Water Free Minnow Bucket

I thought I would share a trick that I learned this year on how to keep minnows alive WITHOUT water. Yes; the little bastages can stay alive for up to 24 hours without water. I have used it three times this year with great success. This may be an old trick, but this was the first I heard of it and thought it might help some others keep bait alive longer during the hot days of summer.

Earlier this year I went to the Garden State Outdoor Expo and attended a fishing clinic by Jeff Merrill. After the clinic, Jeff invited everyone in the audience up to the stage to check out his fishing rigs, and gear. He suggested that everyone give this a try instead of the typical white and yellow minnow bucket we all use now.

Items needed:
1- 5qt Coleman cooler (you know; the little blue lunch cooler)
2- 1-2 small re-freezable ice packs (depending on size of ice packs)
3- 1/8” thick piece of plastic or lexan (used to separate the minnows from the ice packs)
4- Something to use as a handle for lexan

Directions for assembly:
1- Obtain the items listed above
2- Cut the plastic or lexan to fit inside of the cooler.
3- Fabricate some type of handle to remove said lexan from the cooler.
4- Place frozen ice packs in the bottom of cooler. (The more the better.) I find that using two smaller ice packs keeps the minnows cooler longer than one larger ice pack
5- Place lexan with previously fabricated handle directly on the ice pack(s) that are already in the cooler.
6- Ask the bait shop to place the minnows in the cooler (on top of the lexan) with NO water.
a. Note: you will receive a strange look from the person working the bait counter at this point
7- Close the lid of the cooler – that’s it!

Keeping the minnows cold seems to put them in a dormant state. They come back to life the moment they feel the warmth of your hand or water. Each time that I have tried it, the minnows have stayed alive the entire day. Once I even left them in the cooler overnight to see what would happen, and at least half of them were still kicking the next morning. I also find that they are much easier to get a hold of since they are not moving. You also no longer have to remember to keep fresh water in the bucket or have to lug that thing up to where you can reach the minnows.

I will be using it this week since if anyone wants to check it out since I have been getting skunked on the Gulp as well.

Cooler
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Ice Pack / Lexan
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Assembled set up
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Great info, that would also be great for sandworms or nightcrawlers for freshwater fishing.
For the worms though I would keep them in their containers.
Anyone who has used worms know that once they get warm, their pretty much shot.

Sounds pretty sweet gotta give it a try, sorta like laying a towel down on ice when you get live eels to zap them a little before handling them .

Good stuff Tim! Thanks!

That's a great idea! Being the victim of expired minnows once too often, I will definitely give this a try.
Thanks for posting that...

Good tip Tim...been using a similar set-up on the head boats for years. Never even thought to adapt it to the yaks.

Cool,
Hope this works for you guys. Now we just need to get our friends at Hobie, Ocean, and WS to design kayaks with refrigeranted tank wells for beer and bait!

tmtfield wrote:

Cool,
Hope this works for you guys. Now we just need to get our friends at Hobie, Ocean, and WS to design kayaks with refrigeranted tank wells for beer and bait!

If they ever do that, I won't even worry about a few dead minnies!!!! There won't be any room for them anyway!!