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Message: <blockquote data-quote="zoops" data-source="post: 365669" data-attributes="member: 790">On minnows...https://www.grandforksherald.com/news/fargo/live-bait-shortage-may-impact-more-then-just-fishermenFARGO — North Dakota is in the middle of another statewide shortage. It's not eggs or toilet paper. This time it is minnows.Minnow tanks at local bait shops are currently empty."You can see what we have, nothing. Nice clean water" said Gary Gould, owner of Fargo Bait and Tackle.For the first time in 45 years, the tanks at Gould's tackle shop are completely empty. The harsh winter has taken a beating on one of the main resources that keep businesses like his running."We're into March and it sounds like it's going to be a whole another month of snow cover. There is no sunlight. When the plants die, everything dies in the pond," he said.The lack of minnows is not just a Fargo problem. According to Gould, live minnows are becoming rare across the eastern part of North Dakota."I think from Devils Lake all the way down to South Dakota, there is not a minnow, I'm guessing," Gould said. "It's got to be a statewide thing; the snow is here."Finding fewer and fewer minnows does not seem like it would cause that many problems, but a live bait shortage impacts more than just anglers."It brings a lot of revenue to the state. Motel, hotel, restaurants, sales tax, gas tax. If there is no bait, it's going to hurt everybody," Gould said. "You talk to them people in them little towns, they'll tell you how it hurts them."The tanks usually hold more than 1,000 minnows at a time. News of the bait shortage has circled around the fishing world, causing high demand with severely limited supply."It's like a sugar shortage," Gould said. "Everybody buys 20 pounds that would normally buy 5. So that's what happens, and then they have to try to keep them alive."Many of those minnows freeze and go to waste, he said. In the meantime, Gould said it is best for anglers to get creative."They just got to change the fishing up a little bit. You're maybe not going to key so much on the walleye as you are going to on the perch, crappie, sunnies and pike," he said.Gould said there may be a shortage for at last three years, because two age-classes of minnows have likely been lost this winter. He is hoping wholesalers can harvest in deeper water with help from the North Dakota Game and Fish Department.</blockquote>

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