Regulations, rising costs put bite on bait

[Spiel]

Regulations, rising costs put bite on bait

 

06/22/08

Will Elliott / buffalonews.com

 

 

 

The fishing is great, but the bait sparks debate. New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s restrictions on live and preserved baits, imposed to help control of aquatic diseases and maladies, has put a serious bite on bait sales and use.

 

Perch fishermen have been affected most, but any angler in need of live bait, especially the swimming versions of fish lures, has to pay more per bucket and often must do without the more preferred bait species.

 

Factor in the ever-increasing cost of gas to get to and across the water and fishing might seem to be in a latter- day Depression Era mode. Despite these bait restrictions and other setbacks, all is not gloom and gruesome. Reports of perch and bass catches for Lake Erie throughout the spring have fish numbers and sizes on the increase. The walleye comeback is nicely chronicled in a Dave Barus piece in the June issue of Conservationist magazine.

 

Everything from panfish to pike offer area anglers a busy and rewarding resource. Few places in North America provide access to five-pound smallmouth bass, 10-pound walleye and a bucket of foot-long perch within a mile of some structure between harbors at Buffalo and Barcelona. Boaters need not haul a trailer for hours to get to good perch schools off Pinehurst, Hamburg, Sturgeon Point, Cattaraugus Creek, or Dunkirk Harbor.

 

As for the bait restrictions, the whole truth is that Lake Erie perch and ringbacks in Lake Ontario and other nearby waters have a distinct preference for the emerald shiner. Emeralds, for decades, have accounted for more blue pike, yellow perch and other panfish species in full buckets than all other baitfish options combined.

 

It could be the shape, the flashy coloration, or some subtle scent given off, but emeralds shine among shiners while fishing for perch at virtually any depth in Lake Erie.

 

Here’s the good news — or at least better than all those agonizing reports on perch catching — for this season and during this bait restriction period: Salted emerald shiners work nearly as well as live emeralds and often better than any live baits such as fatheads or small golden shiners.

 

Earlier in the season, boaters could net emeralds close to shore, head out from their netting site, catch fish, and comply with DEC bait regulations. Now, emeralds may be captured from shore at sites along the Niagara River, but the open shoreline of Lake Erie has warmed, algae buildup would clog a seine net and the bait has moved out. A walk along the shoreline at Sturgeon Point last weekend confirmed that the minnows are on the move. It took us a half-hour stroll just to spot a small school of bait, that was probably young-of-the-year game fish, not emeralds.

 

Bait dealers know that emerald shiners are a mainstay. “We netted as much as we could, processed them and have salted packages ready,” said Bill Van Camp at Big Catch Bait & Tackle, 2287 Niagara St. “We also have live golden shiners and fatheads that can be sold live,” which he and wife, Pat, supply daily for fishermen.

 

Van Camp works the circuit as both a retail and wholesale bait dealer. His sales area has him traveling to the Michigan side of Ohio as well as eastward throughout New York State. “Just this week they had to raise golden shiner prices 75 cents per pound,” he said, referring to wholesale price increased caused by gas price increases.

 

But bait dealers need not pay for a DEC 10-day permit, obtainable from regional headquarters, to dip bait for salting. “I have to report my dipping location and the time I collect the bait,” said Rick Miller at Miller’s Bait & Tackle in Irving. After that, dealers can store processed and salted emerald shiners for sale throughout the season.

 

Steve Hurst, DEC Fisheries Bureau Chief in Albany, said earlier this week, “I don’t see the permanent regulations coming off soon. We’re protecting the resource for down the road,” referring to VHS and other aquatic invaders that have entered the Great Lakes chain and some larger inland lakes.

 

Hurst, himself an avid angler, was encouraged to hear that salted emeralds worked well on Lake Erie perch, added his regrets that bait dealers have to deal with these required restrictions. “With all the great fishing we have across this state, it’s a shame that we have to impose these regulations,” he said.

 

The perch bite, straight out of Cattaraugus Creek, continues to flourish at depths of 40 to 50 feet, and serious ringback runners often hit into schools of the older, post-spawn plugs that can quickly fill a bucket or box on a good day out.

 

Take along an assortment of minnow- type baits and keep on the move until your boat gets over a good working school. The fishing can be great despite the choice of bait.