That's what I like about gig setups over harpoons. You can make a gig out of a coat hanger if need be. Cheap, easy to make, even if all you have is a rock to sharpen the tip with, easy to maintain, and effective. Back when I was a kid we used to make them out of grandpa's welding rod scrap and go gig flounder at low tide. Had we been older and more adept at our technique, we'd have caught a lot more of them, but as it was we did about as well as fishing for them.

Lashing four of those sharpened rods to a broom handle with bailing wire was what we were using back then. Never lost a rod either, though we did have to resharpen them occasionally.