Bait supply shortage affecting Minnesota anglers

Plymouth, Minn. — The topic of low bait inventory came up repeatedly at the MN-FISH summit on May 3 in Rogers. Trappers and suppliers on hand pleaded for help in improving the bait supply for retailers and their customers.

Marshall Koep, owner of Clitherall-based Urbank Live Bait Co., said the bait supply hasn’t improved this summer. Meetings with the DNR have discussed solutions to improve the supply, but ultimately, Koep believes Minnesota needs to import from other states.

“To me, importation has to happen because the demand for fishing is unreal,” Koep said.

Sean Sisler, the Minnesota DNR’s commercial aquatic programs and fish health consultant, said Minnesota and Maine are the only two states that don’t allow importation of minnows.

During this hot summer, Koep said live bait is dying in the ponds due to consistent, extreme temperatures. If such weather continues, importation or an emergency order might be needed to keep anglers supplied in the fall and winter.

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Tom Neustrom, a Grand Rapids-area fishing guide and MN-FISH board member, said the DNR has had two meetings with minnow dealers to tackle the issue and understand what problems citizens have faced while trying to obtain live bait. Sisler said an outcome from the meetings has been working to expand minnow trapping and provide more areas for trappers.

One of the biggest steps the DNR took was expanding a pilot project on more lakes to help trap live bait in infested waters. The lakes in the pilot project have zebra mussels, but Sisler said there’s trapping gear designated for that specific lake, and it’s never moved to another location. The DNR added two more lakes to the pilot project for the 2023 spring and summer, Sisler said.

Neustrom said the DNR extended the harvest date to Memorial Day weekend to provide more opportunity to harvest spottail shiners this past spring. Trappers and bait shops appreciated the extension to prepare for summer sales.

“We had nine (lakes) this year, where last year we had seven,” Sisler said about the pilot expansion. “We added two lakes that were requested (by minnow dealers) and the lakes that were requested (and weren’t added) were a part of the same chain as the major lake, but they were smaller lakes in that chain and those were smaller than what our pilot project was looking at. We’re looking for big lakes that multiple people could access.”

Sisler added the DNR allowed permits to harvest minnows in trout waters and WMAs as well as providing information on stocking winterkill ponds with a stocking permit.

Koep said its been quiet since the initial DNR meetings, but he’s hoping the agency uses its emergency order to allow importation into the state. On May 8, the Legislature’s Environment and Natural Resources Conference Committee passed an amendment allowing the DNR to use an emergency rule and allow importation from adjacent states if there’s a live-bait scarcity.

Koep said that he wants the DNR to work on getting some bodies of water back for the trappers to raise and trap minnows.

There were plenty of water bodies 10 to 20 years ago that allowed the live bait market to flourish, but many of those locations have been bought by other organizations or haven’t been managed for minnows.

MN-FISH and Sen. Nathan Wesenberg, R-Little Falls, have been advocating for live bait trappers and suppliers, Koep said, and he hopes meetings resume with the DNR soon.

The dominant question regarding importing is whether it’s safe to expose state rivers and lakes to live bait water that potentially could contain aquatic invasive species. Koep believes it’s safe because of thorough testing programs from live bait exporting states.

“In my mind, it’s safe (to import),” Koep said. “If you go from Arkansas bringing up shiners, those testing programs are amazing. … They’re all man-made ponds. They drain them. They’re pretty much on top of the nation for making sure there’s not any invasive species in it or health diseases or anything.”

Sisler said the DNR is working on different avenues to help the immediate and long-term future of live bait in Minnesota. The DNR will continue having meetings with trappers and suppliers to produce an accurate and adequate legislative report for the 2024 legislative session.

The DNR is also one of the only Great Lakes states to have VHS-free zones, which provides more areas to harvest minnows.

“Across the Great Lakes, we are the only state that hadn’t had a VHS outbreak, and part of it is because we don’t currently allow minnow importation, we don’t allow you to dump your bait into water bodies, and for VHS-susceptible species we require that you test the waters,” Sisler said. “That’s a big reason why we’ve been able to keep that disease at bay.”

A couple of projects are showing promise for future harvests with white sucker eggs and golden shiners. One would provide white sucker eggs from Park Rapids-area office aquaculture licensees and permits to harvest sucker eggs from infested waters, Sisler said. There was an increased number of eggs taken in 2023 and will grow for this fall and the 2024 calendar year.

The other project focuses on strategies to improve production of golden shiner fish for Minnesota. The University of Minnesota Sea Grant program is partnering with Le Sueur-based Tye Fish Solutions and the DNR and showing promising results with a surplus of golden shiner fry, according to Sisler.

Bill Powell, owner of Fred’s Bait and Tackle in Deer River, said he expects August and early September to be tough for bait shop owners because live bait will be scarce. He suggests anglers call their local bait shop in advance to make sure they have live bait in their tanks.

Koep and Neustrom agreed there needs to be improvement in accessibility or importation for trappers, suppliers, and harvesters to have a successful business in the foreseeable future.