I put mine in a brine as soon as they come out of the water. Keep them cold real cold in the brine over night and freeze in butcher paper wrapped in foil the next day. When you thaw them out thaw them in the brine just with out the ice. They will not be mushy when done this way. The stuff i use is called Bionic brine. I also do all my salt water baits the same way.
another questuon about skipjack; I live on the lower mo river and I occasionally cath a skip in my throw net. I like them better than shad. but I cant catch them with a jig or anything in the creeks. where do I go to find them on a big river. we dont have much for spillways around here, so where do they go?
any mouth of creeks...look for the minnows...we catch them on sabiki jig
explain to me sabiki jigs. do you fish slow, under a slip float, slow roll em or what?
slow reel them, they have like 6 little jigs on them..Myself i find my skip jacks at the dams near the swift water, and at creek mouths. You attach the barrell swivel to your line and a sinker to the bottom cast it out and reel it in. perty simply...PM me i an hook you up with a company i order mine from...now i make my own...
I have a miniature umbrella rig that I troll for crappie with, I'd post pics but I'm electronically retarded.anyhow its a 10" round wire hoop with a lead out front to tie to. it has a place for 6 jigs about 6" back, staggered around the hoop and 1 jig in the middle, bout a foot back. any resemblence? crappie jigs or smaller? I do have a power plant with a warm water discharge near by. some rippin current there. thought about notched wingdykes too.
I buy my brine mixture from a local tackel shop that sells a lot of salt water gear. Its mainly used for ballyhoo but works great for skippers, shad ,herring, and what ever else. Ive even brined eels and it works great. We catch huge eels out of a local golf corse pond like 2.5 to 3 feet long must be the fertalizer any way the blue cats love chunks of eel. But i must warn you when eels get that big they are real hard to handle so have a big sharp knife on hand.