The St. Joseph Island…

The St. Joseph Island Hunters and Anglers are pleased to see the bait policy moving forward. We do however have a few concerns with the movement and retention of bait from the Islands.

As illustrated in Figure 4 you are proposing that bait can be moved from D, E and F into the great lakes but Bait from F which includes the islands can't be moved into D or E which are the zones where many of the anglers from the islands actually fish. If the transfer of disease is a concern would the minnows trapped in the great lakes or on the islands not be contaminated by the bait being introduced from zones D and E to the point that no differences would exist between these zones. A solution to this problem may be to make the Islands zone D and E and not include them in F since they would be better linked to these zones. For example. if we trap minnows on the island, drive them over the bridge to fish up the road back into the great lakes at Pine or Neebish Island we are breaking the law and yet the minnows come from the same water body.

In section 3.3 bait commercially harvested can only be retained for two weeks and yet many fishermen have the ability to maintain their bait in good health for longer periods with aeration systems. What's to prevent a fisherman from taking commercially harvested bait once the receipt runs out and calling it personally harvested. Does this two week retention apply to personally harvested bait?

[Original Comment ID: 209249]