Bait shops fight invasives

GREEN BAY (WLUK) -- An effort to help stop the spread of aquatic invasive species is expanding in Northeast Wisconsin. Anglers in the Green Bay area are now able to take part in the Bait Shop Initiative.

At Smokey’s on the Bay bait Shop in Green Bay, owner Jeff Tilkens offers advice on conditions, popular lures, and sells live bait too.

"We got perch minnows, walleye minnows, and we got big muskie suckers," Tilkens said.

But this summer he offers information as well, about the spread of aquatic invasive species.

"We have such a good fishery. So basically what I’m doing is trying to inform my customers, handing them brochures, telling them to clean their live wells out, make sure they take the weeds off their trailers," Tilkens explained.

The information is part of a push from environmental groups and the state. For the past five years, the Bait Shop Initiative has targeted waters in the Fox Valley. Now they’re taking their message downstream to Green Bay.

"We got about a dozen or so aquatic invasive species in the Winnebago system. Up here in the Great Lakes, there are over 180 nuisance species, or invasive species in these lakes. So it’s a whole new scope. It’s a whole new challenge," said Chris Acy of the Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance.

Acy says boaters need to inspect, and remove any attached weeds, drain water from boats and bait buckets, and never move plants or live fish away from a body of water.

"We have a lot of invasive species that are invisible to the naked eye. So a bucket of water from Lake Michigan might look perfectly clear, but there could be potentially some invasive species that we can’t see that could get transported," he said.

Acy says the newest invader is a lily pad look-alike called European Frogbit . Information cards are available at Smokey’s counter.

"Just stuff like that. It just wrecks the natural habitat. It will kill our other plant life, and it’s like a weed, and it shouldn’t be here. That’s why you really got to watch out what you’re doing when you’re fishing," Tilkens said.

There about a dozen bait shops involved with the initiative. Officials say they are always looking to expand the program.