cast netting

[crosseye]

Does anyone know if you can net alewives with a cast net?? I would think they would make the best meat for cut bait or whole bait trolling but I don't know what the regs are for netting for personal use?

[dinoday]

I may have heard of guys doing that before;)
Just make sure you're in a Great Lake when you do it.

[SurfDog]

yes you can, only in the great lakes and the cast net can not be more than 8 feet in diameter. Should be easy pickings right now all along the pierheads.

Eli

[DonP]

You will get your share of alewives with a cast net... but another way to get them is with a Sabiki rig. If the water is really clear... you might actually get more with a sabiki rig. You can tie on a few #12 gold hooks instead of using a sabiki rig and catch them on plain gold hooks too. Of course... if you want to sweeten those gold hooks with a small chunk of worm... or wax worm... I don't think you'll get any complaints from the alewives!! :D

Either way... now is the time to get out and get 'em.

[crosseye]

Thanks! I thought it would be ok....
Do you know if there is a quantity limit? I want to take them home and prep them for use later?

[Oakley]

There is not a quantity limit and casting is really easy off the pier. Even off a boat is pretty easy in shallow water.

[mkroulik]

Anybody ever try using a cast net for Smelt?

Mike

[Jason Adam]

I have heard that dead alewives give off some scent or something that repels salmon, seriously, but that could be just hear-say.

I do know someone that netted stunned alewives behind the Badger one day and rigged them and hammered fish in Ludville.... The same guy that caught a king on a Banjo Minnow off a rigger...

[EdB]

Stelmon cast netted some for me last year off the Ludington pier and they worked great. I filleted and cured them. He also got a bike with his cast net too. Yeap, he caught it with his net and brought it up. I don't know much about bikes but he said it was not a cheap one.

[ZobZob]

There is not a quantity limit and casting is really easy off the pier. Even off a boat is pretty easy in shallow water.

Watch the rocks... unless you want to take one toss and break your net ($20 down the drain). I've had problems in Manistee (harbor side)...

Sabiki's are better as you rarely break them off, they only cost $4 when you do, they are obviously much smaller & you can cast them out if the alewives are sparse, etc. The disadvantages are that they don't work well in the early spring (yes, when there are alewives present) and they don't work at all after dark... so, it's good to have both.

Zob

[live2fishdjs]

Watch the rocks... unless you want to take one toss and break your net ($20 down the drain). I've had problems in Manistee (harbor side)...

Sabiki's are better as you rarely break them off, they only cost $4 when you do, they are obviously much smaller & you can cast them out if the alewives are sparse, etc. The disadvantages are that they don't work well in the early spring (yes, when there are alewives present) and they don't work at all after dark... so, it's good to have both.

Zob


I will firmly disagree that sabiki rigs don't work in the spring...if the bait is balled up thick even if they won't bite you can still snag them with it, but they bite as well...don't just hang the rig in and let it sit.

They also work at night (same principle as above) and a glow model is available as well.

I personally have never owned a cast net and I've put more than my fair share of alewives in a bucket/freezer each year.

[fishlkmich]

Be careful with snagging - even Alewife. I've seen guys busted for using a weight below a hook (illegal unless done under outlined regulations) fishing gold hooks for Alewife.

[live2fishdjs]

As long as you have a 3" dropper to you hook and have the legal amount of hooks your fine with a sabiki rig (weight at the bottom). As far as I know there are no laws against snagging or keeping snagged baitfish as long as the rig is legal.

[fishlkmich]

I’m just trying to save you and others from paying a fine. These are the rules. If snagging bait is allowed by law it would be in the regulations. It’s not.

Lawful Fishing Methods:

Drop-shotting: Having a weight suspended below a hook that is tied directly to the main fishing line. This gear may be used on inland lakes, Great Lakes, and Great Lakes connecting waters only. This gear may not be used on rivers, streams, or drowned river mouths (see Note 3, p. 6 for listing).

