VHS

[Dan Andrews]

Well Tuesday Night in Fort Erie we will be hosting John Cooper as a guest speaker and he will be talking about VHS and other viruses that are restricting the live bait industry. John is MNR and Lake Erie Management Unit.

He will be given 30 minutes to sum up the problem and we will open the floor to questions. I have at least 2.

Seeing as this is such a volatile topic I will say this. This is a general meeting for the club not a big presentation and John will be our guest so if your looking to whoop the MNR over this please stay home. John is simply a representative and doesn't make important decisions like the bait ban but is there to convey the message to you. I'm sure your questions and concerns will be conveyed right back to the MNR so bring em on.

Meeting starts at 7:30 pm and if you buy a 50/50 ticket you have a chance to win 2 Musky Odyssey tickets for this years event in St Catharines April 14th. A ticket will be drawn at the end of the General Meeting.

Directions - click here

Dan

[Dan Andrews]

Well it wasn't a big meeting but we did get one new comer sign up for membership and about 5 out of towners. Allot of our members are snowbirds and are in Florida with the rest of the silver crowd .

Well John Cooper put on a power point slide and was well engaged with questions fielded by Rob MacIntosh. Rob asked about border issues and recommended a total live bait ban. Rob also showed concern that the ballast laws are too laxed. John could only direct him to the Feds on both issues. The Americans made the border rules pertaining to moving live fish so really the MNR can't help out.

John did point out however that 90% of ships that ply the Lake are not ocean going vessels. However the lakers must take on or release water as they change their load which may move invasives from one great lake to the next.

John made it clear that VHS is probably here to stay and that this is the first fresh water strain. The fish can be carriers and die offs usually happen around 4 degrees C. Bait and fish are not the only ways to spread it inland as bilges and livewells can also spread it. This now affects pleasure boaters as much as anglers so lets all do our part and clean those boats up between lakes. 10% bleach and water are recommended but not near the water as bleach is toxic to fish.

Guess what? Lake Erie has flounder and mitten crabs

Yup they've made their way here but fortunately they can't reproduce without salt water so once they get old and die that will be it until more are brought by ships. John also showed us the latest invasive called the bloody shrimp, invasive #184 in the great lakes.

Hey Steve. John said they were meeting with the Bait Association Friday (yesterday) and if the BAO could produce a good plan that could ensure bait wouldn't be sold outside the infected zone, they'd put you back to work. I just sent an email to John but don't expect a reply until Monday. I did tell him however that Fort Erie feels this is ridiculous and that harvesters shouldn't be shut down, just restricted to selling the bait from the infected zone to that same zone.

So after this meeting Mac walked away with the 50/50 and smerch won the odyssey tickets. Bloody out of towners always taking the wealth back home .

Hope you guys enjoyed. April 3rd - OFAH explains how hunting is necessary to nonhunters.

http://home.cogeco.ca/~fecc

[bigugli]

Your club is doing a great service bringing in these highly informed speakers. A pity more don"t take advantage of the learning opportunity. THanx.

[smerchly]

Hey Chilli ....I don't think Rob actuall recommended a total live bait ban .......think he meant that it would be the easy way to stop all transportation of live minnows ,and some people will still ignore that rule . I hope they can keep the guys in the minnow business going with simple rules on where you can use them .

And about those tickets I won ........I am not into musky at all , so the first person to pm me can have the two tickets free of course ! I'll check later to see if anyone is interested .

[ROB MCINTOSH]

Why thankyou Bill: I only said that in responce to Johns comment about not being able to stop anyone from transporting bait into the non-infected areas. And I said why would that be(no co's) and he didn't reply. So my comment realy was a bit of a slap because he knows that will not happen because it would be a federal isue and that would take atleast 3 years to pass and by then it will be in every lake.He also said that it has been found in Lake Huron but no testing has been done on Simcoe,Kawarthas and lakes inbetween so it makes sence to stop sales of bait fish in the infected area because they won't be able to stop the movment, so that's why I made that statement about a total ban on bait fish and that kind of stopped the statement because it made no sence atall and I think they know this but it looks good on paper and it will keep the stupids quiet for now. I just hope that they see that this was a dumb move to stop the bait sales here until they can come up with a plan that will work and keep everyone

[Dan Andrews]

So Rob let me get this straight. You weren't really suggesting a total live bait ban, you were just being sarcastic with our guest speaker?

John Cooper is just as much on the chopping block as the C.O's . He doesn't layoff enforcement officers and would gladly join our lobby if not one of the remaining employees of the MNR. The reason there has been no testing on these inland lakes is because they've already got the few hands they have left full already.

Now I agree whoever made this dumb move wasn't thinking very well because if anglers can't buy bait and it's still legal to catch and transport, they'll do it. The stupid thing is that it takes a federal level to change the regs for licenced anglers. Although this may help once all those anti's working there get their buddies working there too .

Rob you lost me somewhere between and . Sorry I came away thinking you wanted a total live bait ban. I guess when you said your a tournament fisherman so you don't really care unless someone gets garlic in your boat.... ........well that's when you lost me.