Saw bellies

[quality time]

If you look in the regs cast net is not legal in our waters(only allowed on Hudson river below Troy Dam). For some reason a gill net is legal with restrictions on the size of net and the holes in the Finger Lakes.   Wes 

[TileMan Dan]

If they are not an indigenous species why all the regs on their capture and use ?

Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

[quality time]

I talked with the DEC a few years back about this topic. The reason I was told no cast nets on the fingers was to protect game fish. It seemed funny to me that in most states gill nets are not legal and cast nets are.

[Ray4852]

I tried hanging a 4x4 gill net under lights on Seneca lake over 150' of water. The sawbellies wont go near the net. I did better catching them with tiny cold hooks tipped with bread. I buy the bait wholesale now brine ready to go.

[Sea-IV]

We still use the old gill nets for them on Seneca. Usually by mid to late June we have to pills the nets every couple of hours cause they come in so thick. The only problem with not checking them is the bullheads come in and basically eat them for breakfast. Only once did we have a brown caught in the net as well. The easiest way to do it is to go to tractor supply and buy bird netting material and use that. It's cheap along with a capped of length of pvc and you have a gill net. We usually freeze them in zip lock bags 6 at a time and I use them for my weenie rigs on Ontario.

[ERABBIT]

You may want to edit your post about getting them from Seneca and taking them to Lake O. To use , unless it says somewhere ,I hope it does , it okif they are dead to transport.

[Sea-IV]

Yes they are dead and frozen. Besides that the couple of bait wholesalers that supply the area get them from Cayuga and Ontario as well. The only time we use them live is still fishing on Seneca anyhow

[Sk8man]

Ed has a point it is illegal to transport or use alewives (or other approved baitfish) that have been taken from a different body of water either dead or alive without a dated receipt from a dealer certifying they are virus free and the receipt is good for only ten days from its date. Dead bait has to be commercial in nature with the packaging present.

Edited March 31, 2015 by Sk8man

[Sea-IV]

I guess Familiar bite will be getting more of my business then

[final flight]

Yes I guess I will go with familiar bite !

[ERABBIT]

I guess Familiar bite will be getting more of my business then

They are looking ( DEC) for law changes on other threads on this site and this would be a GREAT one win/win for those that get there own bait kill and package it before you transport it or what ever would satisfy the law on the books now .    That pretty much why I've ALWAYS paid for pre-packaged stuff , just not worth what you could loose............

[Sea-IV]

All in all the alewife or sawbellie is an invasive species anyhow so why regulate it if it's in every body of water as it is. I know this will stir the pot but it's like the goby. Invasive but you can't kill them and leave them for the birds to eat. Also what happens if the Asian carp makes it this Far East then what

[Ray4852]

 

I use capt Johns bait heads. Smear a little hearing oil on them too.  

[Ray4852]

then we fish for carp with carp meat.

[justtracytrolling]

In my case im using them in the same body of water and not travelling with them. Guess I need a gill net...I really want to use a cast net. The alewives are regulated because they arent in every body of water yet!

[bandrus1]

plus nets and fish can carry over invasive plan species 

[Sea-IV]

Yah regulated. The DEC introduced them so that must be what made them regulated. What ever happened to the smelt population of the finger lakes and Lake Ontario, the only lake that still shows signs of any is Canandaigua and that is dwindling fast along with the natural population of Ontario. Now they aren't dwindling due to humans, they are disappearing due to the alewife population exploding just as the goby population which nothing is being done about. Conesus lake used to have a great perch population til they brought those alewives in and now look they had to bring the tiger musky in to control the alewife population but yet the perch are very slowly returning. It can be debated on who did what and where but as I have seen pretty much every body of water with the exception of some Adorondik lakes they all have alewives in them not due to transport from humans either. Birds and the canal system are a big contributer to that as well.

[justtracytrolling]

The alewives wipe out the walleye fry on Otisco, but they are also the reason the stocked walleyes are so fat and thick. I certainly wouldnt want them spreading to even more lakes.

[ERABBIT]

I asked for a law change . Sorry it was dumb of me to think it my have some merit......

[Sk8man]

The primary reason for this bait regulation was to prevent the spread of hemmoragic virus and other diseases from spreading worse than they already are in the lakes but the cat is pretty much out of the bag at this point.

Edited March 31, 2015 by Sk8man

[justtracytrolling]

I think a rule change on how we harvest bait is worth a look, and seems like if bait was salted and frozen you should be able to transport and use it in other bodies.

[plecos4sale]

Hey Sk8man

Fished out of Clarks south end back in 70's-80's. With John R. (Answer 2) and John Orvec . Still have my speed net a lady weaved for me. If there was a full moon bait would stay down about 10' so a M-80 would bring them up

[BSmaster]

The primary reason for this bait regulation was to prevent the spread of hemmoragic virus and other diseases from spreading worse than they already are in the lakes but the cat is pretty much out of the bag at this point.

I remember the story went that Conesus lake showed signs of VHS and they thought the culprit was alewives used as bait from Lake Erie.  I do not know how they would know this with any degree of certainty.

 

I think a rule change on how we harvest bait is worth a look, and seems like if bait was salted and frozen you should be able to transport and use it in other bodies.

I agree.  I also think cast nets are ok but I stopped using mine years ago because the rules got cloudy.  I hate that part of fishing where ethically you are doing nothing wrong but you still feel like a criminal.  That is why I use artificial whenever I can still be productive.

 

At some point it would be nice to see the industry held responsible, instead of the lil folk.

[Sk8man]

plecos4sale - Cool... I knew both Roides and Oravec somewhat back then and used to fish near them at night in my little Whaler then they became charter guys and went to Lake O. I don't think anyone night fishes out there anymore. Miriam Clark was good mechanic and the only female boat mechanic I've ever known and I guess she and John moved to Florida after that.    on the M-80

[Ray4852]

Those two guys ran charter boats out of the south end of Canandaigua lake back in the early 70s when it was clark marina. Bill Kelley the Vietnam veteran had a charter boat on that lake too. Lake Ontario fishing took off in the 70s and all 3 moved their boats up to the big pond. I still have all my night fishing gear. There still a few guys that fish at night but not many anymore. Seneca produced some nice fish for me at night but that lake can get pretty nasty at night. Keuka and canandaigua were safer lakes to fish and more popular. Now that I’m retired I might go back to the night fishing again.