People DON"T believe me !

[Vagrant]

The Fish SHOOTING season in Vermont ended May 25 and I missed it
I've missed it every year but maybe next year It's been rumored that some liberals have actually had Corinaries when they find out about this
Doubters, Read it HERE IT'S LEGAL It's FUN It's expensive - you need a Hunting License
ST. ALBANS BAY, Vt. — The hunter's prey darted into the shadows, just out of reach of Henry Demar's gun.

"Come on, stand up and be counted," Demar muttered. "There was a ripple that came out of the weeds. There's something out there."

Dressed in camouflage, gripping his .357-caliber Magnum, Demar was primed to shoot. But this time, no such luck. With a flick of its tail, his quarry — a slick, silvery fish — was gone.

Fish shooting is a sport in Vermont, and every spring, hunters break out their artillery — high-caliber pistols, shotguns, even AK-47s — and head to the marshes to exercise their right to bear arms against fish.

It is a controversial pastime, and Vermont's fish and wildlife regulators have repeatedly tried to ban it. They call it unsportsmanlike and dangerous, warning that a bullet striking water can ricochet across the water like a skipping stone.

But fish shooting has survived, a cherished tradition for some Vermont families and a novelty to some teenagers and twenty-somethings. Every spring, fixated fish hunters climb into trees overhanging the water or perch on the banks of marshes that lace Lake Champlain, on Vermont's northwest border.

"They call us crazy, I guess, to go sit in a tree and wait for fish to come out," said Dean Paquette, 66, as he struggled to describe the fish-shooting rush. "It's something that once you've done it … ."

Paquette, a retired locomotive engineer, has passed fish shooting on to his children and grandchildren, including his daughter, Nicki, a nurse.

"You have to be a good shot," said Nicki Paquette, 31, who started shooting at age 6. "It's a challenge. I think that's why people do it."

Her 87-year-old great-uncle, Earl Picard, is so hooked that, against the better judgment of his relatives, he frequently drives 75 miles from his home in Newport to Lake Champlain. Picard still climbs trees, although "most of the trees that I used to climb in are gone," he said. "You can sit up there in the sun and the birds will come and perch on your hat and look you in the eye."

There is art, or at least science, to shooting fish, aficionados say. Most fish hunters do not want to shoot the actual fish, because then "you can't really eat them," Paquette said. "They just kind of shatter."

Instead, said Demar, "you try to shoot just in front of the fish's nose or head." The bullet torpedoes to the marsh bottom and creates "enough concussion that it breaks the fish's air bladder and it floats to the surface."

Often the target is a female fish come to spawn in shallow water, accompanied by several male acolytes who might also be killed, or stunned, by the concussion.

"If you shoot a high-powered rifle, you can get a big mare and six or seven little bucks," Paquette said.

Permitted from March 25 to May 25, and only on Lake Champlain, fish shooting has probably existed for a century. It also used to be legal in New York, which also borders the huge apostrophe-shaped lake.

Virginia is the only other state where fish shooting is still legal, Vermont officials said. Alan Weaver, a fish biologist with Virginia Game and Inland Fisheries Department, said at the Clinch River in remote Scott County, six weeks a year, people can shoot bottom-feeders like "quill-back suckers and red-horse suckers."

In 1969, fish and wildlife officials in New York and Vermont banned fish shooting. But Vermonters were loath to sever the primal link between fish and firearm, so in 1970, the Legislature not only reinstated the sport, it also added fish like carp and shad to the target list, bringing the number to 10.

Since then, there have been several efforts to stop fish shooting, also called fish hunting (since it requires a hunting license) or pickerel shooting (although the main target is northern pike, a pickerel cousin). But they have been stopped by noisy objections from a small but dedicated bunch.

Advocates crossed the state in a near-blizzard to one public hearing in the late 1980s, recalled John Hall, a spokesman for Vermont's Fish and Wildlife Department. In 1994, fish-shooters "outnumbered the people who spoke against it by about four to one," said Brian Chipman, a state fisheries biologist.

State officials say shooters' claims that theirs is a fading tradition that will die out on its own have not proven true.

"We even think that some of the publicizing of this issue through efforts to pass laws against it has brought it more into the forefront," Chipman said.

State officials say they know of no gunshot injuries from the sport. Most hunters say the worst they have seen is people falling out of trees, from branches or "fish blinds," and plummeting into frigid water. Demar, 45, said his brother Peter once "shot, lost control and did a nose dive."

"He was purple when he come up out of the water," Demar said.

State officials also say that fish shooting disturbs nesting birds and that killing spawning females could endanger the northern pike population (although so far there is no evidence it has).

Worst of all, state officials say, many shooters do not retrieve all the fish they kill. They leave behind fish they cannot find or do not want to wade after and fish that exceed the state's five-pike-a-day limit or fall under the 20-inch minimum length for northern pike.

Two dead fish recently greeted Demar and his companions at a marsh, a species he called mudfish. There were some frolicking muskrats, chickadees in the ash and willow trees, and shell casings from an 8 mm Mauser. ("Oh, that's made for blowing them out of the water," Rushford said.)

There were not, however, enough live fish to shoot. So Demar tested his gun on a log in the water, and spray shot up.

