LD163 is a proposed bill that would ban four species of bait in Maine waters, used mostly by ice anglers. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Thomas Watson of Bath, has met with opposition from ice fishermen, bait dealers, guides and many other Maine residents who view the bill as nonsense.

Yesterday in Augusta, the Standing Committee for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife sat mostly quiet and listened to testimony of those for and against. Susan Cover from the Morning Sentinel covered the event and reports on it this morning.

At issue, at least on the surface, is whether or not the four signified species of bait fish, the eastern silvery minnow, the emerald shiner, the spottail shiner and the blackchin shiner, are native to Maine waters and actually pose any kind of threat to the fishery. Rep. Watson thinks so.

Watson said they are not native to Maine and should be considered invasive.

“To our fragile inland fisheries, non-native species are invasive species,” he said.

Jeff Levesque is from Greene.

He warned that a “fish plague” that’s killing fish in the Great Lakes could make its way to Maine.

“Let’s close the barn door before the horse gets out,” he said.

The head of fisheries for MDIFW testified in opposition to the bill and said he can’t be sure if any or all the fish in question are native or not.

Eighty-year-old George Rheaume of Winthrop, said he began selling bait back in the 1950s and that these fish were in the Kennebec River then.

“I don’t know how long they have to be in Maine to be native, but they were there when I started,” he said. “All the years I’ve caught them, they are the finest fish I’ve ever used.”

John Boland, director of fisheries operations for the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife said the best way to deal with this issue is through education, enforcement of existing laws and prohibiting the dumping of bait buckets into lakes. That would be enough to protect Maine’s fish.

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Tom Remington