Bait

[milt]

gutpile its not illegal to use a net w ent there with a charter capt and dip for minnows in that spot just cant use the minnows anywhere but the river or lake erie and trib

[lineman49]

I get minnows there useing a throw net & at times they are in there so heavy & the net is so full its impossible not to spill them on the ground. Not that I want to but I figure the gulls eat them witch they would anyway.

[wnyguy]

As far as I can tell you are allowed to net your own minnows, provided you do not sell them, and that you use the minnows in the same body of water that you caught them from. (there are travel corridors listed also) Also you are limited to certain bodies of water to net minnows from. In other words, it is illegal to run out to your local TROUT containing stream and net some minnows. But it is legal at lake erie and the niagara river.

Here is the web page from DEC that talks about minnows, if you scroll down you will get to the part that talks about personally harvested baitfish.

http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/47282.html

Now if anyone has any info to contradict what I just posted please add your comments.

[wnyguy]

The first time I saw minnows on the ground like that I was really annoyed and disgusted as well. In all honesty from what I have seen most people are pretty careful and try to keep all they collect, but there is always a bad apple, you know how that goes. Also you have to understand that those minnows are flipping all over the place when you net them, and it's easy to lose a few. Multiply that by lots of people and the minnows start adding up.

But mostly what happens is the infrequent moron who just doesn't care, if he misses the bucket and hits the ground he just nets more. It only takes one like that and you end up with minnows all over the place.

[lineman49]

I have tried picking up some that were dropped & its tuff grabbing those lively, slippery little suckers, especially with no finger nails!!

[captainjoe]

I heard the other day that a few weeks ago the minows were in very tick but the numers have drastically reduced in the last few days. Where do they go? deeper?

[fishkiller16]

We dipped minnows this morning at the Foot of Ferry they were in real thick I dropped the net 4 times and filled 2 3 gallon buckets. They were real nice minnows too, we only fished a couple hrs and just as we got into the perch the weather turned to ****, the winds picked up and the rain started.