Suffering from the shortage
Due to winter kills and tight sourcing regulations, businesses and anglers both will be hurting without live bait available this spring.
By Mason Bona | Journalist
Greg Fisher hears the doorbell ring as a customer walks into the shop looking for bait. Fisher walks out from behind the counter and down the steps to the bait tanks where he sees the customer peer into an empty one. Fisher’s smile straightens out a bit knowing he probably just lost business. The customer requested a dozen shiner minnows, and was informed they were out of stock as they both gazed down into the empty blue tank. Unable to serve the customer the minnows he was after, they talk fishing while wandering around the small L-shaped store. Despite the suggestions for alternatives he received, the customer left the shop empty handed.
This year, Minnesota bait shops and anglers will be left without much of the live bait they’d normally have access to due to the rapid accumulation of multiple factors. Following a long and snowy winter, many of the state’s bait sources thawed out this spring with thousands of minnows floating dead on the surface, leaving bait dealers, anglers and shops of all sizes scrambling for options. Events like this have become major issues since around 2005, when the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources cracked down on the importation of any live bait from other states.
In the northern portion of Minnesota, the snow cover could be seen as early as mid-November this past year, and it lasted through the middle of April. Once a lake or pond is frozen, the only source of dissolved oxygen that fish require is that from aquatic plants performing photosynthesis, a process which requires sunlight. When a long-lasting, heavy snow cover blocks sunlight, dissolved oxygen levels plummet, and come springtime, people are greeted with the disaster that is a winter kill. People around affected lakes will see the clusters of pale, decomposing fish washing into shore, and smell them all rotting away. This is exactly what happened to a majority of Minnesota’s bait sources this past winter, making it a driving force behind the shortage.
About 20 years ago this wouldn’t have been a major issue, because bait distributors could’ve had minnows imported from states like Arkansas and Missouri, which have strong populations of cheaper minnows year-round. Since some live bait was found to have had viral hemorrhagic septicemia (VHS), the DNR banned businesses from importing live bait of any kind into the state.
Around 2005, permits to sell live bait would be revoked and shops would be subject to thousands of dollars in fines if businesses were caught importing bait. Bait distributors on the other hand could be shut down entirely. As businesses are suffering, the DNR is under heavy fire over the fact that the same regulation remains effective today, despite our abilities to test for the disease.
The DNR’s concern with repealing that regulation is that the state could become even more overrun with invasive species that cause harm to the ecosystem, which have the potential to demolish fish populations in affected waters.
“VHS is a very bad fish disease, that we do not want in this state,” said MN DNR Fisheries Section Manager Brad Parsons. “Anytime water is moved, pathogens can come with it.”
Diseases like VHS will spread from species to species, and can result in mass mortality events that leave but a single fish swimming in infected waters. Events like this can leave lakes in the same conditions as winter kills, and can cost millions of dollars in restoration funds in the worst cases.
“We used to sell 1,000 pounds of leeches just the week of opener, now we can’t even get that much.” –Greg Fisher, Owner of Vados Bait and Tackle.
According to Fisher, about half of all sales at Vados Bait and Tackle are live bait. With this being a reality for many shops around the state, not having minnows is dangerous. Come springtime at Vados Bait and Tackle, customers will walk in and see a wide variety of fishing rods, reels, lures, line, accessories and more just beyond the bait tanks. They also offer services including reel repair and line spooling. Despite this, odds have it that when that bell rings, someone is in for bait, especially around fishing opener which was May 13 this year.
“There would be 1,000 people Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. We used to sell 1,000 pounds of leeches just the week of opener,” said Fisher. “Now we can’t even get that much.”
“It really does hurt our business when we can’t have live minnows all the time, because there are people that won’t go fishing when they can’t get them.” –Doug Stahly, Joe’s Sporting Goods General Manager.
For anglers, using live bait has been a common practice for centuries because of how reliable it is. Despite the innovations in color, sound, and movement of artificial lures, many anglers insist on having live bait when fishing. According to fishing department members at Joe’s Sporting Goods, some anglers won’t even go fishing knowing they can’t present fish with live bait.
“It really does hurt our business when we can’t have minnows all the time,” Joe’s Sporting Goods General Manager Doug Stahly said. “Because there are people that won’t go fishing when they can’t get them.”
At the moment, businesses are being forced to improvise by selling the alternatives to live bait. Many types of lures attempt to mimic the looks of minnows underwater. For example, swimbaits feature joints or boot-tails to make them move with the same tail-kicking motion of fish. Preserved minnows are another alternative to live bait, because they’re the only way to present fish with the identical color, shape and scent of the live version. Both are often purchased when live bait is unavailable.
In order for this issue to be resolved, anglers and business owners must be represented in the state government. If the people affected communicate with the DNR and state legislature, new regulations around accessing bait can be implemented, allowing shops to have full access to bait once again. In order for businesses like Fisher’s to not be jeopardized by the weather, voices must be heard so change can be made.
“There needs to be better communication both ways, DNR and harvesters.” Parsons said.
