New AIS law

[ANYFISH2]

Harvey, I think you may be painting with to broad of a brush here!

I am very much for the program of preventing("slowing") the spread of Invasives. I am all for, pull the plugs, no water in livewell, baitwell, and the checking and removing of ALL weeds from equipment.

Although I am against the decal, ALTERNATIVE IDEA: Spent this money on more research for chemical or biological controls or on more manpower to check AT landings.

I am against roadside CHECKS, ALTERNITIVE IDEA: Keep checks at landings only.

If you are seen trailering weeds or water pouring out of your livewell drain, or your plug is in we have laws against that, pull them over and ticket or warn.

As far as the lamprey issue, They should continue thier chemical controls. They have a proven contol to keep the sea lamprey at bay. How long did they do nothing, as far as new regulations, before they found this control? Did they create dozens of new laws and regs before they found the chemical control? Respectfully, can you or RH1 answer these for me.

I feel most of us are more than willing to do our part to slow the spread but if it is we have to agree with all of it,to be in favor it. Than I guess I am against it.

[reinhard1]

Harvey i did post a response a few posts up there about 45 min ago. good luck.

[harvey lee]

I will say as I have above, I have very few issue's with pulling the decal if that's the total reason why many are against this or maybe against just the decal.

But, I have read many other posts where people do not want to empty thier livewell and follow the other regs also.

For me, if we could come up with a chemical that could eliminate all AIS issues, then I would be all in on spending these funds for research in findsing that chemical solution.

I am going to try and call the DNR and see what I can find out about what if anything the DNR has done to look into another avenue to solve this issue and I will get back here as soon as I get a reply to post. I would think that for what this program in place now will cost all of us, that money could go a long ways in research to find a chemical if at all possible. My bet is, this will become a larger issue in many states in years to come and some checmical company like DOW or another will find that chemical to be offered to qualified people to apply in our lakes. That could take years though to go through all the safelty issues to make sure we do not do any harm to our lakes in the process of killing all the Ais.

With that said, they also may have already started to do this research but I will check into to it and see what I can come up with.

Today I sent an e-mail to my State Rep and Senator to ask who at the DNR is working heavily with the AIS program to see if they have researched the chemical usage end of it or if they have checked into another option other than the partial fix to slow the spread of this.

Waiting for a reply.

I am for trying about anything that would have a chance to work as long as it is sure to not be harmful to everything else.

[Big Tom]

Harvey, you're more likely to get blood from a turnip than logical responses from a troll.

Just sayin....

[mabr]

Harvey, For me its not so much what can be done. Its the "feel good" approach about doing it that irks me.

If there is a real way to get rid of them then we will use it when it is discovered, Like the lamprey eel. But to throw darts at the wall and hope it works for the sake of saying we tried is crazy. Just another example of waste.

[harvey lee]

mabr, I may be all wet but I do believe that if we all do what is asked of us to help slow this, that could work. Will it stop it, I would agree, no.

I am hoping or shall we say i have wishful thinking that until we have a total solution that trying to slow this may help. I guess we will not know the answer to this until some time has passed.

[LMITOUT]

Harvey, I think you may be painting with to broad of a brush here!

I am very much for the program of preventing("slowing") the spread of Invasives. I am all for, pull the plugs, no water in livewell, baitwell, and the checking and removing of ALL weeds from equipment.

Although I am against the decal, ALTERNATIVE IDEA: Spent this money on more research for chemical or biological controls or on more manpower to check AT landings.

I am against roadside CHECKS, ALTERNITIVE IDEA: Keep checks at landings only.

If you are seen trailering weeds or water pouring out of your livewell drain, or your plug is in we have laws against that, pull them over and ticket or warn.

That makes too much sense.

[ANYFISH2]

Harvey,

One other suggestion I have for our DNR and legislature is, make PREVENTION the number one priority or conerstone of any program.

We need regulation that stop the invasives from getting into our Ports, insterstate and international water ways. Once they here we only have reactive measures, which rarely work effectively. It hard to find a way to stop them once they are already at the doorstep. Almost all of these were seen coming long before they were here. The state being proactive sure would have been nice.

