Live bait

For several years I was a die-hard tripper - light weight, many miles, loops...
For about the past 10 years I have been doing a yearly men's family trip where the focus is basecamping and fishing (walleye). So we bring live bait.

I thought it would be nice to hear other peoples' methods for bringing live bait.

We have two small bear barrels that we have the bait guy put oxygen bags in, fill with minnows, then fill with oxygen, seal and put the lids on. These then go into a Duluth pack which also fits the minnow buckets and other miscellaneous fishing gear. In total I think we bring on average 12 dozen minnows for 4 guys and about 3.5 days of fishing. We also bring in about a 1/2 pound of leeches - also in a bag and placed inside a leech locker for tripping in.

Once we get to the campsite the first item on the agenda is to get the minnows into minnow buckets and into the water. Even on hot days and 10 miles in we have relatively small die off.

The minnow buckets must be locking ones - one year we lost half our minnows to otters (one of them didn't lock).

Granted this is a lot of work but when you are catching 5 times the amount of fish as those around you it really pays off.

I use a plastic gallon jug for leeches, just like you use the bear barrels. At camp we take out what we want to use and change the water twice a day, and keep it in the shade with the lid loose but not off. Leeches last a week easily, if they don't all get eaten up!

Bruce

I've never brought minnows into the BWCA. They're pretty sensitive little critters and leeches are tough as nails, plus the fish love em. I paddle to basecamp with the leeches in the oxygen bag they came in, which goes into one of my packs. They usually get stuck in the dry bag that contains our wine bladders. Once at camp, they pretty much live in a leech locker, keeping the water fresh at all times.

Live bait is not hard to keep alive if handled properly (don't leave the minnows or leeches sitting on the canoe seat in the hot sun, keep in the water as much as possible, sink the minnow pail and leech locker a few feet down in the water at night by placing a rock in either, etc)
It's basically common sense, kinda like not tossing your Kevlar canoe on some sharp boulders:)

I use the small 6pack size playmate cooler.2 lbs. of leeches in a plastic bag and then 2 or 3 frozen 20 oz. waters packed inside.ice melts by day 2 and you got something cold to drink(a real luxury up there)and the cooler seconds as a bait bucket for fishing.

Leeche lockers for us, as TGO said just keep in the water or change out the water often when traveling.
CB

I used the leech "mud" this year in a container I got at the bait store. I put them in a plastic bag for the portages worked like a dream. Thank god I brought leeches this year bite was tough. May fly hatch!