Wondering if anyone has experience with these?
Thanks
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Wondering if anyone has experience with these?
Thanks
Frozen is all I ever use anymore .......it is more a pain to try to keep them alive and most of the time we only use half shiners anyway.
I have used frozen/salted minnows a lot. My opinion is that they work just as good catching perch.
One day last fall I ran an experiment, frozen/salted vs. live minnows. On that day, the perch preferred the frozen/salted minnows 3:1 over the live minnows. Not saying that will be the result every time.
I started salting and freezing my left over minnows a couple years ago after a trip when the bait stores had run out. Now I take a supply and keep them in a cooler, "just in case."
John
How do you salt and freeze minnows?:confused:
I put mine on crackers with franks hot sauce! Lol
Thanks for the input. It'd be nice to have some on the boat to try perch if the walleye won't cooperate and without the hassle of live minnows.
I have heard that the salted shiners I have a bad odor to them is this true?
Just for clarification, for those of you who've used them in the past, are you just referring to minnows that you yourself have frozen or are the store bought shiners just as good? We're heading up today and I was thinking about buying a few bags of Magic Emerald Shiners in case the eyes aren't biting or we get an early limit and want to switch over to the perch, but I don't want to buy live shiners if we're not going to use them and it'd be even less cost efficient to run back to the dock to buy them.
Has anyone used the store bought preserved minnows with any success in the past? And can anyone confirm that there really are around 70 minnows in the 4 oz. package that only costs $2.99?
Sorry I didn't see your post sooner, but yes I use the frozen shiners from Rickards bait whenever we go for perch and we always do just as good with them as we did with live shiners that always seem to die anyway. Like you said, we buy some in case we want to go perchin after we catch some eyes too! Much more convenient!
I'm not real sure about 70 in a cup.....never really tried to get a count but that seems high.
Let us know how you do today!
Thanks for the info. I'll post reports if we even make it. Of all the days, today is the day that some power trim fluid decides to start leaking from the OptiMax. That 70 per package was what it said on Bass Pro's website for the small minnows. I'm going to stop at Field & Stream and see what they have if we do end up going. Plus they're the only place I know of that almost always has .22 ammo so I need to stop anyways.Quote:
Originally Posted by Eyezcrazy
I use frozen minnows when the live ones are hard to find during full moons. If I have a decent supply left after fishing, I store them in quart zip locks, dust them with Borax soap, and freeze them for future use. They have caught well many times.
Richards has frozen shiners by the cup.q
Are you using any salt with the Borax soap? Does the Borax do better than just salt?
Sorry for the delayed response, but took the family on vacation for a couple days.
I take the leftover minnows and drain the water off first. Then lay them single layer on a sheet of foil or waxpaper. Spinkle salt over them and let them set for a day. (don't try to roll them around in the salt, or they will break apart.) Next day, gently turn them over and salt again. Allow them to dry until they just start to get a little hard/leathery. Gather them up and place in a freezer ziplock bag and place in the freezer.
As far as smell, if you just freeze them, without drying them, then they will smell more when they start to thaw, but when dried first, they don't get very strong, IMO.
John