Dan:

yeah, i recently saw some speedclips and I am definately gonna pick some up next time I'm at BPS.

Good idea, be sure to post pictures of what you find.

I was fishing a river one time and I noticed something similar. There were three dead smallies (very big ones) that appeard to have their tails against the bottom and their heads were floating up towards the surface and swaying back and forth with the current. They were also covered with some strange algae or something. Very strange.

Nice crappie! I wish I had a lake nearby where I could catch them.

cool, I like some of his stuff.

i usually use 3/0 wide gaps

He's the guy who uses the loop pedal all the time right?

The fish that are being saved are the fish that could potentially get infected by the transportation of wild and raised baitfish. The reason they are restricting the transport of the fish is so that VHS cannot spread. If you don't follow the order they have given, it is possible that VHS will spread to more fish. They didn't do what they did for no reason.

If angling is at the core of your concerns, then why are you more focused on the repercussions to the local bait fisheries than you are with the possibility that the actions being taken by the government will actually save fish? The government is taking the "better safe than sorry" route to make sure that they have maintained fishing the best they can. From your arguments, it sounds like you are saying that what they are doing isn't NECESSARY, but I'd rather take the chance of doing beyond what is necessary to ensure that the fish survive.

i usually don't really even have to set the hooks with ikas, it seems like the fish usually hit them so hard that they impale themselves!

Ok, so you are on the side of the local bait fisheries, the people who stand to lose money if this order remains? Can I ask what your profession and location are?

check the favorite beer thread.

A President spinning reel and new rod. a gift card to BPS a harmonica

that's what this sounds like to me. Ok, so I read a little more stuff on this Apparently they found this virus in the Great Lakes. They think it can be carried and transmitted by baitfish so they stopped all the transport of baitfish from states around the Great Lakes (including baitfish from Canada) in case the infection started within those baitfish hatcheries or in case the fish in the hatcheries are already or might become infected. Lane's comment about bringing up fish from the south is because the virus lives in colder water so I think that's why they are trying to get baitfish from the south's warmer waters (not to mention, why not get baitfish from the south?). And I'm pretty sure a national agency like APHIS knows enough not to introduce a southern baitfish that would be harmful for the Great Lakes, it's their job to know that kind of stuff. ^From what I've read, this new action is trying to keep this from happening to more of our gamefish by eliminating the spread of the virus. If local baitfisheries lose some money, I think it's worth not having to find out what would happen if they didn't play it safe.

wait a minute. Ok, so zebra mussels are posing a threat. Zebra mussels are also transported to new fisheries very often by the very ways this regulation would ban. So basically, if the reglation had been in place before, maybe zebra mussels may not have been transplanted to so many new places and caused (or potentially will cause) ecological harm to them....That zebra mussel example only makes the proposal sound better.

Go to your local government, if that doesn't work, try a lawyer.

I dunno, it sounds like its better to be safe than sorry.

but that doesn't mean it won't catch fish with a weight :-?

that's a joke, right?

yeah, i would imagine that you should be able to get them to fix the problem.

I catch a lot of my ika fish after it has made bottom contact or by slowly dragging it along the bottom so if your fish are biting that method a weight shouldn't matter.

Was the gin or the church there first? That might not even matter, but it's good to know.

I don't really drink very much at all, but I did enjoy Abita Purple Haze. Anyone who's been to Louisiana has probably heard of it.

If you're fishing for smallies, don't forget that they often times like to hangout very, very close to current (if not in it) so don't just target big pools and slow eddies. I would also reccommend tubes, but if there is a lot of brush or rocks or what not, you will probably need to try to use a weedless rig

i caught my PB when I hardly knew what I was doing also. In fact, my PB was also my first largemouth.