This is the second of a three-part series on fishery issues affecting area waterways.

VHS has caused one big mess—perhaps several— for bait dealers and anglers.

VHS (viral hemorrhagic septicemia) has been around for years. The virus affects fish fatally, with tissue breakdown resulting in massive internal bleeding that results virtually every time in the death of the infected fish.

A recent Cornell study revealed VHS discovered in a walleye from Lake Superior. That finding means this virus, first identified in the Northeast in 2005, has spread to all of the Great Lakes.

“That news is not a major finding,” said Andrew Noyes, aquatic pathologist in the DEC Fish Disease Control Unit at the Rome Fish Hatchery. Noyes recently reported VHS findings statewide for 2009, with only “a low-level, sub-clinical detection in Lake Champlain.”

To control VHS and seven other viral pathogens affecting fish, the DEC imposed restrictions on transporting fish and baitfish. Regulations have been imposed for three years, barring bait dealers and anglers from netting baitfish and carrying them on roadways to other waterways.

For the past three fishing seasons, bait dealers and anglers have been complaining about the rules that force dealers to sell only bait that has been certified through expensive, time-consuming procedures.

Area angler groups such as the Southtowns Walleye Association (SWA), the Erie County Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs (ECFSC) and other clubs support a regulations change that would allow the transportation of bait along the shoreline of the waters from which that bait had been netted or captured.

Noyes asserts that changing regulations to baitfish-carrying “corridors” along selected water bodies would not be standardized.

“It would favor some and not other [waterways],” he noted. “Allowing bait to be removed from one part of, say, Lake Erie and brought to another might trigger new disease events.”

Both those opposed and in support of a baitfish corridor agree that VHS may have existed for years— perhaps centuries—in Erie and other area waterways. How to control and manage possible VHS outbreaks has been a hot-button item for the past three fishing seasons.

Bill and Pat VanCamp, wholesale and retail bait dealers at Big Catch Bait&Tackle in Buffalo, have not only netted bait for decades, they have gathered scientific data as well as social input on this bait debate.

“People come in our store and say how sorry they are that we can’t dip and sell our own minnows,” Pat Van-Camp said. “We can sell other items to stay in business, but I feel sorry for the anglers that can’t get the bait they need to catch their fish.”

Emerald Shiners catch perch best in Lake Erie. Anglers agree. An Ohio Sea Grant report on an Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources 2009 summer study at the Stone Laboratory in Lake Erie’s western basin waters offered astounding results.

The study had 13 anglers fish with identical rigs, using various terminal baits. They caught 59 perch during two hours of fishing. Their results: “27 were using live [emerald shiner] baits, 18 on frozen shiners, and none on artificial.”

Ohio and nearby Pennsylvania allow anglers to dip minnows for bait used along the Erie shoreline. The Province of Ontario allows anglers to transport bait between Lake Erie and Route 401. Previously, bait dealers from Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania often dipped shiners from the upper Niagara River for use at their bait shops.

Now, Ohio anglers can take bait only from Ohio waters. Popular artificial baits such as Berkley Gulp often work on bass, walleye, and perch elsewhere. But perch populations in Erie’s cleaner, clearer waters take a shine to emerald shiners.

Noyes notes that epidemiological (scientific) concerns need to be weighed against public concerns. “I like the idea (of corridors) but I’m uneasy about implications they may cause,” he said.

Bruce Wager, SWA director and involved fishery-issues angler, points out that the three-year period has proved this baitfish ban to be less scientific and more political. “The main concerns here are fear and enforcement,” Wager said of the lack of VHS findings and the need to enforce stringent baitfish regulations. He feels the issues have been discussed to the extent that DEC fisheries personnel— regional managers and Albany officials—have had ample time to study issues.

Bill VanCamp points out, “This is not a wild fish issue. Most of the DEC findings have been in hatchery fish stressed during confinement.” Van-Camp questions whether hatchery fish are fed certified bait while they are under study.

As for the DEC regulations change on Jan. 6—extending the holding period from seven to 10 days for purchased certified bait—Van-Camp said, “That’s impractical. As soon as those minnows are mixed with other [lakes] water, they no longer remain certified.” Wager added, “If the minnows remain in that same water, they could be certified for 100 days.”

DEC officials say they are planning meetings on baitfish concerns, but no times, dates and places have been set for the general public.

VanCamp, Wager, and many other involved area anglers realize regional DEC officials await input from above on these issues. Instead, they urge fishermen in and around Western New York to appeal to high-ranking DEC fisheries folk in Albany. Currently, Art Newell serves as acting DEC Chief of the Bureau of Fisheries. To prompt timely public discussion on these baitfish issues, send your concerns to Newell at 625 Broadway, Albany, NY, 12233.