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seamonster16
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cronoticed

cronoticed

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I was wondering the same thing a few years back, the regs seem pretty vague about this... it clearly says you can use a throw net or minnow trap but not whether those are the ONLY methods you can use.  I’m not sure what type of bait you are trying for but I tried an umbrella net for alewife without any luck and ended up switching to sabiki rigs which work awesome.

 

somewhere in the reg book it says which species are allowed as bait.

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Lucky13

Lucky13

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14 hours ago, cronoticed said:

it clearly says you can use a throw net or minnow trap but not whether those are the ONLY methods you can use.

The way the English language works, if you head a table with the words " Gear for taking baitfish", and a type of gear is not listed in the table,it is not allowed.

 

I can't finds the exact language in the electronic regulations, but the print guide has in large letters in a sidebar " Please Note. Any fish taken from a water body and used as bait counts toward your daily limit." 
 

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seamonster16

seamonster16

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actually I too am from pa and hoping to try our luck for lakers next week.. this will be our third trip and we have had some luck  and some slow times... was wondering about trying the native prey ..perch;shinersalewives..if things got slow but trying to figure out how to collect them within the letter of some very vauge and confussing laws

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Lucky13

Lucky13

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You would have to collect the perch by angling as well.  Considering the time it takes you to travel to, I am assuming Keuka when you say use perch for bait, is it really more economical to collect your own bait than to pay a bait dealer on the Lake for a couple dozen shiners or alewifes?  Honestly, too, bait has been used for years on the Finger Lakes, generally alewives or smelt sewn onto an English hook and still fished with the same intermittent results you are experiencing, there is really nothing new under the sun (get a copy of Earl Holdren's long out of print book on Finger Lakes trout fishing, it's all in there, except maybe jigging.)  Have you seen the pictures on here and Iceshanty of the Kueka lakers?  They are so thin they will likely hit anything that gets in front of them, when you are not getting bit you're likely just not on the fish, and if that is the case, bait will do you no more good than hardware or plastics.

 

The bait regulations are not easy, but the bottom line is that every time you bring uncertified bait from somewhere else, you risk introducing some new disease, and one of them may be the one that wipes out the fishery in the lake you bring it into.   I know some of the guys on here think they know more than the fisheries biologists, but I know a lot of the DEC folks, and they don't cook up regulations to make your life miserable, they are genuinely concerned about new diseases, VHS cost the hatchery system a lot of money, whirling disease radically altered where rainbows can be raised, and there are "bugs" out there that could wipe out a population.  An alternative would be to just prohibit use of fish for bait, and if it becomes apparent that people are playing fast and loose with the current rules, that could be next

Edited by Lucky13
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