dying minnows

[rickster]

My brother and I have been fishing wylie at night once a week. We buy our medium size minnows in belmont, we use the green minnow powder that most of the stores also use. the question is our minnows are very healthy in the bucket swimming on the bottom,but they dont live very long in the lake. I dont have to tell u dead m's dont catch crappie . we tryed the little minnows last weekend, not to good, I really dont like using the little ones. any advice on how to keep em alive in this hot water? thanks rick

[rango]

you can take the inside of a metal floating minnow bucket and put it in the water someplace out of the way, tied to the boat. soons you get anchored put your minnows in this bucket, all but a few to fish with. as you run low in the fishing bucket, dip you some more outta the floater. If you got a lot of minnows, this will keep em alive all night.
a lot of bait stores keep their minnows in refrigerated water. much cooler than the lake water, so they will be lively at the sale. once paid for they dont care how long they live. acclimated to cool water and put in warm water or vice versa will do em in. find a bait store that dont refrigerate their water and youll have longer lasting minnows most times.
this time of year its hard to keep minnows alive, no matter what you do so keep a check on em on the hook and change frequently as youve already found out, they dont live long on a hook when the waters this warm. try hookin em up through the lips instead of through the eyes or back.

[LIL' Joe]

If the store has refrigerated tanks, put a piece or two of ice in the bucket every so often. This is what we do in that situation.

[Winchester]

rickster, I've had good luck keeping creek minnows alive in a 48qt. cooler with a fozen 2 liter bottle of water in with them to keep the water cool. I kept 6 doz. alive a couple weeks ago for over a week in a 100qt cooler. I just used two 2 liter bottles and replaced them once a day. I'm not sure if store bought minnows are harder or easy to keep alive though.

[rickster]

thanks for the replies. I"LL explain the problem better this time. we transport minnows in 6 gallon insulated bucket with minnow keeper additive powder to keep em jumpin around like their on crack. when we get to our fishin hole we put lake water in two 4 gallon insulated buckets with additive. all buckets have aeraters, we put a small zip lock bag with ice in each bucket for a few minutes to get the hot lake water close to the same temp as water in transport bucket. we then dip some in to each of the two small buckets, one up front and one at the back so we have our own. the minnows are as healthy as it gets in the buckets, you cant hardly catch em with the net. but when u hook em thru eyes or lip and nostril they be dying like flys when u start fishin them. I guess everybody has this problem in the summer. we started our crappie learning last year in sept, so we have a long to go.:D

[LIL' Joe]

We hook through the back, and have good luck with that approach. I have also found out we can catch just as many fish with dead ones as alive ones. I got to the point I don't care if they are alive or dead when they go on the hook.

[FishnLine]

I hook them in the back right below the dorsal fin, making sure I don't break the back bone. I don't have much trouble with them dying fast when I get them in the water. You may want to try hooking them different to see if it helps.

[ofishlbizzness]

Dont put store bought ice in your bait bucket....Most all ice has chlorine in it and it not good for bait.It will turn them a red color or just kill them. The frozen bottels work great long as you don't pour into tank.A guide on Lake Murray told me this and sinde I don't put store bought ice on any bait.

[Nightprowler]

There could be 2 problems. #1 is your fishing a lake that down deep there isn't enough oxygen and killing the minners. #2 is get a bucket with water at the exact temp as lake water, then keeping your minnows in a freezer bag with cool water, set the bag in the warmer water and let them get used to the temp change. It could take up to 2 hours to adjust. This is how they do it at the pet shops.

[CrappiePappy]

about fishing too deep (below the thermocline) can be killing the minnows. But, I think your minnows are dying from the quick temperature change (shock) from cold water to warm water conditions. You need to acclimate the minnows to the warmer water, but slowly.
I used to buy minnows, bagged w/oxygen pumped in, and transport them to the lake (1.5hrs drive time) ... they came out of a cold water tank. By the time I got to the lake, loaded and launched the boat, and got within 100yds of my 1st stop - the water had warmed up a bit ... Even so - I stopped the boat and dumped the minnows out of the bag, into the minnow bucket. Then, I would dip out some of the cold water, and replace it with an equal amount of lake water ... and repeat this proceedure until the minnow bucket water seemed to be the same temp as the lake water, then put the minnow bucket overboard. (meanwhile, my partner would be using the trolling motor to get us to the 1st stop) I had a couple of those small personal/individual sized minnow buckets, and would put about a dozen per person in each (again, filled with lake water). Minnows start coming to the top of those ... dump water and refill (or put a bubble machine on it). Don't remember having too much problem with mass die offs.

Dropping cold minnows into hot lake water = soon to be dead minnows ... no matter how they're hooked. Summer lake water has more oxygen in the water above the thermocline (if there is one), than below it ... even if the water is warmer. Minnows/fish breath with their gills - so, as long as you don't hook them where they cannot open their gill flaps or gulp water thru their mouths, then they should be fine. Usually, it's the sudden temp change that kills them. They may not seem as frisky, in the warmer water, as they do in the cold water ... but, neither are the other "minnows" that are swimming around in the lake (so the fish aren't going to expect your minnows to act any different :D )
Shiner minnows are harder to keep alive, in warm water, than are Fatheads (Tuffies) ... so it pays to know what specie of minnow you're buying, too.

But, hey ... what do I know :p .... I gave up on "minners" as my #1 Crappie bait, when I discovered jigs ... LOL!!

... luck2ya ... cp