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[Yopesco]

Yesterday while fishing the lower Fraser I got a license and gear check by a DFO. I had been there for a couple of hours, without a hook-up and had got a little experimental and placed a single jensen egg on the hook of a home-made spoon (even though it killed the spoon's action some). The DFO was surprised and wasn't even sure whether that be a violation of the bait ban so he had to call that one in, and was told that indeed, the ban includes artificial eggs. He was a good sport about it and only asked me to stop using the egg (I had everything else OK).
Until yesterday, my concept of bait was limited to "biological" bait whether is live or dead (worms, insects, fish, chiken, shrimps, etc), not to artificial stuff like rubber eggs or rubber worms, for me those are nothing but another type of lure. The definition of bait in the dictionary is: "food used to entice fish or other animals as prey", but again, food could be anything for a fish. I could not find any clear definition in the fishing regulations and I am still curious on whether that was the right call by DF.
Anybody's got info on this? Thanks,

Yopesco

[Fish Assassin]

There seems to be a varying opinions on this topic. My interpretation is the same as yours ie. not bait as the "scent" is a chemical not natural. I asked a CO earlier this year and his opinion is that it's not bait. I guess the safest way of avoiding a ticket during a bait ban is to use unscented jensen eggs.

[MERC]

Yes, if they are scented in anise oil.  Page 9 of the regs state that bait is:

"any foodstuff or natural substance used to attract fish.....it does not include finfish other than roe  It includes roe, worms and other edible substances , as well as scents and flavorings containing natural substances or nutrients."

So, you can use a purely chemical scent that does not have any natural substances in it (such as a pheremone based attractant) but not one containing say shrimp or anise.

Also, these are provincial regs and CO's are federal so will probably only know regs directly related to salmon fishery which fall under federal guidelines.

[bentrod]

That is consistent with Washington State.  If we put scent on anything, including spoons/spinners, we are considered to be using bait. 

[Jonny 5]

So the important question is how many fish did you catch? 

Mark and I are heading over for oct 12 13 14 and 15th...  Should I email your boss (wife) to see if you can get some days off?   I will be tying flys for the next couple weeks and I will make some extras in case you can fish too...

El Jon

[adriaticum]

How about spray cans of WD 40? Is that considered bait? 

[Fish Assassin]

No because it's chemical

[bentrod]

A petroleum product that is banned in many water bodies around the US.