I am in favour of leaving…

I am in favour of leaving the bait usage/harvesting laws much the same as they are now - while I understand that the wholesale baitfish industry is large and generates much money for a few, anglers should remain allowed to catch baitfish as they do now for their own use. All live bait, except worms, (primarily minnows) should not be transported more than fifty miles from original catchment area, even that of commercially harvested baitfish. Better education resources should be made easily available for anyone catching minnows, such as a booklet or pictures of the various species, including the prohibited species for better identification purposes. The Internet comes to mind on this aspect also. Those individual fishers that go to the time/expense of harvesting their own baitfish, in my opinion, are typically ardent fishers, and further restrictions by regulations only will make it more difficult and likely expensive for them to ply their sport. Also in my opinion, due to wholesale aspects of bait dealers, minnows ( and containment water) get transported great distances for sale in distant jurisdictions. This is where focus should be placed, as well as subsequent numbers of minnows transported by said 'bait dealers'.

In short; leave 'the little guy' alone except providing more knowledge and research material for them by making needed knowledge/pictures easily/inexpensively available.

[Original Comment ID: 209364]