Quote Originally Posted by wakina View Post
Take at least 2 bags with you. Put a couple of dozen in a bag and keep on top of the ice for easy access for bait while fishing and then bury the other bag with the rest of the shiners completely within the ice with only the top of the bag(s) sticking out of the ice for easy recovery. Adjust the number of minnows in the bait bag accordingly with the rate of the bite. The colder they are the longer they last. The minnows on the top of the pile in the bait bag will be the first to go bad. If that happens either wash out the bait bag or change it as the slime from the bad minnows will do the same to the good ones.
That is the voice of experience. Can't agree more. I usually try to put the bag of minnows between two bags of ice when starting out... Then like Wakina said, make sure that you cover the bag with ice with the top sticking out. I use 1 Gallon size bags and don't put more than 6 scoops in each one. Basically, you don't want a large mass of minnows at the middle of the bag so that the center ones can't get cold.

The guy that said that when you go East that is what you see... The first time we saw this was on a charter out of the Cleveland area that we were on and the old timer did this. I haven't had a live minnow on the boat since, for some reason though I do take live shiners when we go ice fishing, and now I am truly wondering why?

-Matt