Mustard!

 

If you happen to have a small creek you can put them in minnow bucket or bucket with lid and drill holes in it .I'm lucky enough to have a small creek running threw my propert and I do this and thet last for a week or more

 

If you have a garage refrigerator or a cooler, you can put them in there for a for a week or more.

 

I’ve tried to do this with minnows several times, with no success, they die overnight. I wonder why?

 

I have an extra bubble box air bubbler and modified it to plug into the wall. I put that into a Lowe’s bucket with creek water and the chubs will keep for a week or two. An aquarium bubbler would do the same thing but I already had this and the ac power supply. Maybe feed them some bread or tortilla they love that stuff. Beyond that they muck up the water so bad you need to do a water change.

 

I have a $5 garage sale cooler(I think 48 qt). $10 Amazon 110 volt aerator, it came with stones and tubing. Drill a couple holes for tubing on sides, near top of cooler. Don't use chlorinated city water and they last a couple weeks, longer if I feed them gold fish flakes and change the water. If it's hot out I put a frozen quart or 2 liter jug of water in every 3 or 4 days. The frozen jugs slow their metabolism and really helps a lot. Also throw out dead ones promptly.

 

I've got an old 10 gal aquarium, with aerator and filter, set up in my basement where it stays around 60F. I've got rain barrels to collect rain from my gutters. By using the rain water, and adding G Juice, I've been able to keep minnows for more than 2 months. I keep buckets of rain water next to the aquarium so that when I change out the water, I'm using water that's the same temp as the minnows have been in. Change it out every few days to a week and yes, toss any dead ones as soon as you see them. I've been feeding with gold fish flakes but think I'll try bread or tortillas.

 

lol... science tells me that after they're frozen you probably won't get much action out of them if you use them again. But I think fresh frozen minnows make pretty good catfish bait.

 

There are products like GJuice and Betterbait that you add to the water to help condition it to keep the minnows alive. I know of a few bait shops that use an additive like these. Maybe give one a try.

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I used to dump them in my yard so the cat could gobble them up...crunchy!

 

They'll keep a few weeks in the fridge with an aquarium aerator and changing the water when it gets gunky.

The dead ones make good fertilizer, freeze them and throw a handful in the hole with tomatoes, the veg growth will take off.

I never catch anything on frozen or salted minnows unless we are talking about catfish. I'd rather use soft plastics than dead live bait.

 

Lots of good suggestions here.

I have the "luxury" of a creek in my backyard that sustains a great creek chub population. However, sometimes they are sensitive to temps and oxygen so the trap needs to be checked regularly or if left in too long I'll find dozens of bellied up chubs.

I take what I think I will use and if there are live leftovers they go into a cool spot in the garage. I purchased a cheap aquarium bubbler for $10 at Wally World and use that to keep them going if there is a 2nd trip in plan.

I think salted emeralds are better than salted fatheads. Ice fishing season I'll use dead fatheads for tipping spoons but if I have dead fatheads any other season they get tossed.

 

Use creek or rain water. My daughter (now 8) has five creek chubs in an aquarium she's kept them alive for over a year now! They started as food for dragonfly larvae but they were too big and ate the dragonfly larvae instead. Now they are quite big, eating the same food as her goldfish the whole time. Water changes and air bubbler just like the goldfish. Somehow we got suckered into caring for two tanks of fish instead of one! But they are fun to watch.

 

I throw them on the bank! Feed the Seagulls & Minks!!!

 

the dead or ones ya want to store drain off water and put them in cheap vodka. last for yrs and there rubbery not mushy freeze well.

 

Now I know what to do with this cheap handle of gas station vodka sitting in my garage

 

Into the freezer bags one dozen at at time minnows....into the bag a good amount of salt. ...store in freezer behind the cubes. take the bags out one hour before fishing, great bait to use on jigs and crappie rigs.
Drink the vodka and give a toast to a great days catch.

 

Place in ziplock bag and pour cheap vodka on them. They will die in seconds. Place in freezer. Good to go.

 

I tried the zip lock bag and poured the vodka on and damn near froze my A$$ of in the freezer

 

Minnow Mac

 

Anchovies always extra $$$

 

wasting alcohol to kill minnows…👌

 

Do not feed them if you're going to go again soon. 1st most people over feed and wasted food creates ammonia which kills. 2nd, fed fish poop which also fouls water. They can go a week w/o food easy, a lot longer in winter. If you're not going again soon, dump them on bank, salt if you're inclined. Search but basically, you layer in salt - too much bother in my book.

Crappie and bass minnows -Once it's warm, it's tuff. Focus on reasonably coolest spot avail. Prior to the end of May, keep in a cheap styrofoam minnow bucket. Bigger round ones not the little square jobs. Tired of styrofoam ones cracking, leaking, etc and don't want to shell out for a pricey Frabill - Nest it in a 5 gal bucket, preferably white so it absorbs less heat. If transporting in a truck bed, you need a chunk of wood, rock, or ice/snowballs in winter so top doesn't blow off. Check and remove dead at least 1/day. Do about 50% water change periodically. EDIT: Yellowish or smelly water means it needs changed. Local City water is fine if you let it sit 24 hours in open bucket. Assuming this is in a garage, do water changes in morning so water in make-up water bucket is cool. Huge bonus points for an aerator pumping cool air but don't let it beat minnows. It doesn't need to be on bottom of bucket.

Now, a key thing is taking care of your minnows while fishing. Keep them cool (Styrofoam and change water as it warms or good old bucket in lake/stream water). If you beat them up catching one to bait hook, you will have more mortality later. Dead minnows foul water (ammonia) and it's all over. So, bit of a bother, but if you plan to keep leftovers, scoop out 1/2 dozen at a time and keep in a separate bucket to fish with.

If you're a crappie fisherperson. Buy less minnows, get a pack of waxworms and a few 1/32 oz white marabou feather jigs and a few 1/32 oz grub bodies of your choice. If you're catching enough to run out of minnows, they will hit a jig/waxworm. If your bobber fishing, twitch and pause. If your vertical, vibrate. Now, if the crappie or gills are not jumping on the jig, try using two hooked through the head/collar. Double waxworm on ice jig is best thing ever ice fishing gills too. Waxworms don't take up much space in top of refridge door.

Chubs, sucker minnows, big common shiners and gills need a decent size cooler and aerator.

Good old metal bucket with holes in it submerged in a cold creek beats everything. Hide it. If the water is dirty in the local river and you're coming back before the next rain, submerge it with a big flat rock on top in an out of the way place. We used to store crayfish that way too. Shaded water feature pool in yard with circulation is a winner too.

Recap - cool, prevent and reduce ammonia through water changes, removing dead, and to a point aeration. Don't beat them up. Doesn't matter how you accomplish it. Generally, if you have left over minnows, it is necessary to go fishing again very soon so they don't die and go to waste. Your obligated to not waste resources. Keeping them more than a few days is generally not worth the bother after early May. By all means try, this is how we learn. One thing you will eventually learn - stuff gets stinky fast in warm weather if you don't check frequently enough to remove dead Regards

 

I did not know that the chlorine does in fact evaporate from city water. I just read it takes about 4 days for a gallon. Jcarp said 24 hours, so that may work just fine. This will make my yard sale cooler, $10 aerator and jug of frozen water(summer time) much more simple to manage. I've been bringing my water home from fishing or even scooping it out of the river.

 

Used city water for years. Would fill 4-5 5 gallon buckets, let them sit for a day, go seine some minnies/chubs and use my water, lived just fine.