What Do You Do With Leftover Cured Bait?

[Ringo]

For the weekend warriors like myself, how do you guys keep your leftover bait if you’re not fishing them for a week or so?

If cured with salt, I move to a container and put in the freezer. Then I move to the fridge 24hrs before my next trip. They usually look a bit too dry at the beginning but I soak them in the ocean water for afew minutes and they revive their fresh look again.
For the wet brined bait, I air dry on paper towel then pack in a ziploc and put in the fridge for a few days. If longer, add some birax to the ziploc and put in the freezer.
How do you guys keep your leftovers for the next trip?

 

[scott craven]

I have some leftovers that are over a year old in heavily brined salt solution in the freezer. They don't look pretty but they're pickled like a piece of shoe leather.
A few minutes in the ocean
revives them .

 

[SpringVelocity]

I keep them brined in freezer.

 

[Sharphooks]

My anchovies, the ones I paid $ 19.99 per tray and didn’t use, are in my referigerator. My plan is to rig them up in the river for fall chinook and coho. I still have to amortize them

The herring I brought north with me to North Coast had been in my freezer for three years. They were turning yellow in the package. I used those during a two week fishing trip and despite their age, could not keep the coho off...the springs...hard to say if old bait effected catch but I caught enough to be happy

 

[eroyd]

Throw them at seagulls. They don't like them.

 

[bigdogg1]

For the weekend warriors like myself, how do you guys keep your leftover bait if you’re not fishing them for a week or so?

If cured with salt, I move to a container and put in the freezer. Then I move to the fridge 24hrs before my next trip. They usually look a bit too dry at the beginning but I soak them in the ocean water for afew minutes and they revive their fresh look again.
For the wet brined bait, I air dry on paper towel then pack in a ziploc and put in the fridge for a few days. If longer, add some birax to the ziploc and put in the freezer.
How do you guys keep your leftovers for the next trip?

Honestly, I was up at TC ~ 1 month ago. Ran out of fresh bait and the bottom of the cooler was a 4-5 year old completely desicated package of blued and brined anchovies. I could barely get the leather into the teaser head. They worked awesome!

 

[searun]

There is no replacement for good bait. Properly cured bait vs old tired bait - good bait (even if a few days old) will out fish the crap every time. Yes, there are times it won't matter, but when that happens you can catch them on a cigarette butt. I can count on my hands the number of times that happens each season. In the end it is all about the roll, and if the bait achieves the desired quality roll ....it will kill.

 

[Rain City]

There is no replacement for good bait. Properly cured bait vs old tired bait - good bait (even if a few days old) will out fish the crap every time. Yes, there are times it won't matter, but when that happens you can catch them on a cigarette butt. I can count on my hands the number of times that happens each season. In the end it is all about the roll, and if the bait achieves the desired quality roll ....it will kill.

I can make a pretty stellar roll off a leathery bait. I dry them out as much as possible so they shrink and turn hard. They even hold a nice bend that way!

 

[RiverBoy]

guide buddy i know that guides in nootka treats his bait horribly. he tosses it around, leaves it in the sun all day, chucks it back in the small bait cooler end of day and re freezes into an ugly block and starts all over the next day.

always sends his clients home with fish….

i hate using bait with a passion but when i do i defrost, salt them heavily right in the tray and then carefully slip back into the plastic sleeve it came in and leave in the small bait cooler. end of the day it goes in the freezer or back on ice. they never really freeze thanks to all the salt

 

[Loghauler]

Boil them for several hours, strain the broth off and sell as fish sauce the rest till into garden for fertilizer !

 

[Aces]

Crab and prawn bait

 

[searun]

Crab and prawn bait

So true. I'll put good bait up against any old used crappy leather stuff any day. Yes, there are some days where just about anything will catch em, but overall on the whole there's no replacement for good bait. When the bait is done, toss it.

 

[Rain City]

So true. I'll put good bait up against any old used crappy leather stuff any day. Yes, there are some days where just about anything will catch em, but overall on the whole there's no replacement for good bait. When the bait is done, toss it.

I don't know, I've used some pretty dried out garbage this year and I've done far better than most around here. Not that I wouldn't prefer fatter and fresher, just didn't seem to matter for me this year around the Fraser.

 

[Aces]

So true. I'll put good bait up against any old used crappy leather stuff any day. Yes, there are some days where just about anything will catch em, but overall on the whole there's no replacement for good bait. When the bait is done, toss it.

I’ve always been fussy about my bait and agree with you it makes a difference when fishings tough

 

[Ringo]

I don't know, I've used some pretty dried out garbage this year and I've done far better than most around here. Not that I wouldn't prefer fatter and fresher, just didn't seem to matter for me this year around the Fraser.

Moral of the story; go cheap - catch more!