Two quick questions about bait

[Canuck2fan]

Question One. A friend of mine was fishing in a local river for carp with corn and caught a small rainbow that had been stocked. A couple of other anglers jumped on him saying he caught it illegally because corn had been banned and that it was in the regulations. A more than cursorary examination of the regs by me noticed no such ban. So has corn been banned as a bait in Ontario?

 

Question Two. The other day I was fishing in Lake Erie and a couple of other anglers saw I was using creek minnows and they became alarmed saying I was going to get a huge fine due to the bait ban. I believe the "bait" ban was recinded and even when it was in effect it only controlled the commercial bait sellers that individuals were allowed to continue doing what we had always done as long as we followed the current regs ie don't dump bait from body of water to another and the like. So was the bait ban lifted and even if it wasn't weren't we still allowed as individuals to still catch our own bait and use it on a different body of water?

[tonyb]

1. There is no ban on corn. It can be harmful if ingested by certain species of fish (such as Rainbow Trout) as they have a difficult time passing it. Carp LOVE IT!

 

2. You are allowed to catch and possess up to 120 minnows at any time with a valid sport fishing license. It is not a good idea to catch minnows from one body of water and use it in another since you could be introducing new baitfish species into that system, however, it is not illegal to do this. Generally it is safe to catch bait and use it in the same watershed (eg. catching bait from creek flowing into the lake you plan on fishing with the bait)

[Canuck2fan]

1. There is no ban on corn. It can be harmful if ingested by certain species of fish (such as Rainbow Trout) as they have a difficult time passing it. Carp LOVE IT!

 

2. You are allowed to catch and possess up to 120 minnows at any time with a valid sport fishing license. It is not a good idea to catch minnows from one body of water and use it in another since you could be introducing new baitfish species into that system, however, it is not illegal to do this. Generally it is safe to catch bait and use it in the same watershed (eg. catching bait from creek flowing into the lake you plan on fishing with the bait)

 

Thanks for the reply. I was pretty sure about the corn but with respect to the bait I was starting to wonder because of the number of people and the different opinions they had. However in my defence the river where I got my bait does indeed flow in the great lake I was on....

 

It was interesting having the discussion as everyone was respectful, but in the end it really shows how large the lack of knowledge is out there about different things. The funny part for me was 4 of the BIGGEST complainers about what I had done with respect to my minnows were headlamping nets before dawn to get theirs.... I guess though when you see 25 to 30 other people doing that is becomes accepted practice. Although as I read the regs you may not use a dip net between sunset and dawn....

[Markystang]

Last time I looked in my MNR regs booklet, it listed corn as the recommended bait for Carp...

[Victor]

i wonder what's going to happen to all the carp anglers if corn/maized's banned ... not that there aren't other options ... but i'm sure alot of people would agree that it is one of the best bait on the hair rig