Keeping shiners for a few days

[dodgetech4]

Anybody have advice for keeping shiners for a few days. I run two battery operated aerators in a 5 gal bucket, seems to do a good job but i still always have at least two floaters in the morning. Ive been told dont use the water the bait store gives you, use the water you are intending on fishing in. Also does anyone feed them? I'm just curious if i can do anything more to save some $.

[Registered Kayak]

Keep em real cold. I add some dechlorinated water to,my bucket, put in the airstone, make sure I don't exceed the days on the bait reciept, and they do real fine. For me, leaving them outside really ups my survival rate.
I throw a cracker in but hard to know if they eat it.

[keithm87]

The water is important if you buy from shops on town water, because it tends to be harder on the bait (chlorine etc). I have kept bait in a 5 gal pail without touching the water for up to 2 weeks in a cool room with an aerator and only lost one or two, no food no changing water nothing, they start to smell though! I have used this stuff to success as well http://www.basspro.com/SureLife-Better-Bait-Minnow-Holding-Formula/product/97513/. Just remember that using bait after 96 hrs is illegal in VT, so keeping it longer other than as an experiment is not a great idea (tempting to use the bait when its there).

[spot]

used to keep them indefinitely by putting them in a fish tank in the basement with a little aquarium filter going. They like cool conditions and dark, so a quiet corner of a basement is a good bet.

Most fish don't like really hard water, so if you know you have that, adding a little bit of peat moss to the filter floss will lower PH.

Mostly though, cool, dark and relatively clean. Be careful about not feeding too much, but a little is fine.

[fishingidjit]

A bubbler works wonders , no town/city water and LOTS of ice !

[spot]

A bubbler works wonders , no town/city water and LOTS of ice !

yes, be sure to de-chlorinate any water you add. Make sure that any water you add is the same, or very close to what's already there in temperature. Rapid temperature changes will kill fish almost as fast as a cherry bomb.

[varmonter]

4 days 96 hrs from the date and time on the bait slip.
Bait is cold blooded.the colder the water the slower
Their metabolism ...the less o2 they need.

[woodyvt]

Plug in bubbler in garage.......add cold well water as needed......never had an issue.

[spot]

I miss the good old days... before fish viruses were invented... you know?

[keithm87]

Truth! It's too bad that we can't keep bait. I would love to do what the maine folks do, and trap a seasons worth of bait in the fall, and save a grand over the winter, with the flexibility to fish any lake you want. I can to an extent not letting people move bait from Champ to inland lakes, but think that otherwise it should be fair game. And really when it comes down to it, with fish elevators and stuff the fish can actually migrate on their own between most water-bodies in the state.

[spot]

I can understand the intent behind the new bait laws. I just wish that the state could get together with sportsmen and arrive at a strategy that protects the resources at least as well as what is currently in place, but also works from the fisherman point of view- I didn't use minnows at all last year and only once the year before, when they used to be THE bait to have. When I get a chance to go fishing it's usually spur of the moment. My time off can change at the drop of a hat and so if I get minnows, in order to use them next time I need to keep them around a week or so, which didn't used to be a problem.

I fully understand and agree with what they're trying to do- I just wish it didn't have to push me out of using live bait.

[varmonter]

Dont get me started.every time some ship
Dumps its ballast in the st lawrence some
Crawley invasive critter threatens to end our sport.
We have zebra mussels,eurasion milfoil that i am
Responsible to stop the spread, rock snot that
Prevented me from using my brand new felt sole
Waders..now they say its ok..they were wrong
Rock snot isnt spread by my now dry rotted new
Felt sole waders.i cant trap minnows heck i cant
Hardly find a place to buy them away from champlain
I can only keep them for 4 days and cant use them
On any other body of water other than whats written
On the bait slip..yet i never see a warden in the field.
Self enforcement is the way the state seems to
Deal with all of this..my licence was 48 dollars.
Bait for a good day on the wardenless ice..40 bucks.
    Yet they still allow shipping in the st lawrence.
The number one cause of all this crap .   . (/ rant)

I think i will try crawlers cheaper and they keep in the fridge.

[Registered Kayak]

I have iced alot of low 30s pike with a 2inch piece of crawler on a jig, worms worm for everything

[spot]

I used crawlers, jigs and plastics all last year, what there was of ice fishing last year. If I'm taking time off in the winter I'll think about minnows, but otherwise it's too expensive and too much waste.

[spot]

How serious an offense is it to fry fish from different bodies of water in the same oil? 

[cbice]

You're fine as long as you have all your slips and it's within 96 hours😁

[Fish Hard]

Just don't dump that oil in another pan!

[finlessbrown]

The best thing you can do is put a huge snow ball in the water, it keeps it cold and it puts a ton of oxygen in the water

[EyERipLip]

A bubbler and leave em outside