Minnows on different lakes

[eurolarva]

I fished Minntonka with crappie minnows I purchased from Vados bait. I put probably about 1 qt of water from Minnetonka in the bucket to keep the minnows alive. I am going to be crappie fishing on a remote lake in the Grand Rapids area. Should I pitch these minnows or go ahead and use them? I hear stuff about VHS and it is probably better to get new minnows but man there are a lot left and it seems a waste to just dump them.

[Deitz Dittrich]

I could be wrong, but I doubt that the minnows came from lake Minnetonka. So if they had VHS you would have been giving it to tonka... I think your fine.. maybe someone else will tell me I am way off base!

[Wookiee]

I think your fine too but personally would dump 'em but thats just me.

[timjones]

Good question. If you read pages 15-17 of the regulations it says it is unlawful to transport the water from invested lakes which Minnetonka is one of. Now whether you can dump out the water and replace it and still use the minnows I don't know.

[eurolarva]

Milfoil is spread by water fowl as well as boaters. I spend a night with a friend in the Deer River area and early sunday I am heading up to Lake of the Woods and will no longer be in need of the minnows. This lake he is on has some monster crappies and I want to spend a day looking for them. Can milfoil be spread through water only or does there have to be weeds in the water? If I dont dump any of the water in the lake and only use the minnows I would assume the spread of milfoil is minimal. I would think that an old wax worm on a hook that has been fishing in milfoil has just as much chance of spreading the stuff as water. My main concern is VHS. I think in Wisconsin now it is illegal to use live bait on one lake then transport them to another.

[NCLaker]

I've found that my minnows in the winter keep alive just fine with water out of my home faucet. So I refresh my water using it instead of lake water. Not worth wrecking a lake transfing exotic species of any type between lakes.

[waterbound]

Legally you can't reuse the bait if it was exposed to water from a lake infested with an exotic species. I wouldn't reuse them up north but I would make a couple more trips to Minnetonka for crappies if possible. If you absolutely need to add water use tap water, some people say it can kill the minnows but I haven't had this happen to me yet.

[Deitz Dittrich]

There you have it.. I can admit when I was wrong..

[bikeoutback]

I think in Wisconsin now it is illegal to use live bait on one lake then transport them to another.

Wisconsin changed to this couple years back, I have some buddies in WI. If live bait it taken out onto a lake it has to be left on the lake or disposed of at the landing, can't be brought to another lake as they understood it. Some of them to get by this leave their main bait bucket on shore and have a smaller one for transporting small amounts of minnows out on the lake for use. Since I don't understand very well all of what can be transferred and how seems like a very straight forward ruling to control a problem but I'm pretty sure MN isn't the same way. I did stop using lake water in with my minnows couple years ago though to be safe.

[GrizzlyAdams]

Quote:

If you absolutely need to add water use tap water, some people say it can kill the minnows but I haven't had this happen to me yet.

Leave the tap water sit for 24 hours and it should be good to go. The chlorine will evaporate out of it. Atleast this is what I was recently told by a wholesale bait distributor. I haven't had any minnows to try it with yet.

[herefish101]

do not bring contaminated minnows anywhere, it's that easy to spread invasive species.

[deadeye]

I would dump them for sure. Its probably not a problem given that its winter but I bet you wouldn't want to find out that the lake has got milfoil next year. Minnows, especially crappie minnows are cheap.

The new law is pretty clear about that.

[lakevet]

let's see, do I dump $5 to $20 worth of bait or do I take a chance, however small, of spreading an invasive species permanently into a new lake? If in doubt, dump it out. Otherwise call the DNR. Thanks for thinking of asking the question!

lakevet

[jigginjim]

save them just for tonka. Buy new at yout other lake just don't buy as many. better to run a little short a try other lures to see if the fish will go on them.

[NCLaker]

With ice fishing, normally you would not expose your minnows to the local lake water. As long as your minnows are in a selfc contained container, using original water from the bait shop or tap water, and don't introduce anything from the lake to that water, I see no reason to throw away your minnows.

Besides milfoil, there is also zebra mussel larva, spinny flea (?), etc that can be tranported to other lakes without detection. So don't put the lake water in your minnow bucket if you plan to use the same minnows in another lake.

Just because a lake is not on the list of infested lakes does not mean it is not infested. Can take a few years after a lake is infested for an official to detect the invasive species in a lake and get it posted to the list. Saw this in the lake I live on.

[bobbymalone]

Quote:

If you absolutely need to add water use tap water, some people say it can kill the minnows but I haven't had this happen to me yet.

Leave the tap water sit for 24 hours and it should be good to go. The chlorine will evaporate out of it. Atleast this is what I was recently told by a wholesale bait distributor. I haven't had any minnows to try it with yet.

When I change the water with tap water, I'll put a couple drops of tap water conditioner from the aquarium section at mallwart to deal with the chlorine.

[eurolarva]

They are flopping around in a snow bank in my front yard. I will pick up more from Vados Fri night when I buy my bait for lake of the woods. with weather getting warmer and me being gone for a week I doubt these minnows will make it a couple of weeks.

[andrew chadwick]

if you are worried just save the crappie minnows at home and buy new ones. when you get back you will have some minnows waiting.

[eurolarva]

Sounds like my mistake was adding water from Minnetonka. Vados gives a bunch of minnows and I should have used a smaller portable bait bucket and dumped the unused ones at the lake. I used to have aquariums and tap water was the worst thing you could do to the fish. Chlorine killer and tap water is probably a good solution as well as snow that is not dirty.