Re: What would you do in this situation?
Sadly, in most if not all states, NO, not if you value your right to hunt, as generally shooting game in the water and/or knowingly shooting game where you cannot recover it are hunting reg violations, in additon to evidently being out of bounds, waterway boundaries usually being defined as the high or low water line, and intentionally firing across navigable waterways regardless of its current state is often covered by criminal law.
Fact is nature is cruel and animals are not always good decision makers, and while you may feel said animal is suffering, as long as you did not cause the suffering, it is not your responsibility or obligation to ease it. In most cases other than recovery of game wounded during legal hunting even if you did cause the suffering (auto strike, caught on/in man-made structure, spooked, etc) it is not lawful for a private citizen to put it down unless its endangering people or sometimes property. If the animals plight troubles you call your fish and wildlife dept, that's generally all you can legally do.
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