"I got a little water on my sunglasses," he said sheepishly. "That's the thing about pickerel shooting. Afterward, you have to turn away, or you get sprayed in the face."

[Bonzo]

Mr. Revrund Vagrant,

Of course I believe you, sense you are a man of the cloth. Almost sounds like a Wally story, but I'll buy it.


Best regards,

Bonz

[Vagrant]

Mr. Revrund Vagrant,

Of course I believe you, sense you are a man of the cloth. Almost sounds like a Wally story, but I'll buy it.


Best regards,

Bonz

It sounds like a great idea for an annual Forum Members Meeting [FMM] The cost of a Non-resident Vermont Hunting License might be a "little" expensive

[JerrBear]

I prefer to shoot fish inna rain barrel...

[Vagrant]

I prefer to shoot fish inna rain barrel...

For an annual meeting this could be fun "Trade some knives, Shoot the Shi+, Shoot a Fish"
Shooting them in a barrel can get you VERY wet You need a ladder to get high enough to shoot down, and you can fall off the ladder. It ain't as easy as it sounds

[JerrBear]

I prefer to shoot fish inna rain barrel...

For an annual meeting this could be fun "Trade some knives, Shoot the Shi+, Shoot a Fish"
Shooting them in a barrel can get you VERY wet You need a ladder to get high enough to shoot down, and you can fall off the ladder. It ain't as easy as it sounds

Mr. Vagrant,

Rain barrel fish-shooting can indeed be a mos' difficult and dangerous sport. Since I suffer from acrophobia and am slightly myopic, I find it quite challenging...

[natcherly]

Wonder what is Vermont's policy on dynamite fishing? Downside is that it doesn't take quite as much skill, tends to tear up the fish more and plays hob with the nesting birdies.

Maybe fishing with throwing knives would satisfy the PC crowd, at least for a (short) while.

[jim d,]

Vagrant,

I was in St. Albans Vermont on business during the Winter a few years ago. We were discussing weekend plans and one of the locals said that he was going ice-fishing. I told him that I was an avid fisherman, but had never been ice-fishing and asked him how it was done. He proceeded to tell me that they load the gear into a truck and DRIVE a few miles onto Lake Champlain. Then they put up a shelter, drill the hole, and LIGHT A FIRE to stay warm. I was stunned! Driving on the ice! Then if you haven't broken through into the frigid water, you light a fire!! I told him that we don't do such things in N.C., and that it would be a huge leap of faith for me to drive onto a frozen lake. Logically, of course, if it was a problem people would be crashing through, but we don't hear about that happening. It is just not something that I'm used to.

I was then asked about my fishing. The locals were equally stunned. Take a small boat into the ocean way way out of sight of land, you must be insane they told me. They did not seem to be impressed when I told them that it was not a problem, that the land does not go away, and that it is still there when you come home. I guess it is all what you are used to.

By the way, are you ready to try saltwater fishing yet?

Jim

[Vagrant]

Jim
Trucks on the ice are VERY common The fire proves high school physics - most of the heat goes UP [luckily] I don't like ice fishing because it's difficult to cast a little to the left of your last cast [For those who haven't heard it] - I don't like salt water because I want to be the ONLY "Great White" around Also it's hard to cast "a little to the left of where that wave was when you made your last cast" The streams I fish are very small and overgrown with brush, tree limbs, etc. One of my favorite casts is to pull the lure against the rod flex and "shoot it" [almost like a sling shot]. It goes over a tree limb and then you reel it back until it is hanging from the limb right at the surface. You then "jig" it a coupe times. If [when] a Trout hits it you reel him up to the limb then wade out and get him HONEST this really works [O.K. - the FIRST time it was an accident but instant success insured adding it to my list of tricks ] A small "panfish popper" that has no business catching Trout can be be VERY effective this way

[tr4252]

This one brings back memories. As a kid I was somewhere north of here, camping with the family, and had tried for hours to hook some of the bluegills that seemed to be in the water by the hundreds. They wouldn't bite on anything; worms, bread, bass bugs, nothing worked. In frustration I went back to the camp and got my pellet rifle, hit and killed the first one I drew a bead on. The other fish started nibbling on the dead one, and I'd have slaughtered half a lakeful of fish if my father hadn't come along about 10-15 minutes after I started doing all this. He explained how unsporting my behavior was, offered to knock my block off if I didn't quit shooting the fish. Said he'd given me the rifle for more sportsman like quarry like weathervanes, GI Joe toys, and grasshoppers. I'd never have guessed that sane people did this sort of thing for sport. Some fun.

TR

[Vagrant]

The Vermont Dept. of Fish and Wildlife is NOT in favor of this The made a rule against it one year and the Legislature Over-ruled them. It is an OLD Tradition. Very few fish are actually taken and there have been NO accidental shootings I think that after a Vermont winter the Vermonters just need to unwind a little and "let off some steam" I am seriously considering joining the fun, next year. The real fun will be deciding which pistol to use It would have to be a little unusual just because I have an "image" to maintain Hmmm, maybe Reverend Al could offer a public service and Bless the guns of other "Fish Hunters"