Online petition about VT bait laws

[keithm87]

There is a petition online at change.org about VT bait laws. While I am sure that the government for the people does not respect the people's voice it can't hurt to take 2 seconds and sign it and pass it along to your fishing friends. Link is below.

https://www.change.org/p/dennis-thomson-using-certified-bait-fish-in-multiple-waters?recruiter=27823112&utm_source=share_for_starters&utm_medium=copyLink

[mudchuck]

signed

[IPflagkickr]

There was a petition in the NEK a few years back. We wanted to be able to jig or trap smelt, suckers or whatever and use them just in the Clyde River watershed. For example you could jig smelt from Magog or Salem and use them on Seymour or Island Pond....any lake in the Clyde River watershed. There were a lot of signatures...bait shops...Wright's fishing tournament ...etc. In the end it seemed like an enormous waste of time as the VTFW board only seems to listen to the biologists who have their own agenda. I wish you luck, but I wouldn't expect a different outcome.

[shiveringjoe]

I completely agree that it is silly you cant trap bait from pond x, take it home, bring it back to pond x in a week and fish with it. And it sucks that you cant change your destination once you buy bait. However, how would you change the rules and still have them be enforceable? Yes it would be great to be able to use bait anywhere in the Clyde drainage but how would you know the bait didnt come from some place far away? There are some really scary invasive species and fish diseases out there and we are lucky that they arent widespread in VT.

[IPflagkickr]

And by the way that was only supposed to be a temporary rule until the disease subsided in NY. It has and the biologists got what they wanted and won't change it. They never would of implemented the rule if they knew what was going on now!! Too bad...STEP UP BOARD!!! Good god man!

[aquarium234]

So I can use 10 day old bait on NY side of champlain, suckers but if I come across the border I can't use them anymore.....even though my NY supply comes from Vermont, how can that be possible.............

[varmonter]

Dang I try so hard to stay off my soap box.
These laws are not enforced now.even in NY
Where enforcement is actually out doing their
Job.I've had my license and tip ups checked
Many times in ny.and was never asked to see
A bait receipt.  Here in vt I've only seen
A warden twice in the 40 years I've been fishing.
  Our legislation is quiet about the real cause
Of all of these invasives ..no one wants to stop
Shipping in the st Lawrence..  one of these days
Some ship will dump its ballast and kill every
Fish in the northcountry...(/rant)

[smelllikefish]

I've been checked twice this year alone and asked both times for a bait receipt. I'm not informed enough to say if the laws are stupid or correct but I have to believe that the biologist are not just being douchebags. Most of them like to fish too.

[vermont mike]

There's a reason why they're are doing it.........

[shadylane]

So maybe I'm uneducated on this topic.  I just buy the bait so someone please inform me if I'm off base.  But people don't think this might have more government tax implication then actually trying to protect our resources?  Your forced to purchase bait and produce a bait slip when asked, if you can't produce a bait slip your fined.  So no more minnow traps in the brooks, and your forced to purchase their bait.  Just so happened with this law the price of bait tripled, which I'm sure the government gets their share of these profits.  If so why would they choose to discontinue this?  Its just like legalizing marijuana, I feel it has less to do with health issues, and more to do with "how can we legalize this, corner the market, and tax the living sh** out of it.

Just my 2 cents.  I'll sign the petition though

[MikeVT]

And by the way that was only supposed to be a temporary rule until the disease subsided in NY. It has and the biologists got what they wanted and won't change it. They never would of implemented the rule if they knew what was going on now!! Too bad...STEP UP BOARD!!! Good god man!

The same way the Battenkill River was supposed to have a temporary C&R study.  That was about 15 years ago, it is still C&R. 

[keithm87]

I am fine with a slip saying that I purchased disease free minnows from a state approved entity, heck I am even partially ok with time limits on bait. What grinds my gears is that I can't buy 3 dozen bait for 2 days at the shop and take it to elmore one day, use what I use and then take it to nelson the next. I don't switch my water, I dont save bait that has been hooked, but I shoulnt have to dump 20 dollars bait because i was optimistic about the bite on elmore and am fishing nelson the next day. I should be able to use unused bait at the other lake.

[pikeaddict]

Doesn't make much sense to have such a strict bait law, when you can't enforce/regulate boaters from moving water from one body to another.  Seen it plenty of times where boaters on the ramp pull their drain plugs on the transom and live well, put them back in, and launch their boat.  Its not the bait that carries the disease but the water the bait is in.  The disease is cyclical like rabies, so my feeling is the law should be cyclical too.

[fishingidjit]

I've bought bait for Seymour and gone up there to find bad ice but couldn't take that bait elsewhere .Ended up fishing on scary ice . 

[Smelty88]

Wardens might check to see if you have a bait slip but how many times have you actualy seem them look in your bucket or pull your lines up to make sure what you are fishing with is what matches the slip??? Never had them do that to me!

[TRT]

Old news - buy bait from a bait dealer who will give you a separate bait slip for each dozen. 
Know the regs - only take bait on the ice that you will use leave the rest of your bait
in the truck. Finally, the science for the bait slip is sound. No one wants to lose a Willy
or Caspian like fishery to a virus.   

[fishingidjit]

Old news - buy bait from a bait dealer who will give you a separate bait slip for each dozen. 
Know the regs - only take bait on the ice that you will use leave the rest of your bait
in the truck. Finally, the science for the bait slip is sound. No one wants to lose a Willy
or Caspian like fishery to a virus.   

We haven't lost them yet and there are folks fishing with Magog smelt on these bodies of water every weekend .

[Fish Hard]

We haven't lost them yet and there are folks fishing with Magog smelt on these bodies of water every weekend .

yes... but do you want bomo smelt in willo?

[Smelty88]

Old news - buy bait from a bait dealer who will give you a separate bait slip for each dozen. 
Know the regs - only take bait on the ice that you will use leave the rest of your bait
in the truck. Finally, the science for the bait slip is sound. No one wants to lose a Willy
or Caspian like fishery to a virus.   

As stated already this is no different than boats going from one body of water to the next and not draining and drying their boats out. If something is out there and its gonna spread its likely gonna be on a boat! not a bait fish.

[varmonter]

Correct. It does not make sense to limit
Bait when you can't enforce boating contamination.
I don't want to see my fishery invaded.
But I also don't think bait from my brook
Is suspect.I do think your boat going from the st Lawrence
To lake Champlain could present a threat.
Not sure what the cure is.

[lester]

The thing that gets me about this is the bait I have bought this winter from two different shops comes from Arkansas. Really, we are importing bait because it's supposed to be safer for our waters than native caught bait???

Lester

[cbice]

The same way the Battenkill River was supposed to have a temporary C&R study.  That was about 15 years ago, it is still C&R.

Yeah the same goes for Seymour.  I fished thete all the time as a kid.  My uncle lived right on the lake.  It was a awesome salmon fishery with Lakers as a bonus fish.  Then it became a "test" water experiment.   Have the laws there changed at all in the last 25 + years?  Still testing I guess.  It's the 2nd largest inland lake in the state and you can only fish 4 lines in the winter and 1 in the summer.