[Desperado]

OK, I did some thinking about this:

why do we need stickers on our boats for everyone to be aware of the applicable laws (and therefor have no "ignorance of the law excuse" if a CO discovers a violation, be it transporting AIS or no lifejackets on board or fish limits/sizes or whatever)

BUT

we don't need stickers on our cars for everyone to be aware of the applicable laws (yet we still have no ignorance excuse if the highway patrol tags us for speeding or rolling a stop sign or whatever)

Well here's what I realized:

We have to pass a written test and a driving test to get a license for driving on a public roadway; a major part of that test is understanding the laws which apply to driving on public roadways.

Hmmm maybe if one is going to operate a boat on public waterways, they should have to first pass a .... well you see where I'm going with this.

AIS prevention should be just one part of the written test for getting a boating license. An understanding of the laws/regs that govern boat operation on public waters should also be a large part.

How about a equivalent to the "behind the wheel test"? Of course, the equivalent to the paralell parking routine would be; you have to demonstrate that you can back a trailer down the ramp and launch/retrieve a boat.

Just think of how many things we often see mentioned in the forums that it appears other boaters are not even aware of.

[BEEFEATER]

BAAAAAAAALIST WATER

[mabr]

Harv, I abide by all the other laws. Pulled plug (im sure you’ve seen Rangers Its WAY up under), drained live wells, pulled weeds THAT I COULD SEE! All without complaining to much I’m doing my part and I will have the da—sticker when I absolutely have to have it. BUT I know without a doubt I’ve carried milfoil to other lakes “without intent” and once I have that new sticker I will still continue to . Any boat trailer that has bunks has without a doubt transferred weeds from one lake to another. So are they going to outlaw bunk trailers next?

Like I said this whole deal is IMO to make everyone FEEL like we are attempting to do something. This we all know isn’t going to do one thing. Oh you say it will slow it. Maybe, but where is the proof of that. Guys I’m going to say something a couple buddies and me got talking about not too long ago that will upset A LOT on here. There are actually people who would prefer these invasives are here! Not me I assure you but I have a strong suspicion that a lot have been spread intentionally buy guys who want them here for whatever reason.

And that you will never stop no matter what laws you pass or stickers you put on my boat.

[reinhard1]

lot of talk[i'm addressing in general here] but i have yet to have anyone to say that the controlling of the sea lamprey was a waste of time, including the study it took to find the controlling method that was applied. stickers are a minor part of this plan as far as the budget so let's get real here. mill foil is not a great thing for shallow lakes. sure it provides cover and in some respects improves fishing. not in shallow lakes. it takes conciderable space where once you were able to fish.

perhapst one cant compare the lamprey to the zebs, but you dont know that at this point. how much taxpayer money is being spent to clean up the intake pipes to power plants? this i give up, let's just let it be, attitude doesn't help the future generation who will use our waters in the future. cant believe the big deal about a sticker.

if more were actualy concerned about our waters we would not have the non=compliance rate we do today. i'm not a left wing tree hugger here, i'm a concerned angler worried about our children and their childrens future in regards to our waters. this talk of it's going to spread anyway was not in the minds of people who controlled the sea lamprey. good luck.

[swampbuck]

I agree its too late to stop the spread! It is mother nature and it will find a way.

As far as a chemical a simple bar of soap in the bottom of the billge on the boat will kill almost anything in less than 15 minutes! Larry Bollig did a "test" and this will kill weeds, minnows ect.... in short order. instead of spending hundreds of thousands on the decals and trying to stop something the DNR should hand out bars of dial soap! that would make way too much sense!

[DTro]

DTro, I know you are totally against this whole program that the DNR has proposed for law as you have stated in numerous posts that you do not want to remove your bait, pull your plug or any of that as I have read it numerous times in your posts. It's a pain to remove the bullheads from the boat to take home. I have done that for the past 2 years and it takes minutes per trip and I have had no issues doing that at all. Really a small part of the whole program. Ding Ding.

Do that 6 days a week at 1am when you have to get up for work at 4:30 and get back to me. I bet I'll say it's no big deal when I'm retired too.

When the bucket is going from the boat to the truck 1 mile down the road and right back the next night, yes it is a PITA.

I'm not saying nothing can be done, what I'm saying is that anything that is done is most likely a waste of time and money. I'm all about doing things smartly, efficiently, and economically.

[ANYFISH2]

Do that 6 days a week at 1am when you have to get up for work at 4:30 and get back to me. I bet I'll say it's no big deal when I'm retired too.

When the bucket is going from the boat to the truck 1 mile down the road and right back the next night, yes it is a PITA.

