I know Politics are WRONG but this affects All MN Fisherman

[Paul]

I would urge everyone to contact their area Senators and Reps regarding the proposed House Bill that would ban LIVE Bait of any kind in MN waters. I don't know the house bill number but there is some information regarding this up at D&H bait in Dilworth on Hwy 10. He mentioned to me that they will be looking at this bill when they return to session this fall. I will try and find more information and post later.

[Dahitman44]

Man -- those guys are so dumb.

What a stupid bill.

[DEADhead]

Quote:

---

What a stupid bill.

---

hitman, I'll have to do some research to see who sponsored the bill, but most likely this bill was written to prevent the spread of fish pathogens like Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia (VHS). VHS is a nasty disease that kills healthy fish and is very difficult to detect in live fish. It has unfortunately spread from Europe throughout all of the Great Lakes except Lake Superior. I don't believe the intention of this bill was to screw bait dealers or anglers, but to rather protect the resource. The USDA APHIS had put out a Federal Order last October banning the transport of most live fish throughout much of this affected region.

If there aren't any fish around to catch, bait won't matter anymore...

one of the bills of this legislation is to keep aquaculture out of wetlands and shallow lakes. This will affect not only bait dealers, but also walleye rearing by the DNR. It is a double edged sword. Anglers seem to want walleyes in every lake and lots of them, but duck hunters (many of those the same people) are complaining about the lack of ducks in this state to harvest. You can only have one or the other in many of these wetlands. Instead of using the public input method and letting the constituents influence management by the state and federal agencies, this issue has unfortunately gone the legislative route. Often times these bills are based on knee-jerk reactions, gut feelings, and emotions, rather than hard scientific data that promotes sounds management techniques.

Like always these is much more to this issue than the simple one-sided point of view that the bait industry has presented.

Anyone have that yellow pamphlet that lists the senate and house file numbers? Could you post the file numbers so folks can look up the bills? Thanks.

[Dahitman44]

Contacted State Rep. Paul Marquart yesterday and this was his e-mailed response --

Dear Marc,

Thanks for the note.

This was brought up this year and it would ban live bait in some lakes.

We were able to defeat this. I suppose it is something that could be

brought up next February when we go back into session. Like you, I am

also opposed to this ban.

[Paul]

I guess if it was defeated then the guy at D&H had better check his facts a little closer. It still could become a problem later on though. Just remeber if at first you don't succeced try try again. I guess that couts for the hug a tree coalition alos.

[Dahitman44]

Paul --

You are 100% correct.