Storing live bait

[Fry Fisher]

Hi guys! About storing live bait - do you get them "fresh" each time, or do you store them (leftovers maybe?). Do they last long?

My understanding is that earthworms will last for a long time in dirt in the fridge and I imagine minnows would be not much different from keeping goldfish, but do you/how do you keep things like crickets, larval things (don't they turn into other bugs?)

[Tommy Winton]

I mainly use crickets and the method i used to keep them alive is put cut up potatoes in the container with them every 8 hours. They will eat the potatoes and get the moisture/water out of them. Have keep crickets alive a week plus doing that. The warms i just put egg shells and lettuce in it and spray them with water with water bottle.

[Steve Fleckenstein]

I usually use maggots and keep them in a snuff can in the fridge.They keep for quite awhile.

[John Sheehan]

Do you buy or collect your own crickets?

[Dan Gwaltney]

I learned a little something about crickets recently while visiting with a bait wholesaler. He said that crickets only live about 12 weeks, and are usually in their last week of life when you buy them. Now it may be that I was the only person on earth that didn't already know that, but it sure cleared up a mystery for me! ;-) I had always wondered why I couldn't seem to keep them but a few days. Another tip he gave me was to use a wet paper towel instead of a potato. It doesn't stink near as bad.

[Eric White]

Keeping most larval stage critters in the refrigerator will keep them in that form, one example I have is Hellgrammites(dragonfly nymph) keep them in the frig they dont change into dragonflies.

[Dan Gwaltney]

Wasp larvae make great 'Gill bait, and they will remain in the larval stage for quite a while in the fridge. Be aware though, they will "hatch out" pretty suddenly when they warm up, and will be fully prepared to do battle! Don't even ask how I know about this.

[bluegillboogieman]

OK Dan, I won't ask how you know about those wasp larvae warming up and metamorphing! But you didn't say not to imagine.

Oh my goodness! Oh No! Oh! Ow! Oh!....Wish I had my ice chest...Ouch!

Boogieman

[bluegillboogieman]

Dan,
It may be too late but you may want to

ABANDON SHIP! EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF.

Sorry Dan, just trying to help.

Boogieman

[Dan Gwaltney]

:-D

I only told ya not to ask 'cause I was gonna tell ya anyway. It happened way back when I was a kid. Some cousins from afar had come avisiting and wanted some wasp nests to take home and use as fish bait. One night we knocked several nests down and put them in the fridge in a paper sack. When they were on their way home, the wasps started coming out of the bag and they soon had a car full of Red Wasps. I wasn't there for the big event, but I heard that they indeed had to abandon "ship."

[bluegillboogieman]

Ok Dan, Sorry you didn't get to see it. Wish you hadn't told me the story either cause you were the star in my imagination. I've never met you and I wasn't there but I'll never forget the movie in my head. You were hillarious.

Now all kidding aside, was that your last experience with wasp larvae? If not, how do you store them, nest and all or plucked out and wiggling?

Boogieman

[Dan Gwaltney]

Well I'm glad you enjoyed the movie, Boogie! ;-D We gotta do something about that "never met" thing. We ain't all that far apart.

We always just stored nest and all. My uncle seemed to know when they were in a sort of maggot stage, and that's when we would burn them. What we would do is find a big ol' nest and wait until nightfall, when all of the wasps were on the nest. We would take a stick of appropriate length and tie a piece of newspaper on the end. Light the paper and stick it up under the nest for a second, and it would burn the wings off of all the wasps, so we could just stomp them into the dirt. Knock the nest down and put the whole thing into the fridge. Keep them on ice on fishing day, and just shuck them out of the nest as needed. Almost as good as flatheads for bream!

[bluegillboogieman]

Dan, what's a flathead?

As for that never met thing, the picture I've got of you scares me. I could get hurt, or worse, embarrassed. I am slobbering over the idea of fishing around them docks rich people feed gills from though. Yeah!, I read about your tactics somewhere on here. Is that lake near Tallyhissee where them Semiholes is from?

Boogieman