Live Bait Threats

Published: Friday, August 2, 2019
By: Dan Armitage

There is no questioning the effectiveness of live baitfish as a means to catch fish, but careless use of minnows can also cause irreparable harm to a fishery, including those established in inland waters as well as the Great Lakes. For example, the state fish of New York, the brook trout, has been pushed out of much of its original range due to the introduction of competitive fish species, most likely via a careless angler’s bait bucket. Sometimes it’s the result of an angler discarding unused bait at the end of the day. In other cases, the introduction may be done on purpose by an angler who thinks that a bait species may provide beneficial forage for a particular species that she/he wants to pursue.

The problem is, a fish population in a pond, lake, or stream is part of a stable community that has evolved over the eons. When you add a foreign fish or other aquatic invasive species (AIS) to the population, the entire system can be thrown out of balance. Sticking with brook trout as an example, the salmonids have evolved with few competitive fish species and can be eliminated from a particular waterway if baitfish or other non-native species are introduced. Baitfish such as alewife can also directly impact a fishery by feeding on the young of desirable fish species such as walleye; crappies and other species that prey on fish larvae can also be mixed in with bait, particularly minnows collected for bait in the wild.

Baitfish are also a threat to native fish communities by spreading disease. As with a human with a cold, who can spread the illness to fellow humans, fish can spread disease across their populations. In fact, movement of baitfish from water to water by anglers is believed to have spread viral hemorrhagic septicemia (VHS), a fish disease spread from the Great Lakes to inland waters. Diseases may also be introduced by bait wholesalers who do not test their fish before they are sold to bait dealers.

To address this problem, New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC; dec.ny.gov/outdoor/fishing.html) has established regulations controlling the use of baitfish. Among other things, these regulations restrict the use of personally-collected baitfish to the water in which they were collected from and prohibit their transport from these waters. Only 21 species of fish may now be sold for bait in New York. Except for baitfish sold for use on the same water they were collected from, all baitfish must also be certified to be disease free. Certified disease-free baitfish are the only form of live baitfish that may be transported overland without a DEC permit, and these fish must be used within 10 days of purchase.

What can I do?

When using baitfish, keep the following in mind:

Only use bait purchased from a dealer selling certified disease-free bait
Don’t move bait or other fish from one water to another
Dump unused bait in an appropriate location on dry land
Use baitfish only in waters where their use is permitted
Report illegal stocking activities

An invasive species is a plant or animal that is foreign to an ecosystem. More than two dozen species of fish considered invasive have entered the Great Lakes since the 1800s, including the round goby, sea lamprey, Eurasian ruffe, alewife, zebra mussel, spiny water flea, and Asian carp.

The latter are a grave threat. If Asian carp become established in inland waters or the Great Lakes, they have the potential to outcompete and thus reduce the numbers of game fish in these waters, which will negatively impact resource users and the businesses that rely on them. Nationally, there are significant efforts being made to prevent Asian carp establishment in the Great Lakes.

The Ohio Division of Wildlife is studying several ways that Asian carp may use to enter inland waters and the Great Lakes, including the transfer of live fish through the fishing bait trade. The

Division’s efforts to prevent migration of AIS through the baitfish trade include:

Regulations: Institution of OAC 1501:31-13-01 that makes it unlawful for any person to release any fish or aquatic insect into waters of the state, or waters under control of the division of wildlife from which it did not originate. This will help eliminate the movement of AIS to new waterbodies.
Surveillance: Surveillance of live bait to look for the presence of AIS and specifically Asian carp through the inspection of bait outlets in Ohio. This will help prevent the inadvertent transfer of AIS to anglers purchasing bait who could then potentially transfer AIS to new waterbodies by dumping unused bait.
Education: Providing bait outlets with educational material geared at AIS, including a guide for the identification of AIS that could potentially be in the bait trade.
Outreach: Implementation of public outreach material targeting anglers to not dump unused bait into public waterbodies.

As of March of this past spring, Michigan’s Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act (451 of 1994) Part 413 has been amended with changes that are now in effect and are intended to strengthen protection for Michigan waterways against the introduction and spread of AIS. Prior to the amendment, the law only required that a person not place watercraft or trailers in the waters of Michigan if an aquatic plant is attached. In addition to this requirement, the new changes require all of the following prior to transporting any watercraft over land:

Clean boats, trailers and equipment.
Drain livewells, bilges and all water – pull all drain plugs.
Dry boats and equipment.
Dispose of unwanted bait in the trash.

Also in Michigan, amendments codify the Michigan DNR’s Fisheries Order 245 regarding the release of baitfish, collection and use of baitfish and cut bait, and release of captured fish, specifically:

A person shall not release baitfish in any waters of this state. A person who collects fish shall not use the fish as bait or cut bait except in the inland lake, stream, or Great Lake where the fish was caught, or in a connecting waterway of the inland lake, stream, or Great Lake where the fish was caught if the fish could freely move between the original location of capture and the location of release.
A person, who catches fish other than baitfish in a lake, stream, Great Lake, or connecting waterway shall only release the fish in the lake, stream, or Great Lake where the fish was caught, or in a connecting waterway of the lake, stream, or Great Lake where the fish was caught if the fish could freely move between the original location of capture and the location of release.

No matter where you are wetting a line with minnows as bait, whether purchased or collected, unused baitfish should be disposed of on land or in the trash – never in the water. Any baitfish an angler collects should be used only in the waters where it was originally collected. Ditto anglers who catch and release fish, who should only release the fish back into the same water or in a connecting body of water the fish could have reached on its own. Following these guidelines when using live bait will help keep our inland and Great Lakes waters “great” for fishing.

About the Author

Dan Armitage is a popular Great Lakes-based outdoor writer and host of the Buckeye Sportsman show (buckeyesportsman.net), syndicated weekly on 30 radio stations across Ohio. Dan is a certified Passport to Fishing instructor and leads kids fishing programs at Midwest boat and sport shows, and is a licensed Captain with a Master rating from the US Coast Guard.

This article first appeared in the Summer Issue (Jul/Aug) 2019 of Great Lakes Scuttlebutt magazine.

tags: Boating 101, Environmental Impact, Fishing