My minnows die too daggonned quick!!

[thudpucker]

I guess its what happens when a Yankee comes south, becomes a D**n Yankee, and tries to fish with Minnows, live, when he's used to Frozen or fresh Herring. DEAD!:p

The first minnows I bought were just dumped into a dirty ol' farm bucket.
Now I buy minnows, in my clean, dis-infected bucket that I've soaked in lake water to dilute any leftover dis-infectant.

I used a plain ol' plastic five gallon bucket. Then I washed and dis-infected that too.
Some how, throughout all that, the Minnows die or start dying within an hour of purchase.

What the heck? Do I have a curse?

I just about joined my Minnows when my wife found the night crawlers in her Fridge!

[CrappiePumba]

You need an aerator to keep the minnows alive and active, also if its hot outside put a frozen water bottle in the bucket to keep the minnows cool.

[thudpucker]

Frozen water bottle! Great idea. I threw a half a bag of Ice in with them. Maybe the chlorine in the ice did the killing?
I have an aerator in my live well. It's pretty aggressive. Makes a foam develop on the water. I dont use it all the time.
Also I think the heat from the Aerator motor heats up the water.

I ran some dish soap through my live well and the aerator. Boy did that make some foam.
After that I scrubbed everthing and rinsed and then purged with a few 5 Gallon buckets of lake water.

[jimfish]

You about have to have a insulated bucket and aerater. If you use ice freeze a small bottle of water and drop it in bagged or freezer ice has to much cholrine in it.

[laserdoc]

catch fish faster? This will keep the minnows from doing the floating upside down dance of death.
Or you can ad a couple of tablespoons of that blue powder bait saver. that works great!!

[Shellback]

You can't change water temp rapidly or the shock will kill the minnows. That probably happened when you threw the bag of ice in. Try throwing the ice in a little at a time just to keep the temp stable.

[J.E.Clayton]

I use the frozen bottle of water 1/2 gal. size in a ice chest and I have kept minnows alive for several days. lake water frozen is the best.

[fishinRod]

three things will kill minnows in a bucket........no oxygen, chlorine (from tap water or store bought ice), and heat.......get an insulated minnow bucket, an aerator and use chlorine free ice cubes or small frozen water bottle as mentioned.
I have an aerator that uses 2 D cell batteries, it lasts several trips and i use a small electric aerator from an aquarium to keep them overnight........i'v kept minnows for a couple weeks in a minnow bucket but you do have to keep the water changed due to ammonia build up.

[shipahoy41]

I also am a "Yankee" who moved south. These 95 degree days are brutal on minnows. I fish 5am to 10 am or 6pm to 10 pm. That helps keep the minnows alive longer. Also as people said a strofoam cooler with an aerator really helps. I'd also keep a good supply of marabou jigs hands for when your minnows are kaput! At least then you can continue fishin. If you want to add scent, tip them with a wax worm.

[JSC]

Styro Foam Bucket or Ice Chest ... the larger the better.
("Hard" Ice chest Work in the larger size).

Use water from where you purchased them and DO NOT CHANGE during the trip.

Aireator ... mounted on OUTSIDE of box with hose and stone weighted so that it is on bottom of container.

Good chemical "Minnow Saver" (use as per directions).

Use Ice (bottled or loose) SPARINGLY ... You can shock the bait ... also you do not want a lot of difference in the water temp in the container and the water that you are fishing in as you can kill the minnow when it hits the warmer water .... They need to be "Conditioned" for the temp you are fishing in.

There are a lot of Minnow Keeping Systems out there .. most work OK even in hot weather.

Keep as much "Foreign Matter" out of container as possible.

Keep the continer in the shade as much as possible.

My 2 Cents Worth.

JSC