Disposing of Bait

[MinnesnowtaWild]

Just curious what everyone else does with leftover bait (for those of us without bait tanks, yet). I usually just see people releasing Bullheads into the river but I typically fish until the bait is gone. What is the proper way of disposing extras if you don't want or need them anymore?

[MinnesnowtaWild]

Sometimes we will freeze them as well and use them later for cutbait, at least we used to last year.

[Whisker Warrior]

well if you think your gonna go out in the next few days just go out and buy a simple air stone hooked up to a bubbler ($20 if that)and throw them in a 5 gallon bucket or what i just did was set up a 20gal. rubbermaid and threw the bubbler in there and have had upwards of 20+ bullheads that have yet to die. add a filter and you do less water changes. whatever you do don't throw them away i'll take them

[Shack]

I hate to sound like a stone cold jib-off but the bullheads should go into the trash or garden. Not back in the river (IMO). Plus I would also check the regs before anyone dumps bullheads even back into the river you caught them from. I know they laws are grey but once you take and keep a fish as a minnow in a lake/river I am very sure you can not just release it back into the lake river after your done.

I use them up till the last one is gone. I will freeze them and have a pretty good stock pile for summer fishing and ice fishing.

[Ralph Wiggum]

I agree. Toss them in the garbage, don't dump them in the river. Or, give them to me

[AceintheHole]

Fry them up in a little beer batter

[mplspug]

Yes, nobody ever dumps leftover bait into the water.

I use a normal sized cooler with a stone and that generally works for the leftovers for me. Usually 11 unless I get hung up in a snag a time or two.

[Ralph Wiggum]

Yes, nobody ever dumps leftover bait into the water.

I'm not saying nobody does, I'm saying nobody should .

[aanderud]

I agree with the aerator comments. Even if you don't have a "bait tank", you can easily keep a dozen bullies alive in a cooler or 5-gallon bucket. You can get an aerator for like 7 bucks at wally world and an airstone for another buck or two. These baits aint cheap! You're lookin at a buck OR MORE for each one depending on if you are using bullies or suckers. Might as well keep them rather than throw them out.

I use a normal sized cooler with a stone and that generally works for the leftovers for me. Usually 11 unless I get hung up in a snag a time or two.

Pug, you remind me of last night. Darren and I went out early. Hit the water before 6 with a couple dozen lively bullies. Sure enough, the same bullhead Darren started the night with was tugging hard at his line when we reeled up at 11. I was on my second by then because we got lucky and de-skunked the boat early with a 5 pounder. So yeah, go out with 24, come back with 21.

And to be honest, if the supply of bullies was really looking tight, those 2 we had on at the end of the night could have been kept as well. They were doing well, considering they had been hooked for 5 hours and each had been re-cast several times.

[harvey lee]

They work good dug into the garden or plant soil outside. I wouldn't put them in the wife's planter in the house.

[Shack]

Quote:

And to be honest, if the supply of bullies was really looking tight, those 2 we had on at the end of the night could have been kept as well.

What do you call that again aanderud?

"lets give'em a break and let this one take a rest" As you flip the cooler lid open and shut.

Since I seen you doing it I do it all the time. I got three week old bullies with the grey stripe on their back. I was wondering if this would lead to the "ick" starting out sooner than later. We will see. I have even used a bullhead up to three times now. Strong little bugger

[aanderud]

Since I seen you doing it I do it all the time. I got three week old bullies with the grey stripe on their back. I was wondering if this would lead to the "ick" starting out sooner than later. We will see. I have even used a bullhead up to three times now. Strong little bugger

Yeah, shack. Earlier in the year we had very tight supplies and they were getting reused a lot, sometimes up to 3 different hook holes in one bullie! Let em rest over night and they come back good as new the next day

I think the holes in the back might lead to some badness in your tank if you had a bunch of super-weak ones that were basically dying, but if they're that bad, I don't keep em. I can't believe that keeping the strong ones for re-use will make a big difference in the tank.

[ec30_06]

I always toss the ones that have been hooked in the garden at the end of the night. I get plenty of fresh ones, and it seems that the hooked ones just lead to problems for me in the bait tanks. The cats and raccoons usually eat them up out of the garden by morning anyway.

[cutter08]

i bet we have about 3 or for of them that have been used 2 or more times. (second generation bait as i like to call them)

[MinnesnowtaWild]

I think instead of setting up a bait tank I'm just gunna buy an aerator and fill up my 5 gallon bucket and keep a dozen or maybe more in there until the next day I go fishing. I have a Frabil sit-n-fish with a styrofoam bait bucket that sits inside the 5 gallon bucket that I will use to bring them out to the river from home.

[broken_line]

really i dont see the bad part in dumping bait if the bait is a good fish ie shiner or some other good minnow that is healthy.. what could it hurt??

[mplspug]

really i dont see the bad part in dumping bait if the bait is a good fish ie shiner or some other good minnow that is healthy.. what could it hurt??

Other than being against the law, nothing I suppose. Other than possibly introducing undesired things like VHS or whatever it is. I can see the DNRs point, but I cannot tell a lie, I do it. That's the only reason I said it. I was taking a shot at myself. I guess it was cathartic.

Excuse me, there is a CO at my door.

[aanderud]

While I agree that discarding bait in the lake/river isn't the best thing to do, unfortunately this is another area where the DNR is not consistent and has not really made it obvious that it's illegal. They made plenty of other things OBVIOUSLY illegal by using plain english to say so.

