69norton

Don't get caught with red side dice as they are either threatened or endangered (not sure their category but it's not good). Also the obvious goby, rough, rudd and stuff like that. If your scooping at the duct or Niagara River into a school they're most likely the common emerald shiners that don't look anything like illegal baitfish. Traps in the creeks are a little harder to sort. Bass look like bass, pike like pike an baitfish like baitfish. I've got the odd carp or sunfish in there too. Your likely not going to catch emerald shiners in a trap.

That was my main concern - that by netting baitfish, I would end up being in possession of something that's in violation of the regs.

No worries now. I'm going to give it a shot.

Yes....the name and number on the trap is in the regs somewhere....that's not a dumb question. The answer will vary. This time of year you aren't going to get any bass fry. Various species of shinners or dace are most common, but there are all kinds of different species of minnow out there it would be impossible to tell what you may get.

Great. Thanks for the info. I'll have a good read over the regs when I get home tonight.

This might come across as a dumb post to those who know better, but what species of fish are these minnows?

I'm not going to be scooping up bass fry, am I?

Tips for using a trap:

Make sure no ones sees you set it or it might disappear.

Make sure you put your name and number on or in the trap for compliance reasons

Write yourself a note so you don't forget to get it within 24 hours

Use hard crusty bread. Half a stale crusty role is more than plenty

Be vigilant when sorting the bait to avoid putting invasives i your bucket

Return unused bait back to where you caught it or dump it on land away from water.

My best advice would be to use a dip net in the water that you plan to fish

I had a really quick look at the regs. I take it this is in there somewhere?

Cheers,

Eric