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How To Keep Your Minnows Alive Longer

It’s hard to be successful fishing live bait if your minnows or chubs aren’t actually alive. By using the below tips you will be able to keep your minnows alive much longer and for not a whole lot of extra money. And with the cost of both minnows and chubs getting quite costly now a days you might as well save a little money on bait for gas pump.

1. When leaving your favorite bait shop with plastic bag full of minnows don’t just fill your bait bucket with lake water and then dump the minnows in. If all possible place the full bag of minnows into the bucket so that water temperature in the bag adjusts to the lake water temperature slowly. Sudden temperature swings can kill minnows.

2. Stable and cool water will help keep minnows alive much longer. While a minnow bucket meant for trolling is a great solution for when you’re actually fishing, it’s a poor choice for long term minnow survival. Styrofoam is an excellent material that will not help keep the water cool, but also prevent the temperature from changing rapidly. By making ice cubes from the natural water found in creek or distilled water you can keep adding ice cubes to keep the water cool.

3. Keep the water fresh in your bucket by changing the water with natural creek, river, or distilled water from the grocery store. Do not use regular tap water as it is enhanced with many additives meant for humans that will kill minnows. Be sure to replace the water in your bucket with water that is very close to the same temperature. If the temperature change is to much the minnows most often go into shock and die.

4. When not using an aerator adding 2-3 caps of hydrogen peroxide to your minnow buck is a very effect means of extending the life of your minnows. When released in plain water hydrogen peroxide releases oxygen into the water. Hydrogen peroxide is available in most grocery stores and is also handy as a disinfectant or an antiseptic.

5. An aerator is also another solution to keep the water in your bucket oxygenated. Both 120 VAC models that plug into a wall receptacle or battery powered aerators are available. The cheapest aerator to run at home is the 120VAC model meant for aquariums and is available at Wal-Mart. For portable use a battery aerator such as shown to right would be the best choice.

6. Keeping your minnows in the dark will also help extend their life. The solution is to simply keep the lid on your bucket. This will also prevent some of the energetic minnows or chubs from jumping out, yes this can happen will bigger bait such as walleye minnows or chubs.