PERU – Two legislative bills dealing with fishing restrictions have stirred up live-bait proponents and fishermen.

Bar Harbor Rep. Theodore Koffman’s bill, LD 285, “An Act to Designate Additional Wild Trout Waters for Recognition and Protection,” would ban the use of live bait in about 20 to 30 lakes and ponds that haven’t been stocked with brook trout in 20 years or more. These are mostly in northern Maine.

Bath Rep. Thomas Watson’s bill, LD 163, “An Act to Prohibit the Use of Non-native Baitfish,” would ban use of four species of minnows in inland waters: Eastern silvery minnows, and emerald, spottail and blackchin shiners.

Contacted late Sunday afternoon at home by phone, Watson said that neither his bill nor Koffman’s are attacks on ice fishing or bait dealers, as live-bait proponents like members of the Maine Ice Anglers Association have stated publicly.

“This is very simple. We’re trying to enforce the law on invasive species,” Watson said.

“We really have to control what people are dumping into the lakes and waters of Maine. Rarely do we find that the effects of non-native fish turn out to be good. Baitfish ought to be native to Maine,” he added.

But bait dealer Dennis Thibeault, owner of Bass Bog Bait and Tackle off Route 108 in Peru disagrees. He harvests and sells two species that would be banned by LD 163. One, emerald shiners, he said, have been in Maine form more than 50 years.

“They’re an everyday fish. I don’t think they’re bothering brookies or messing up ecosystems,” Thibeault said Friday while waiting on baitfish customers.

In addition to banning the four species, LD 163 lists 19 other baitfish that would be allowed: bridle, golden, common, and blacknose shiners; creek and lake chub; northern redbelly, finescale, blacknose, longnose, and pearl dace; fallfish; banded killifish; mummichogs; fathead minnows; longnose and white suckers; creek chubsuckers; and American eels.

“Emerald shiners were illegally introduced in the early ’70s, and, one of the primary hatcheries in Maine is raising its third or fourth generation of emerald shiners, claiming them to be native,” Watson said.

But Watson said the four species, like illegally introduced pike and muskellunge, out-compete native fish for food, and eat trout eggs.

“There’s no difference between emerald shiners and muskellunge, other than size and voracity. Emerald shiners came in as an illegal baitfish and they’re still a non-native,” he said.

Citing a Feb. 9 Maine Ice Anglers Association report that criticizes both bills, Thibeault said he considered the legislation a personal attack on bait dealers everywhere and anybody that uses live bait.

Watson disagreed.

“This is not a fly fishing/ice fishing thing. Instead, this is turning out to be an economic argument,” Watson said.

According to a 2003 Economic Impact of Maine Aquaculture report by Planning Decisions Inc. of Hallowell for The Maine Aquaculture Innovation Center, the majority of baitfish sales occur during the three-month ice fishing season.

It further states that total bait sales – including wild bait and farm-raised bait – for recreational fishers alone in Maine exceeds $6 million annually. “Because it is illegal to import baitfish into the state, the demand in Maine must be met entirely by in-state supply,” the report states.

Maine doesn’t limit the number of baitfish that can be taken from the wild, but there is a limit on wild smelt catch, because smelt are an important forage fish for trout and salmon.

Unlike LD 163, Koffman’s bill has not yet been discussed in the Legislature’s Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Committee, nor has a public hearing been scheduled.

Following a public hearing Tuesday on Watson’s bill, the committee will resume work on LD 163 at 1 p.m. Tuesday, March 6.