Finding bait after hours

[butcher]

I posted this in the PA forum but thought I'd share with the rest of the IS community as well.   

I'm probably not the first guy to think of this, but I found a way to get bait when my local bait shops are closed or out of stock.  After finding my two bait shops closed the other night, I was passing by a Petsmart pet store and thought I'd stop in to see if they had something that would pass for bait.

To my surprise (and delight), they had a good stock of Rosie red minnows, wax worms, mealworms plus other assorted insect larvae and creepy crawlies.  It saved my night and my trip.  The minnows were on the small side (1-2") but they worked fine for jigging trout, perch and crappies.  Just remember, many states ban goldfish as bait so be sure you are buying minnows and not goldfish. 

I believe Petsmart is a national chain and has locations in a number of states.  Further, I think most of them are open until 8:00pm or later.  I'm guessing that many other pet stores may have similar stuff as well.  You may want to keep this in mind if you are having trouble finding bait. 

I hope this is helpful.

Butcher

[pike4some]

I was always wondering the same. Most of the time for me is opposite with early fishing and nothing open until at least 7am many times. But this would give option for late night for next morning. Were the prices jacked??

[butcher]

Prices were actually pretty fair: $0.15/each for the Rosie reds (just over $3 for 2 dozen) and about $4.00 for a 50 count container of waxies.  Truthfully, I'm not a huge fan of rosies.  I prefer fatheads or shiners but when they are not available, they make a decent plan B. 

[pike4some]

Prices were actually pretty fair: $0.15/each for the Rosie reds (just over $3 for 2 dozen) and about $4.00 for a 50 count container of waxies.  Truthfully, I'm not a huge fan of rosies.  I prefer fatheads or shiners but when they are not available, they make a decent plan B.

There is never nothing wrong with a plan B

[jonny boy]

thanks to all. nice  angle on bait. just another way to think outside the box.

[just_a_beer_man]

We had the same thing happen this passed season but it was the middle of the day!!.  None of the 3 shops we checked had anything for waxies and spikes and such.  We ended up at petsmart for the hell of it and sure enough we picked up some waxies!.  Ended up catching a nice pail of pannies after that too. 

[UFCreel]

When night fishing crappies. I find Rosie reds  do quite well.