Dtro, I rarely disagree with you or your views. This is however is a little over the top. You chose to fish late by your own free will. In doing so you chose for it to be a PITA. I find that as no excuse to not change water in your bait. I just can't sympathize.

[DTro]

Well, I was just being honest. The bait we use for Flatheads is really unique and it takes a lot of babysitting and what not to keep it fresh and ready to go. Most all of us have large homemade tanks at home and transport our bait with very large containers or coolers. It's not quite as simple as it sounds, especially if you do it a lot.

Tell me this, does it make common sense to have to change out your water at the launch if no other water touched your bucket or cooler?

[ANYFISH2]

In a perfect world no, it doesn't make sense. At the same, flathead fishermen are a very small percentage of anglers in Mn, the rules are made to make the biggest impact over the whole state. It would probably be just to hard to enforece with exceptions.

BTW. You should show me how to fish for those beasts of the dark!

[Alagnak]

Its the same water from my tap I'm changing out and putting in 'new' tap water 8 hours later! I don't even have a livewell. Only now that water has baked in the back of my truck IF my container isn't ripped off. Common sense is not common, especially in government run agencies. It's all just one big wizz in the wind. And we're all going to have it on us along with empty pockets to show for our effort. Please tell me what is being done to those that brought these here? Nothing. Business as usual. We're just the puppets being used to make people feel good inside because they tried. Look at what has worked around the rest of the world.

[harvey lee]

Well since it appears that the general concensus is that nothing can be done, I will not call the DNR to see if they have done any checmical testing or further inprovements or research as it appears that would be a waste of time. My State rep replied with the needed info for the AIS contact at the DNR but I guess I wasted my time and his since there is no reason to follow through and waste everyones time.

Now I am like alot of others, who cares.

As far as changing out bait DTro, I have done it many times and for the few minutes it takes to do that, one could stop fishing 2 minutes earlier. Not a reason to not comply, just sounds like an excuse. A cooler locked in the back seat of the truck with a bag or block of ice in another snmaller one with an aerater. Take the bait and dump them ib the water in the cooler and plug the aerater in the cig lighter. I not only do it on the river by the lakes I also fish if I am using live bait. I know, that would also take a few minutes to do and is too much to ask for our resource. 6 days a week times 3 minutes max, we are talking 18 minutes for the week of fishing for total time to try. That is nothing even if one was still working. Just so you know, I am also up at 4:30 am and I have plenty to do during the day. Do you think I sleep all day? Very poor assumption on your part been doing it for a year plus now and it is nowhere as hard as you try to make it sound.

Really does not take as long as I statted to move the bait from the boat to the truck as when you get home, you only have to dump the bait in the tamk at home as you have already took the bullies or whatever out of the cooler in the boat or the livewell.

I still have heard nothing from some of the ones who are so against this but they seems to have no altenative to try something. I guess trying is a total waste of time too.

[harvey lee]

Well, I was just being honest. The bait we use for Flatheads is really unique and it takes a lot of babysitting and what not to keep it fresh and ready to go. Most all of us have large homemade tanks at home and transport our bait with very large containers or coolers. It's not quite as simple as it sounds, especially if you do it a lot.

Tell me this, does it make common sense to have to change out your water at the launch if no other water touched your bucket or cooler?

May I ask how any Co would know where your water came from?

[heat checker]

It may have been covered since I skipped from 1st page to present, but docks, boatlifts that are sold and moved from one body of water, by common logic, will collect more invasive species than any moving boat will. Has this been addressed?

[harvey lee]

It may have been covered since I skipped from 1st page to present, but docks, boatlifts that are sold and moved from one body of water, by common logic, will collect more invasive species than any moving boat will. Has this been addressed?

Yes, under the new law, I believe one has to let the dock sit for a time period like a week before it is moved. I may be wrong but I believe I read that after a short period of time, it will be clean after so long out of the water and in the hot sun.

[DTro]

Well within the next few years there will be NO place to legally get bait for catfishing, so it won't matter anyways.

To be honest, there are very few places to legally get bait RIGHT NOW.

Hopefully this AIS crud will go the way of the bird flu.

[foo]

This is typical govt stuff---throw a bunch of money at a problem that's already happened---make a bunch of new laws---waste time and solve nothing---this looks just like the Federal level.

This is all happening now because of the lake shore associations. It has nothing to do with the DNR. They are just doing as they are told. The LA are worried about their property values and that is really all this is about.

