Expansion of Zebra Mussel Infested Waters

If you gather your own bait you may want to look at this information from the Minnesota DNR: DNR designated Infested Waters

I was doing some map reconning for waters that I might be able to gather bullheads and bait from for next summer. I thought I better check and see if any of my proposed sites were designated as infested waters. When I pulled up the most recent list of infested waters I found out that a great portion of the Mississippi River has been designated as infested with Zebra Mussels. This is not good news for those that gather bait from the upper Mississippi River.

The current listing identifies the Mississippi River from the mouth of the Pine River in Crow Wing County to the Minnesota – Iowa border as infested with Zebra Mussels. This is a significant change – last year the Mississippi River was listed as infested from St Anthony Falls downstream. This new change impacts the river all the way up to north of Brainerd. I was going to try and seine some suckers for bait up near Elk River – I guess I will rule that out now.

For those that don’t know it – if waters are infested with zebra mussels it is unlawful to harvest minnows, frogs, crayfish or any other wild animals from those infested waters for bait. Reference page 66 – 67, 2006 Minnesota Fishing Regulations.

The expansion of invasive species across the Minnesota watersheds is relentless. It has a significant impact on those of us that harvest our own bait.

I thought they were dieing of Steve?

Quote:

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if waters are infested with zebra mussels it is unlawful to harvest minnows, frogs, crayfish or any other wild animals from those infested waters for bait. Reference page 66 – 67, 2006 Minnesota Fishing Regulations.

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WOW! Thats a killer right there. I never knew that. You mean you can’t harvest bait out of the river and use it in the same body of water on the same pool? I guess I just don’t see where using a bluegill in the same water you caught it from would have any effect. But I can definitely see where transfering it and using it for bait somewhere else would be a problem..this has to be rough news for you cat guys

Hi Cade – The regulations I noted above apply to Minnesota anglers. Last time I checked Wisconsin fisherman can harvest and use bait in the Mississippi River border waters. For some reason the WI DNR does not apply the same restrictions on invasive species infested waters as Minnesota does. I would like to find out why. I’m not sure Minnesota’s efforts to control invasive species will work on the border waters if the bordering states are not applying the same control measures.

The “upper” section you listed was posted in 06 as infested, they found Zebra mussels in Rice Lake in Brainerd so they listed the whole stretch as infested.

Hey I caught 2 small channells last week on hair jigs they fought about 1/2 as much as the smallies