Is THIS legal

[eyehunter]

I constructed a "minnow bucket" of sorts that I use to keep my minnows in when I am not in my permanent. It is made out of galvanized mesh, weighted on the bottom, I put the minnows in, close the lid and it sits on the bottom of the lake. I have a yellow mason cord tied to it and to the end of the cord is a 20 ounce soda bottle that floats up towards the surface. I tie the soda bottle at a depth so that it will not freeze in the ice. When I drill my hole you can see the bottle floating about a foot or so below the bottom of the ice, I then use a hook that I made out of a broom handle and hook the string and pull my minnows up. I was wondering if anybody thought this may be illegal? I never thought of it before last weekend when I was sitting there in my house looking at it and thinking what the CO would say if he walked in and saw it. I know that you are not supposed to put anything in the lake that wasn't there when you got there, but I guess I don't know if this is legal or not.

Anybody have any thoughts???

[anyfishwilldo]

I think you would be better off to not let it down to the bottom, and use the broom to keep the whole works from going in. Why not just go right below the ice? Wouldnt that actually be easier?

[eyehunter]

But by doing it the way that I do it, it doesn't freeze into the ice and you can still drill your hole open without hitting it or anything else.

[Papa Woodie]

From your post, it sounds like you are doing this while you are not in your permanent...such as during the week when he fishes only on the weekend for example. So the whole works gets frozen over, then he re-drills his hole, and grabs the rope with his broom handle.

Like the idea...so you don't have to bring your minnows home, and also keeps them alive alot easier.

[fdr01]

nice! if its not illegal its a million doller idea

[eyehunter]

That is exactly what I am talking about....leaving the minnows down there during the week when I am not there. And yes it does work very well I have shiners in there right now that I bought the week between Christmas and New Years and they are still as lively as the day that I bought them.

[roadkingclasic56]

I believe this is legal as long as you are not letting the minnows that you bought at the tackle store go into the lake. I always see minnow buckets tied to the end of the dock or hanging off the side of the boat at the dock with no one in attendance in the summer. I have seen minnows in a bucket sunk in a deep part of the lake with a plastic jug tied to them for retrieval. I am sure there wouldn't be an issue with the minnows. I tie off a 5 gallon bucket in my spear hole with live sucker minnow decoys in it. I let it hang below ice level to keep the decoy minnows alive while I am absent from the house. I think it's an excellent idea!

[huntnfish]

I used to do this when I had a permanent house. It worked great to keep the minnows alive. The only problem I had was towards the end of the year, I hadn't checked the knot and when I went to pull it up the knot slipped and I had a bucket of minnows on the bottom of the lake. It took a good hour to snag them with a swedish pimple and pull them up. Make sure you check your knots before you put it down. I don't see where there would be a problem with the law as long as you aren't leaving anything on the bottom when you leave for the year.

[nytelyter]

hehehehe. i have been using this technique for years. i made my bucket out of 4" pvc with a cap on one end and a cleanout plug on the other end. and drilled many holes in it. then on the cleanout end i used an eye bolt to fasten a rope to it. i learned this from an ole timer many years ago. and what he would do was this. outside the fishhouse next to a hole inside he would drill a hole as close as possible to the fishhouse and drop the container into it and tie off the rope to an eye bolt he had on the fishhouse. he had piece of heavy wire with a hook bent into the end and he would reach the container from the inside hole and haul it up and pour his "lake water temp and very fresh" minnows into his pail and hang the container on the wall close to the hole. now i dont do the outside hole thing. the heat is always on in the house as i fish every day. so the holes stay open. i tie the container to the bottom of my wooden hole covers in a bow knot and leave the tail of the rope on the floor. if it does happen to freeze in. i just pull the tail, lift the cover off and chisel the hole open enuff to retrieve the minnows. i dont have a picture of the home made rig. but i do know that a company makes just about the same thing. may even be hitech. or a leach locker , the one with all the holes init, would work as.well. hope this helps out. and btw. to answer your question, YES it is legal to do. ... paul

took a pic with my cell phone to show ya what it looks like

[image][/image]

[eyehunter]

Thanks for the reply Paul. I hear what your saying, the minnows are in great shape every time that I want to go fishing. Unfortunately I can't go fishing everday, my wife wouldn't appreciate it much if I didn't go to work. I am glad to hear that it is legal, just didn't want to get into trouble if the CO stopped by.

Thanks again.

[BobT]

It might not hurt to check with authorities. I am inclined to think it could fall under the category of littering. But then, it would also be illegal to place minnow traps in rivers and streams to be left unattended.

I don't know.

Bob

[double_dog]

I think the point is, he is obviously keeping the bucket down there to keep minnows alive with full intention of coming back and reusing them. This would be the same as the minnow trap idea. It would only be littering if it was never retrieved. I think it is a fine idea.

[mrwalleye_13]

i think that has to be legit... I had a 6 inch pvc assembly i made years back. I centered the rope and just chiseled it out a little everytime i fished and pulled it up... all minnows very very lively and ready togo its almost a gaurentee...go to your local hardware store and stir a little something up..

[jig n' jerk]

This is an excelent idea eyehunter. I have done something similar but only let the minnows hang down a few feet or more. When you put the minnows all the way down to the bottom you are leaving them in the part of the lake with the highest concentration of dissolved oxygen. That ( allong with other reasons) is why most of the fish you catch in the winter are on the bottom. Props for the good idea. I may have to borrow it!!

[eyehunter]

Thanks jj, I can try and take a picture of it this weekend, but I am not quite sure how to post it on here. Somebody mentioned previously in this thread that they thought a couple of companies already sell something like this, so it doesn't look like I am going to making millions on it anyway. What I mean is, go ahead and borrow it, I won't make millions, but at least I've got minnows waiting for me at the lake and I don't have to stop and get more on the way.

[hoggs222]

My Dad has been doing this for years. It also has the soda bottle at the end a few feet under the ice. His has 4 metal legs that seem to catch into the bottom of the lake nicely. He always said that whatever hole he put that down, was always the hotter hole for the weekend.

[FrontenacPike]

It seems to be a good idea but on the other hand I'm very glad that not too many people use this technique. Just imagine this, you are fishing a lake and there were 50 of these things scattering the bottom. All of a sudden you hook in to a monster fish, he then takes a long run on you and gets tangled up and eventually you loose him because of all these man made obstacles. I would definetly have a lot of choice words and sorry to say it but that bucket would not be seen again. Yeah the chances aren't that good right now but trade every fishermans bucket on your favorite spot and let them use this technique instead, and we are definetly going to have problems.

[schweady]

Frontenac: About the time you tie into that beauty, all the other guys are out fishing too, and their bait buckets are inside their houses.

Bob: As far as leaving a bait bucket under water constituting littering, yeah I guess so... kinda like leaving a fish house out unoccupied overnight is littering. There's a fair amount of motivation to go back and get it before vacating. My favorite recent quote from a CO: "ALL fish houses are temporary."

nytelyter: Your 4" PVC is exactly our setup. The high school shop kids make 'em. Just watch out banging them around - they're brittle when they're cold. I've cracked and reglued ours a couple of times, which made me think about making some out of Schedule 40 pipe... "For the discriminating bait tube owner..."