Several of the Pond Boss experts giving me pond advice have strongly recommended adding forage ponds. I was going to trap some of the baitfish in my local stream (south-central Kansas) and pick some candidates for forage production. Obviously, these baitfish would be well-adapted for my climate.
However, I pulled the relevant regulation for Kansas:
"Wild-caught baitfish may be used as live bait only within the common drainage where caught and shall not be transported upstream across any dam or barrier that prohibits the normal passage of fish."
Does this regulation allow a person to take baitfish to their forage ponds for non-commercial use as long as the ponds would overflow downstream of the location of taking? Or does it only allow baitfish to be used as bait, and dis-allow their usage for stocking a forage pond?
In addition to the common baitfish, there are even some threatened minnow species in my creek. I was also considering growing some of these scarce minnows and making future releases back into the creek to enhance the local population.
I have not seen any regulations regarding the taking of the threatened species of baitfish. The regulations I have seen, typically have pertained to any operations in a stream or river that would negatively affect the HABITAT of the threatened species. (Such as dams and obstructions, low-water crossings, modifying the stream channel, etc.) Could a person raise a threatened baitfish in their own forage ponds and then release them back to their natural range to aid in species rehabilitation?
Finally, I have previously discussed on the forum catching some of my Red Shiners and transporting them to other members if I happened to be travelling in their direction. I even discussed doing this for members in a different state! (Last time I was talking to Snipe he said that transporting sportfish from one state to another is almost certainly prohibited in ALL circumstances, except for licensed commercial operators.)
I would assume these regulations would also apply to baitfish. However, would it be permissible for a person to raise legally-taken baitfish in their forage pond, and subsequently transfer the OFFSPRING to another PB member in a different state? Would it matter if you gave them the baitfish for free (non-commercial), or charged them $1 (to make if commercial, but from an unlicensed operation)?
I would like to read a discussion from anyone with a background on these topics. It doesn't have to apply to Kansas regulations, please discuss the regulations applying to your own state.
DISCLAIMER - All of the comments below are merely for discussion purposes. None of this constitutes actual legal advice!