Hook and Line Fishing: Fish so taken must be hooked in the mouth. Fish not hooked in the mouth must be returned to the water immediately. No more than two lines per person (including tip-ups) nor more than four hooks or lures may be used. (Comment – See complete text. No exceptions are made)

You May Not:

Fish on a river, stream, or drowned river mouth (see Note 3, p. 6) using a weight suspended below any hook unless the hook is on a dropper line (a leader) that is at least 3" long.

Snag fish or retain a fish not hooked in the mouth. (Comment - No exceptions are made)

Note 3, Page 6:

Note 3 - Drowned River Mouth Lakes: On the following inland waters trout and salmon regulations are as follows: 5 trout and salmon in any combination; no more than 3 of any one species; no more than 2 lake trout or splake; minimum size limit is 10 inches, open all year except the lake trout season is open May 1 - Labor Day. Allegan: Kalamazoo and Silver Lks. Benzie: Betsie L. Manistee: Arcadia, Manistee, and Portage Lks. Mason: Pere Marquette L. Muskegon: Duck, Mona, Muskegon, and White Lks. Oceana: Pentwater, Silver, and Stony Lks. Ottawa: Macatawa and Pigeon Lks.

[live2fishdjs]

Thanks for the heads-up...I always made the assumption that those regs were for gamefish and baitfish did not apply.

Tight Lines.

[gomer]

The day I get a ticket for keeping a snagged alewife is the day I hang up my fishing rod for good...

Think about it, you cannot net game fish and keep them, but you can net baitfish and keep them. Why should you not be able to keep snagged baitfish, yet you can keep netted ones???

IMO it would have to be VERY low of a DNR officer to write you a ticket for snagging an alewife.

[live2fishdjs]

The day I get a ticket for keeping a snagged alewife is the day I hang up my fishing rod for good...

Think about it, you cannot net game fish and keep them, but you can net baitfish and keep them. Why should you not be able to keep snagged baitfish, yet you can keep netted ones???

IMO it would have to be VERY low of a DNR officer to write you a ticket for snagging an alewife.


Funny you should say that...I said almost the exact same thing in my last response above, but deleted it before I submitted the post.:lol:

I'll continue to take my chances and will pay the ticket if the CO has nothing better to do that day. I do still believe the guide is directed towards gamefish even though it doesn't make special comment for baitfish.

[fishlkmich]

I didn't consider the CO who wrote up guys for using illegal rigs to catch Alewife "very low". They had a weight attached below the hook, on the main line, with no dropper. That's illegal and the CO wrote them for an illegal rig. They were fishing for Alewife. So, why can’t you use an illegal rig to fish for “baitfish”? Because it’s using an illegal rig. Why can’t you snag baitfish? Because it’s illegal to snag fish.

Analogies are fine. Interpretation is fine. If you are willing to take the chances, that’s fine. Just because a guy can troll three rods within casting distance of a pier doesn’t mean that you can fish three rods from a pier legally. If the law says you can’t snag a fish and an Alewife is a fish you are in violation of the law. The COs that I have met would write you up for it. Maybe the one that catches you will not.

My last experience with a CO was while trolling for Trout and Salmon. There were three of us and we had six rods in the water. One of us left his wallet with ID and fishing license in his truck. We had two fish in the box. All of our safety equipment was checked, was good and up to date. We were completely polite, honest and obliging. While we were perfectly legal, the guy without his fishing license was required to give his full name, address, SS # and home phone #. They ran him through the LEIN system before they went on their way. If the guy without the license had a warrant for not paying a ticket they would have taken him in. If it had just been the two of us on board, with licenses, they would not have had something to try to get on somebody. My buddy came up clean, of course.

My point is that you can try to assume what may or may not happen. You can assume that you can reason with a CO. You can interpret any law that you want to be to your liking. I’d bet that a cop wouldn’t pull me over for doing 5 MPH over the limit, but a co-worker was doing 3 MPH over and got a ticket for it. She was polite and didn’t fight the ticket. Is it worth paying the fine or trying to fight something in court just to snag Alewife?

