Arkansas state line, no more than five of the daily limit may be hogsuckers.
"Nongame fish" includes only those not defined as game fish in the Wildlife Code of Missouri. The fishes synonymous with gigging are suckers, torpedo-shaped bottom feeders that thrive in clear, gravel-bottomed Ozark streams. In terms of size, they are well worth pursuing. The state-record redhorse sucker weighed 14.5 pounds. They are tasty, too. Properly prepared and deep-fried, sucker meat is well worth the late-night labor required to obtain them.
Uploaded: 9/4/1999
Uploaded: 9/4/1999