Smelt as bait

[vivlamored]

If you buy smelt in a grocery store that are dead can you use them as bait?

[sticks]

Sure why not?  I have my left overs from touge fishing this summer in my freezer.  I probably wont use them for touge or pike but if im going to be jigging i may use them for perch or pickeral. and if im lucky maybe a trout or two

[vancouvercanuck]

That's all I buy in the summer. Killer on the Walleye. Use them lot's ice fishing as well for the pike.

[vivlamored]

 I'll ahve to look into it because of the bait restrictions that we have n ny because they wanna stop the spread of vhs

[ominousone]

Wouldn't dead bait be O.K. because of the fact that they are dead and can't reproduce?  I need to know the answer for this winter, because smelt are real hard to find and I usually jig em, but now I can't bring them from one lake to another

[vivlamored]

thats my problem you can get them in indian or pleasant but if you wanna fish in fourth your screwed and nothing beats smelt for the lakers

[ominousone]

can't you get them up on the chain somewhere?  I think I did that once.  also don't forget caroga for getting them.

[vivlamored]

yeah you can get them on the chain and on caroga but what about when you bring a bucket of smelt to a lake and fish is the dec officer going to believe you that you got them in that body of water? Do you really want to sit there and jig to try to find the bait before you can set out your tipups? Went to caroga a few times this spring to dip never saw ONE smelt in either creek the one by vroomans or the the one that goes under the bridge

[sticks]

im not really familiar with the whos who, or who is incharge of what in new york but has anyone tried talking to anyone in the DEC to see if they can use frozen smelts?  Usually when i have a question about a law an email will get me some sort of an answer. it may take a week or two.

[JJ]

It does not look as though you will be able to use store bought smelt, unless it has been certified disease-free or preserved by a method other than freezing.

From the DEC website:
"Under the revised regulations, there will be three types of bait fish sold in bait shops: uncertified bait fish, certified bait fish and preserved bait fish. They are handled differently.

Uncertified bait fish have not been tested for fish diseases and can only be used in the same body of water from which they were collected to reduce the risk of spreading diseases. Therefore, bait shops selling uncertified bait fish will have to be on or within walking distance of the water. Uncertified bait fish cannot be transported overland by motorized vehicle. The provision to allow uncertified bait fish to be sold addressed concerns raised on the Great Lakes and Hudson River.

Certified bait fish can be transported overland and can be used in any body of water where it is legal to use bait fish. When buying certified bait fish, a sale receipt that states the bait is certified and has the name of the selling vendor, date sold, species of fish sold, and quantity of fish sold must be issued by the bait vendor. A receipt is valid for 7 days from the date of sale. The angler must have this receipt available while transporting or using the bait fish.

Preserved bait fish are dead bait fish that have been preserved by a method other than solely freezing. Preserved bait fish do not have to be certified and may be transported overland. The presence of preserved bait fish will not invalidate the certification of certified bait fish.

Bait stores can only sell uncertified bait fish or certified bait fish. They cannot have a combination of both. If a bait store has even some uncertified bait fish, all bait fish will be considered uncertified. This avoids the risk of miscommunication or cross contamination that could spread fish diseases.

The bottom line: if you must transport your bait fish overland by a motorized vehicle, you will have to either purchase certified bait fish or preserved bait fish."

[crayfishbob]

If you buy smelt in a grocery store that are dead can you use them as bait?

Here's the link of the new regs : http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/33072.html

I guess from what I read, its the placing of the dead smelt in the water they ( DEC )  do not like. It goes on to say UNLESS taken from certain waters and there are links, but that's where I get lost...

[fiddlehead322]

Certified or not, at the price of smelts around here you won't find me paying 6-9 bucks a doz! I use saltwater smelts for pike bait. Course I caught them dipping. We don't have the scare of vhs yet. But times are changing. What's in OUR future?

[1TIGGER]

I recently had the same question and got several different answers so I called Albany .
The answer I got was a deffinate    NO   not even food grade fish can be used ,the only bait you can use as far as a fish of any type must be certified or be pre packaged and state on the package that it's for bait use and salted .
I spent hours on the phone trying to get a straight answer from different D.E.C agencies before I just made the call to the top office to get the straight answer .
Kind of sucks because I have a limit of smelt that cant be used now , not even for human consumption because it was frozen whole .
I asked just what do you expect people like me with a full limit of smelt to do with it now and not get into some kind of trouble for wasting it .
He suggested to put it in my garden , it's a sad waste but theres nothing more you can do with it .

[sticks]

so the way the law reads if you know where you are going to be fishing and its semi close to home.  you could punch a hole and put a bait trap in with a lil dog food and use what ever you can catch for bait on that body of water.  which if you check your trap or do a lil pre-ice fishing you can locate where there is either smelts or minows that you can use for bait.   

[1TIGGER]

so the way the law reads if you know where you are going to be fishing and its semi close to home.  you could punch a hole and put a bait trap in with a lil dog food and use what ever you can catch for bait on that body of water.  which if you check your trap or do a lil pre-ice fishing you can locate where there is either smelts or minows that you can use for bait.   

The way I was told yes you can do that if you use it the same day on the same body of water .

[sticks]

hey that would work for me, your using the same thing the fish are eating anyways, and so long as you keep the trap in the water and just use it as a live well and just take what you need you could have a season long supply of living bait.  may even be able to use it for smelts tooooo 

[vivlamored]

 No matter what happens i don't think the dec is going to stop it look at the zebra muscles they sure didn't stop that