• Maine right to rethink banning of plastic, rubber baits

  • Plastic and rubber baits have been around for decades. So why, all of a sudden, have a couple of pictures of fish showed up that supposedly died from having these baits in their stomach?
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    First off, these baits will bleach out to pure white after a couple of days and the baits that were — supposedly — in their stomachs were all in full color. These fish were caught while chasing a trout bait that they thought was a meal, but with that many plastic baits in their stomachs, they would not have been still feeding.
    No, these two fish died from being caught and thrown in a creel or in the bottom of the boat, where they expired from lack of oxygen.
    The Maine Inland Fisheries was going to use one of those pictures on the back page of its new law book for 2014 but with all the e-mails, telephone calls and tweets, they decided it should not grace the cover. Good for them, as a maelstrom of dissent was developing over Augusta.
    Now, good news for plastic/rubber bait fishermen: The Maine IF&W has decided to study the effects of these lures that are used by bass fishermen throughout the country. They are going to use different methods to determine if these baits actually do kill trout and salmon.
    First, they are going to use divers to find out if these baits are laying on the bottom in deep water. They also are going to check shallow portions in a variety of lakes to see how many of these baits they can find. They will also place some of these baits in a specific spot on the bottom in the shallows of a number of lakes so they can monitor them, and see if trout or salmon pick them up and swallow them.
    This is the most logical way to solve this problem. As a bass fisherman, I can attest to the fact that there are hundreds of these baits lying on the bottom of the lakes I fish. This tells me that 1) the trout/salmon/bass are not eating them; 2) they have bleached out to all white, which makes it easy to spot them; and 3) the fish aren't interested in them.
    So, why do bass hit them when they are black, purple, blue or a myriad of other colors? Because of the movement that resembles a baitfish. Lying on the bottom of a lake is not natural.
    So, let's talk trout and salmon. Most of these bass baits that we see on the bottom in the shallows are big lizards and they really aren't anything that appeal to trout/salmon. Especially when after a couple of days they lose all their color.
    When the heat of summer arrives, trout and salmon will go deep, where the waters are cooler and more oxygenated. Bass fishermen are, mostly, shoreline, rock pile, wood and grass fishermen, as that is where the bass live. When fall approaches, a few bass fishermen will fish deep drop-offs and rock piles, but most trout and salmon don't frequent these areas.
    I caught two beautiful, two-plus pound brown trout last year in the early spring that attacked my small tube bait. Both were hooked in the lip and released. In all the years I've been fishing for bass I had never caught a brown trout before. My wife caught a few brook trout one year using a small grub, but again, we released them.
    A huge side affect of outlawing plastic/rubber baits would be the closing of hundreds of small mom-and-pop tackle shops, as this is a multi-million dollar business throughout New England. Add to that the Kittery Trading Post, Cabelas and L.L. Bean, and many jobs could be lost; so would boatloads of money from lack of sales taxes.
    If the state did decide to outlaw these baits, how much time would they allow for the retail outlets to sell off these baits? How much time would they give the fishermen to use up all of their baits? How many Maine fishermen would go to New Hampshire, Massachusetts or New York so they could continue to use these baits? Too many questions have to be answered before a law could be imposed.
    I applaud the Maine Inland Fisheries for examining the problem first-hand and taking the time to make a decision.
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