Bait Bucket Drainage Question...Not related to law verbiage.

[bobber_down_1979]

I have posted this question on some of the bigger posts regarding the new reg, but have not gotten a responce, so I am creating a dedicated post for it. My only problem with changing bait bucket water at the lake is with regard to water temp. Obviously water left in a vehicle on a hot day is going to get hot and this will kill bait. Do I need to keep water on ice? In that case, it may be too cold, especially if the water temp of the lake is up. What is going to be a good method to keep water on hand? The only thing I can think of is to somehow keep the water is a water tight container and keep that container in the lake somehow. obviously this is going to be huge inconvience logisticly.

[FM_Mike]

If you have a live well in your boat, put the sealed bottle of water in your live well. The water will be the same temp as the lake water.

On a secondary note, live bait has become a hassle not just because of the new law but has always been for me. I have not used live bait other than leeches and crawler for years. Minnows and bait buckets for me were to much of a hassle. Thats just me.

Mike

[TigerBlood]

It's a good question. First, remember the exchange water law only applies if you use live bait on invested waters. If your lake is not on the invested body list, you don't have to do it. For invested waters, it would seem like a lot more screwing around than it's worth IMO. So (if it were me), I'd just consider minnows disposable at the end of the day or use one of the many good artifical alternative (gulp, power pait etc.) on invested lakes. Or, I guess you can use crawlers (if you are a bobber guy). That's my 2 cents.

[bobber_down_1979]

I just checked out the list, and most lakes I fish are not there. I do think it is odd that there are lakes not listed that I am pretty certain have millfoil in them. Not that I am complaining. My guess is the DNR plans to add buches every year, to lesson the public back-lash, and ease us into what will eventually be a live bait ban. I do use lures and plastics, but can't imagine not using jumbo suckers for pike fishing. It is how my family has always done it. I have moved to using quick-strike rigs to stop deep hooking the big boys that I always realease. I hope I never have to stop fishing with minnows.

[Brad B]

I don't feel they will ever do away completely with minnows since a out right ban on them would cause bait shops to go out of business and the lose of any business does not help the economy. it would also have a negative affect of resorts because less people would fish and this would also cause there to be less licenses sold so the state would lose valuable money there.

[TravP]

Are they going to stop waterfowl flying from lake to lake too...

[TruthWalleyes]

I keep my minnows in a cooler, and a 20oz bottle of frozen water. If traveling to a lake where i need to drain the water from the bait container, then i bring two coolers, each with a bottle of ice, and then they are cold in the boat, and cold when transfered into the secondary cooler.

[Shorelunch]

I was checked by the DNR on Lake Bemidji this weekend. I asked him a few questions on live bait on non-infested waters.

Per his response: I have a baitwell on my boat. I can keep the bait, but must take the minnows out of the baitwell and can transfer them to a pale of water. I can even take the water used for the pale out of the lake. This makes no sense to him either. However, per the law, he said, you can not keep water from a lake in your boat.

It was my understanding from him that if it was infested waters, I couldn't of used lake water in the pale I put the minnows.

[Down Deep]

I thought about the same thing. What I decided to do was to put a couple sealed gallon jugs of water in my front live well which I rarely use. Then the fresh water is exactly the same temp as the water in the bait-well or the minnow bucket.

[IamZombie]

We've been filling an insulated minnow bucket and leaving it in the back of the truck, and then scoop the minnows out of the bait bucket we used in the boat when we land.