The funny thing is mother nature will decide how this goes and not those people with really green grass right to the edge of the lake.

And to Harvey, use 100% of the money to the research on how control it---that is if you are worried so much it will ruin everything. For once get ahead the problem---not behind it.

[Scott K]

My baitwell doesnt drain easy, so it isnt even the transferring the bait, it is getting in there and scooping out 20 gallons of water out of my livewell with a cup, at 1 am in the dark.

What used to be, back the truck in, drive boat on to trailer, hook on winch, and safety chain, drive home, go to sleep. Get off work, toss in a couple more bullheads to top off what was used last night, back trailer in water, unload boat, park truck, fish, and repeat.

Now it is, fill livewell with water, fill cooler with water (cant use Henderson water, so I need to either buy water to fill livewell, and cooler, or use it from my bait tank at home, so that means carrying 5 gallon pales of water to my boat to fill the livewell, and cooler, fun since I have bad shoulders), net out a few dozen of bullheads out of my tank, put it in the cooler, drive to landing (3 blocks), try to catch all 3 dozen bullheads out of cooler, so I can transfer them now to the boat, remove drain plug access cover, find drain plug, reach shoulder deep to install drain plug, reinstall, access cover, unload boat, park truck, fish, load boat at 1 am, remove access cover for drain plug, reach up to my shoulder to find the plug, try to wiggle it out of the hole, reinstall access cover, try to catch all of the bullheads from the livewell, transfer to cooler, that may not be in the back of the truck yet, find cup, bail out 20 gallons of water out of the livewell, drive home (3 blocks), drain cooler, grab remaining bullheads from cooler, put back into bait tank. repeat tomorrow after work.

It is more then 2 minutes!

I guess I have to question how they can ticket me for transferring AIS, when if there is any AIS in my boat, I will just bring it back to the same body of water, 3 blocks away in about 12 hours? So I am assumed guilty of transferring AIS when it wont be transferred to any other body of water? Now dont get me wrong, that 1 time in 3 years my boat sees other water, I clean it out good prior to it seeing the new water.

[RumRiverRat]

Just put a sticker on your boat 4wanderingeyes, it will create an AIS free zone around your boat and you will have nothing to worry about.

[IcePro]

Putting a sticker on a boat, removing weeds from boat/trailer and pulling the drain plug will not stop the spread but will slow down the spreading to other lakes.

It is like wiping your shoes on a rug before entering your house, it will not keep your carpet clean but will keep it looking cleaner longer.

[Might_B_A_Pike]

Harvey lee, You say that no one has offered any solutions worth suggesting to state lawmakers or DNR, I felt the idea I had on the second page was a decent one. Obviously it cannot stop all AIS, but it can at least be a good effort to slow the spread and educate boat owners. I would be interested in your feedback. I did think it was funny that the only response I got was someone saying they should "junk" their boat and get a new one after each outing, because that is obviously what I said we should do…False.

Some people raise the issue of not being able to get all the water out of their boat, maybe a wet/dry shop vac could do the trick, even if its not till you get home.

As far as the stickers go, people need to stop the sarcastic remarks, they are not helpful and get in the way of a good conversation to try and actually come up with a valid idea to propose to DNR / Law-makers. The DNR is very well aware that they need to deal with human nature, in a perfect world everyone would sit down and read the regs from cover to cover, but they don't. it’s the same reason the government has to pay for TV ads showing that texting and driving is illegal. The stickers are there for awareness and education. I say at least they are trying, and if you want to talk about wasteful spending in the government the stickers are probably not the biggest issue we need to address.

[Alagnak]

dam it I just spit coffee out. :-) Thanks

Just put a sticker on your boat 4wanderingeyes, it will create an AIS free zone around your boat and you will have nothing to worry about.

[TruthWalleyes]

Harvey, What kind of boat do you have? Chances are it retains water within strength ribs like many other boats do.

Get off the box and start realizing that you cannot stop the transfer, or even slow it down by doing only what the DNR is asking.

The first time i get pulled over by DNR. I'm unhooking my trailer, and picking it up as high as i can. Even as 3-4 gallons of water drains onto the DNR's feet they will not be able to write me a ticket, because my plug was pulled, my bait was drained, my livewell drained...yet still lots of water in the boat to bring to the next lake...Cant stop it...Move On...How to Kill It? or Maintain it at minimum levels? DON'T KNOW...BUT YOU SHOULD ASK YOUR REPS THAT QUESTION.