SB 2183- Ease Sucker Importing Restrictions

Captainbrad

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SB 2183 is being heard next Thursday. This is a bill allowing Eastern ND bait dealers who have a Sucker permit to bring suckers over the border from MN without restriction. This is currently legal if a wholesaler has a ND permit and ND approved bait ponds. There is only one wholesaler and he doesn't have suckers from what I understand. I am anticipating Game and Fish to be very against this because there is already the licensing in place and due to ANS. Suckers must be kept in cold water and on air so they are moved to chilled well or treated water.

Meanwhile it is now illegal to possess live suckers west of a Red River county. It is legal to purchase suckers anywhere in MN and enter the river from the MN side (example, East Grand Forks) but illegal to cross the bridge to enter the same water in the same river from the ND side with the same bait. As catfishing gets more and more popular bait supplies keep getting worse and worse we need to get ahead of this. In fact, I have talked to people who have chosen not to fish because there was no bait available at the time they wished to fish. This will allow for more supply to keep up with the ever growing demand on live suckers for catfishing.



Call your representative in support. Thanks
 


reddevilwoodsman

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Plan ahead and freeze suckers or access the Red River from the MN side if buying live suckers in MN. It's not a big deal. I agree with NDGF reluctance to ease regulations.
 


Captainbrad

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Plan ahead and freeze suckers or access the Red River from the MN side if buying live suckers in MN. It's not a big deal. I agree with NDGF reluctance to ease regulations.

It is a big deal! Freezing bait changes the biology and makes at certain times of year makes cutbait for catfish useless.
 

Captainbrad

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Just buy a MN license and access on the MN side and you can use live suckers purchased in MN.

Its not that easy. First off we don't need a MN license to launch on the MN side. What we don't have is MN access in the right areas to pull that off. There is only one access north of the GF dam on the ND side. There are no MN accesses in the Drayton or Pembina areas.

This is only about bringing bait over a bridge.
 


reddevilwoodsman

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It's very much more than about bringing bait over a bridge. It's about NDGF trying to stop the spread of ANS. It sounds as though you want to ease ANS regulations for personal gain.
I don't think that's right.

Also, other than alive vs. dead, how does freezing suckers change anything biological? It doesn't.
 
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Captain Ahab

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I get it as it’s a very specific Red River situation. Nobody would understand or care unless they fished the Red and followed the law. All Brad is looking for is a way to have live suckers move over the MN/ND bridge in order to access the river where he needs to(access is very limited and spread out on the Red). I get it and agree with him. This would not affect anywhere else in the state(ND) except border counties.
 

reddevilwoodsman

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“Logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” Prohibiting transportation of suckers across the border is a perfect example.
 

NDSportsman

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It's very much more than about bringing bait over a bridge. It's about NDGF trying to stop the spread of ANS. It sounds as though you want to ease ANS regulations for personal gain.
I don't think that's right.

Also, other than alive vs. dead, how does freezing suckers change anything biological? It doesn't.
What ANS are they trying to keep out of the Red River with this restriction?

They just try to make things black and white when we all know everything is grey! It's just like zero tolerance policies, there's no common sense.
 


Allen

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Personally, I'd like to see one be able to use suckers again on the Missouri River system. It's not like they aren't already in there.
 

Brian Renville

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Personally, I'd like to see one be able to use suckers again on the Missouri River system. It's not like they aren't already in there.

Yea me too, miss those days. Hard to argue though that if they are for sale people are going to buy then and use them outside of the system. It's not like there is much enforcement out there looking. For every one that gets caught 20 more are out there. If you buy a couple scoops here in MT there will be at least 3-4 different species in there.
 

MuskyManiac

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I agree with Brad and Captain on this too. This is about Red River fishing only. Why not be able to buy suckers at Cabela's and bring them across the bridge to fish in the red. It would be the same sucker if I launched on the MN side in front of Cabela's anyway. But there is no Minnesota launch on the North end below the dam, and I like to go North most of the time.
 

Kurtr

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I am pretty sure its sucker chubs we use down here so i find it odd that you cant in nd on oahe
 


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