There is something to the frozen bait rules new this year that actually is true.
It's more on the lines of "certified baits" though.
They need to be processed in a certain way in order to kill what ever it is they are afraid of.
Basically what it means is you can't net your own smelt, freeze them and bring them up for bait. I'm pretty sure that anything you buy at the bait store is proccessed correctly because it's a MN law, not just a LOW thing.
The HSO guys are talking a lot about herring. Frozen herring, I even read where someone mentioned a market (grocery) place where he buys herring and they claim it can't be beat on LOW for pike.
Check it out skippy, locate some herring and bring it on up.
As I said it's something with the smelt that's specific to lake superior that they don't want spreading to other lakes. Smelt from superior that's proccessed with alcohol and or borax (the way I understand it) is perfectly legal. I'm assuming most flat packs of frozen smelt you can buy are proccessed this way anyways.
Keep your bag or bait label handy in case you get checked.
Or use a bait that isn't on the ban list, herring isn't native to the area so if you can find some you should be good to go, besides, they say it works awesome.
