The potential impact of commercial bait harvest from small streams was studied in Rich Creek, West Virginia. A mail survey and personal interviews of bait dealers in the mountain areas of this state established typical harvest pressures exerted by commercial operations. Bait fish and crayfish in 50-m sections of Rich Creek were harvested three times every two weeks from May 15 until September 15, 1973, via seine and minnow traps. Treatments consisted of no harvest, a harvest simulating a typical bait dealer, and a harvest pressure twice that of a commercial dealer; all treatments were in triplicate. The effects of the harvests were determined by comparisons over time within treatments, comparisons between treatments and comparisons with final population indices. No significant differences in these comparisons were found to occur for the bait species or for the game fish species inhabiting the study sections. The different harvesting pressures did not appear to affect the densities of the bait and game fish populations.