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Never used one. Never plan to.Hurts the fish, doesn't it?
What kind of idiocy do you have to practice to think eating a 29" walleye is a good idea?
Infinite thumbs up to Ice Scratcher!!!!
I always have been a good steward of the fishes but I agree, if you are dying for a good fresh walleye (we all should be) and the only one you catch at dusk is a good one, best to save it to eat. Sometimes they swallow the hook so bad they may die anyway, may as well eat them and leave more food for the smaller fishes to grow bigger on.
I bought a gaff a few years back, then read in our fishing regs that it’s illegal here in Washington State. The gaff looks good hanging on my man-cave wall.
Young and dumb and hungry, I used a hay hook for pike and muskie. Worked good. Food for the family.
The gaff is for after the fish is hooked and used to help get a really big fish up the hole, not for some type of spearing or grabbing fish that are not on your hook and line. It is a tool to help land a big fish. I guess the places where it is illegal people have other ideas for its use. If you are catch and release fishing you probably wouldn’t be to upset to lose a big one halfway up the hole.
Isn't a hay hook a rather short device? If a guy can gaff a pike or musky under the ice with a hay hook without catching that fish on hook and line first then that fellow is well out of my league and I think he deserves all the fish he can hook. I suppose next you're going to tell me he can walk on water as well!!