Simple minnow storage

[J.A. Veil]

I use live minnows for much of my winter fishing. Pickerel love them. The question is how can they be stored at home between trips and how can they be stored on the kayak during a trip. Until this season, I used to bring a large minnow bucket on my kayak. It was heavy, messy, and got in the way. This winter I tried something different. Several of the guys saw my minnow holding system at the meet and greet and seemed to like its simplicity. I decided to share it with the whole Snaggedline group here

I buy my minnows at Anglers. Shady noted a few weeks ago that Clydes tackle shop in SW Baltimore also carries minnows. I place my minnow bucket inside a 5-gal bucket and go to Anglers. They load my pint of minnows into the minnow bucket. At home the 5-gal bucket sits in my garage. The minnows are very hardy -- they last for at least 3 weeks without aeration or food. I try to give them fresh Severn River water every few days -- either when I fish or as part of a separate trip for water freshening.

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When I am ready to fish, I bring the minnow bucket and 5-gal bucket to the launch. I drain the water from the minnow bucket and pour a few dozen minnows into a small plastic pail (I use a 4-lb potato salad container).

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I then pour the minnows from the pail into a 16-oz dry roasted peanut jar.

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I add some river water to the jar, screw on the lid, then place the jar behind my seat on a small ledge.

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I take a few minnows from the jar and place them into the cupholder well in front of my seat.

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When those are used up, I take a few more from the jar. The minnows in the jar remain active for several hours while I am on the water.

At the end of the trip, I pour the remaining minnows back into the minnow bucket, add some new water, and place the bucket back in the garage.

[jhoss]

John, thanks for sharing your tricks! For minnow storage I've always used a minnow trap with the ends plugged up, that I put in the creek behind my house. I put some bread in there from time to time to keep them fed. During the cold months they keep pretty well, but once the weather gets hot, it is much trickier to keep them alive.

[plastic boat]

Another minnow tip:

When it's hot [AKA summer time] keep your minnows in a cheap Styrofoam minnow bucket in the refrigerator. They are cold blooded and will last weeks instead of hours. My buddies in Florida keep their flounder minnows alive this way between fishing trips.

Don't let your wife find them in the refrigerator in the kitchen Trust Me..... I now have a soda/beer cooler in the garage.

[J.A. Veil]

John, thanks for sharing your tricks! For minnow storage I've always used a minnow trap with the ends plugged up, that I put in the creek behind my house. I put some bread in there from time to time to keep them fed. During the cold months they keep pretty well, but once the weather gets hot, it is much trickier to keep them alive.

John - If you have water access at your house or community, that is the best arrangement. You can probably catch all the minnows you want with a minnow trap and a piece of bread or a crab carcass. You can keep the minnows alive for weeks. However, I live 10-15 mins from the water.


Jeff - I don't know if I could get away with storing a minnow bucket in the refrigerator, even in my basement beer refrigerator. I had enough raised eyebrows when I would store a bag of bloodworms there. For warm weather storage, I would probably get a small fish aquarium and add an aerator/bubbler.


Does anyone else have innovative ways to bring live bait with them onboard without adding lots of footprint and weight?

[rwh]

This summer, I went flounder fishing with a friend who brought minnows he caught. He took a dish towel, wet it in the water and layed it on top of ice in his soft sided cooler bag, dumped the minnows on top of the rag and folded the sides over top of them. Those minnows stayed alive the whole time we were out there (around 5 hours). He said they would last all day like that. Craziest thing I've seen.

[Backdoc]

RWH, I agree. When I was a kid we used to fish the yellow perch runs on the eastern shore. We would load up the van at about 4 am and put the minnows on wet burlap in a beer box. They would make the trip to the shore and we would fish most of the day. Very few losses. I havent used live bait in many years but now that I am fishing from my kayak I may start in the winter/spring. I will keep them in a bucket and then wrap them in wet burlap when I fish.

[kevinfry]

I have really enjoyed the live well feature on my Malibu .....though with winter minnows I don't let water flow in. I want the waterlevel lower so i can catch them easier. When using a jar I like a short fat jar I can get my whole hand in