Stopped by the local bait shop to pick up a dozen fatheads this morning and was informed that I would be getting tuffy minnows instead. Seems there is a problem with the fatheads that are supplied to my local guy (VHS?) and it looks like the fatheads will be in short supply this season. Basically what it means is the price for minnows will go up. Anyone else heard anything like this? Tom

Hi Tom,

I fish Lake Erie out of Monroe, Michigan and I can tell you when we buy minnows we get a receipt from the
bait shop that shows our minnows are "certified". If you get stopped by the DNR and can't find your receipt,
they give you a pretty substantial fine. The "certified" minnows have been harvested locally, and the thought
behind this relatively new practice is that "certified" minnows will help to eliminate the spread of VHS.

I've had experiences much like yours the last couple years, but when the perch are biting we take what
we can get. One thing is for sure, the price will go up - IF you can even get what you want.

I love Arizona. We have to be one of the most free states in the country.

It hasn't gotten that bad here yet but I have heard of anglers getting fined for transferring bait from one body of water to another. It is only good sense to try and contain the VHS. Looks like I will be able to get minnows but tuffies instead of fatheads and at a higher price. Tom

Fatheads and waterdogs are readily available here in Arizona. And transferring fish from one body of water to another is illegal here too, as a preventative to transferring diseases and invasives from one body of water to another.

Posted By Pegsguy on 13 Apr 2011 11:38 AM
Stopped by the local bait shop to pick up a dozen fatheads this morning and was informed that I would be getting tuffy minnows instead. Seems there is a problem with the fatheads that are supplied to my local guy (VHS?) and it looks like the fatheads will be in short supply this season. Basically what it means is the price for minnows will go up. Anyone else heard anything like this? Tom

Maybe you should catch your own.  I used to set a minnow trap in the pond in back of my house and I caught everything from Green Sunfish to Bluntnose Minnows.

I may just try trapping my own, at least for use in the local pond. The problem I see is that there is a certain amount of vandalism at this pond. I would probably need to put a trap in well after dark and pull it early the next morning. Tom

That's the thing.  I've been though two minnow traps in the last year, both taken by a crazy environmentalist who believes that I'm, somehow, going to catch a turtle.   The hole in the trap is only about an inch and a half wide.

My problem isn't the greenies (most of whom seem to be wanna bees), it's the local teens with little imagination to keep themselves occupied. Dang kids should learn to fi****om

What is with my last post? I tried to edit and it keeps showing what you see. What I wrote is that the kids should learn to fish. Tom

No problem, happens to me all the time.    There's this one pond I go to fish at, because it has a lot of big bass.  I'm really the only one that fishes at it, but other people (older teens) drive up and do drugs there.  After they're done, they throw their equipment (syringes etc.) into the water.  They haven't really disrupted my fishing yet, but I'm sure that's still to come.   It seems that there's no regulations to stop them from doing what they do and the police sure haven't tried to stop them yet.  It's kinda sad, because it's one of my favorite places to fish.

VHS is a real problem they even stopped taking eggs from great lakes walleyes until this year for stocking efforts. Now they found a way to sterilize the eggs and should start stocking efforts again this year. We have the opposite problem here. All I can find are the fathead minnows to use on the inland lakes. I prefer the emerald shiners or blue shiners. We plant about 20 gallons of fatheads in our private lake every year for fish food. The other minnows have more flash and attract hte fish better JMO.

Great this isn't what I want to hear. Well good thing I've stopped using bait store minnows two years ago, when prices started climbing and the minnows didn't make it even halfway to the lake, about a half mile away. Took them back to the bait store and the guy (owner) told me that the fish will eat dead minnows. So I went out and bought Gulp Alive minnows in 3 inch and 1 inch sizes. Had the best success with smelt and emerald shiner colors. They last longer on the hook and my catch rate has gone up a bit. The 1 inch minnows are great for crappie and I'm catching the bait stealing bluegills now.