As I said, I was just trying to prevent someone from getting a ticket. You may not care, but some folks here wouldn’t want to take the chance. Hell, you could buy a tank of gas for what that ticket would cost.

[live2fishdjs]

I didn't consider the CO who wrote up guys for using illegal rigs to catch Alewife "very low". They had a weight attached below the hook, on the main line, with no dropper. That's illegal and the CO wrote them for an illegal rig. They were fishing for Alewife. So, why can’t you use an illegal rig to fish for “baitfish”? Because it’s using an illegal rig. Why can’t you snag baitfish? Because it’s illegal to snag fish.




Sounds like they had an illegal rig and deserved the ticket. Who's to say they were "fishing for alewifes" and not trying to snag salmon/steelhead?

I'm talking about using a legal rig and accidently snagging an alewife-these balls of bait go crazy at times and it's inevitable. Again, I understand these laws to pertain to gamefish, which an alewife is not-that would be the basis on which I kept the bait.

I am glad you brought this to my attention FLM, my theory is not something I'm going to test right in front of a CO (sort of like slowing down even if you're going only 5 over in front of a cop;) ).

Good luck out there:fish:

[ZobZob]

I will firmly disagree that sabiki rigs don't work in the spring...if the bait is balled up thick even if they won't bite you can still snag them with it, but they bite as well...don't just hang the rig in and let it sit.

They also work at night (same principle as above) and a glow model is available as well.

I personally have never owned a cast net and I've put more than my fair share of alewives in a bucket/freezer each year.

I agree you can snag them... it happens all the time w/ sabiki rigs... but they do not readily hit them early in the spring or at night. I have not tried glow rigs so you could be right there... but non-glow rigs do not work legally at night.

Zob

[scoot]

Anybody know the regs on how many hooks you can have? Those sabiki rigs have like 6 hooks on them which i believe is illegal. Also, alewives do hit them in the spring. I was out the other day and there wasnt all that much bait and I got a few with the sabiki. Another plus of the sabiki is that for some reason the bigger alewives always seem to hit it. Also those damn shad dont hit them.

[ZobZob]

Anybody know the regs on how many hooks you can have? Those sabiki rigs have like 6 hooks on them which i believe is illegal. Also, alewives do hit them in the spring. I was out the other day and there wasnt all that much bait and I got a few with the sabiki. Another plus of the sabiki is that for some reason the bigger alewives always seem to hit it. Also those damn shad dont hit them.

It didn't say the didn't hit at all but it isn't a great bite... you can disagree all you want but using a cast net is a far better idea in the spring. Anyhow, in MI you can only have three hooks by law. I used to cut three off which doesn't really matter when they are working good... you'll get enough either way.

Zob

[Zofchak]

I've used both Sabiki's as well as cast nets (just make sure you double the amount of lead on the cheap nets), but prefer the cast net 10 to 1.:) Sabikis can be a pain in the butt.:rant: They snag everything they touch (hands, clothing, everything) and are pretty much a one time use item; as they are difficult to store. Also where the heck would someone buy them in Michigan?:confused: They're .99 cents a Walmarts in Florida, but I have never seen them here.:confused:

[Erik]

I make my own "sabiki" rig, I call it an "eriki" rig. Costs me more than 99 cents though. I just tie four tiny nymphs on a dropper and jig it around the rocks. You'd be surprised the things I've caught doing this. Small mouths, sheepsheads, gobies, perch, browns. Theres been a few times when my bait catching rig has actually out produced the rig I'm trying to catch the bait for.

[scoot]

It didn't say the didn't hit at all but it isn't a great bite... you can disagree all you want but using a cast net is a far better idea in the spring. Anyhow, in MI you can only have three hooks by law. I used to cut three off which doesn't really matter when they are working good... you'll get enough either way.

Zob

I agree they work better later in the year and im not arguing with you about anything (just sayin I caught a few the other day with the sabiki which doesnt mean anything) but a lot of times you have to sift through the small ones with a cast net whereas the sabiki rig only seems to get the good sized ones