But for the life of me, I cannot find that in the regulations specifically where it says what the law is regarding bait disposal. There's a paragraph on page 11 that mentions transfer of FISH being prohibited, but I'm not 100% sure that the word "fish" also includes minnows.

Quote:

Stocking live fish or fish eggs or transferring fish or fish eggs from one body of water to another is prohibited without a DNR permit.

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There's a section on page 15 about stopping spread of exotic species, where there's a list of what I call "suggestions" on the bottom (with checkmarks near them) on how to stop hitchhikers. At the top of that page there's a list of things that are specifically unlawful, but it does not mention bait disposal. The "suggestions" do mention it, however:

Quote:

Dispose of unwanted bait in the trash. Never release live bait

The reason I claim that these bullets next to the checkmarks are "suggestions" is that on the top of the page, there is a bulleted list of things that are specifically called out as "unlawful", in plain english. Bait disposal is not listed there, it's merely mentioned here in this "sidebar" item of descriptive text on how to stop invasive species. Furthermore, the next "checkmark" on the list under this one talks about drying your boat for FIVE DAYS before launching on another body of water, or using high pressure water or water over 120 degrees to wash it between lakes, none of which are really practical if one is out lake-hopping on a Sunday afternoon:

Quote:

Spray, rinse, or dry boats and recreational equipment before transporting to another water body. Spray/rinse with high pressure and/or hot tap water (above 120 degrees F) or dry at least five days.

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Then there's page 70 where they are talking about TAKING minnows via seine, trap, dip net, etc. and they say that you cannot "dump" unwanted minnows back. I've skipped some of the words in some of the bullet items below for brevity sake, but here's the gist:

Quote:

Minnows and Leeches: Licensed anglers may take minnows or leeches for their own use with dip nets, traps, or seines

• Minnows and leeches ... infested ...

• Seines may not be over 25 feet long ...

• Traps used on non-eurasian watermilfoil waters...

• It is unlawful to use throw nets to harvest minnows.

• A DNR permit ... more than 24 dozen minnows ...

• Unwanted minnows and leeches cannot be dumped in the water.

Can anyone confirm to me what that last one means? Given the context in which this bullet item is written, I think what it means is that, in the process of harvesting bait with my seine net, if I pull up a net with 100 bullheads in it, and only 30 of them are the size I want, I have to discard the other 70 small (or large) ones! I cannot dump them back in the water!!! Who actually does that?

[MinnesnowtaWild]

It just seems like such a pain to package them up and find a trash (when there never is one) to throw them away in. This will not only make the garbage incredibly stinky but it will get even more varmints digging in the trash. Releasing bullheads into the river does not seem like a big deal when I know that something will end up eating it in the water anyways without causing a stinky mess.

[Gordie]

gray area if you keep those that are not the right size and on your way to discard them you happened to get checked by the dnr would they ticket you for unlawfull size bait? I know its in the discreation of the CO but really what would hurt to thrownm back in the same body of water they just came out of.I really think that it means unwanted as in when your finished fishing they dont want you to just throw them into the lake your fishing or any other body of water that your near.

when in doubt play stupid I'm kidding of course

[aanderud]

I really think that it means unwanted as in when your finished fishing they dont want you to just throw them into the lake your fishing or any other body of water that your near.

I disagree with this interpretation simply because of where this quote was taken -- page 70, under the section related to BAIT HARVEST. I would hope that if they meant what you said, that it would have been placed in a section dedicated to FISHING, since most anglers who use live bait don't harvest their own bait and thus wouldn't be interested in reading the regulations regarding bait harvesting.

Of course, I'm looking at it from a logical perspective, which people don't always do when they write all of these regulations. That's the worst part of our over-regulated state, I think -- every time we get MORE laws to abide by, the book gets thicker and the possibilities for inconsistency, bad wording, conflicting laws, and just plain un-enforceable situations gets more out of hand.

[Shack]

I guess they read more into it on Bear Buts and Fish Gutz but I have racked my brain just like you have aanderud.

All I know is when is comes to bullies if they are kicking they come home with me.

Lets throw another twist in this (or maybe not) but what about tossing over dead bullies or when you loose a bully when fishing The off color can go on forever.

when in doubt play stupid I'm kidding of course

Now who in their right mind would ever think that would work Oh by the way I officially have found out the waters we seined yesterday are classified as a "non-infested"

Went insane with the seine again tonight. Still did not find any bullheads but cornered the market on 3-4" shad with a 5"er here and their.

[Tyler Holm]

Can't tell for sure shack, but I think those are common shiners. Really oily redish meated buggers. Nearly impossible to keep alive for more than a day or two, and I wouldn't think they would last with a hook attached very long. Could be wrong thou. They work decent as cut bait (assuming they are present in that particular body of water). Work very well through the ice as cut bait.

[MinnesnowtaWild]

Are Shad highly abundant in the Minnesota? I have seen large packaged Shad in bags at bait shops and have always wondered how they would work cut up during the day if I was just trying to kill time looking for Channels.

[Shack]

You could be right Tyler. They might just be big shiners The guy that seined with me today said they where but they look just like the shad I have gotten from the down town rivers. I could be wrong!

The non-infested waters these where taken from was in conjunction to the Mississippi. The time is ticking on their life as we speak. We will see how long they last.

The guy I was with is officially crazy when it comes to finding things (including bait). I found new territory thanks to this guy. I never would have went as far if it where not for him