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Your Last Stop Before the Water's Edge
Fisherman's Creed: To Protect and Respect Public and Private Waterways. To Encourage Others Through My Example to Do The Same.
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What We Carry
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How We Handle Them
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How You Should Handle Them
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Minnows
Creek Chubs
Shiners
Rosy Reds
WHY YOU WANT THEM:
Catfish
Crappie
Hybrids
Small- and Large-mouth Bass
Muskie
Walleye
Our tank is kept at a steady 45 to 55 degrees, well aerated and with water treatment chemicals to prevent algae and ammonia growth and to prompt good bacteria growth. Sedation treatment keeps the bait fish destressed and infection-free.
Depending on the degree of any contamination, offending fish are removed from the environment, partial water changes take place and the tank is chemically treated to heal, or the tank is emptied and thoroughly cleaned before a refill.
Our tank water is safe for disposal into any lake or pond.
For immediate use: keep your bucket water cool and shaded with baggies of ice or an ice pack immersed into the water.
For Future or Overnight Use: Store in a cool place such as the concrete floor of a basement or with ice packs or baggies of ice placed around the storage bag or directly in the livewell tank. Never expose your bait fish to a warm environment unless ready for immediate use. Always remove dead fish from the container. Dead bait fish emit ammonia which kills the other fish. Do not feed your bait fish. This produces ammonia as well.
If fish are bagged in oxygen, store the bag on its side so as to provide the largest possible surface area for oxygenation and freedom of movement. Important to check for leakage. If the bag is found leaking, eliminate the bag immediately or your fish will lose water without the ability to evacuate the bag.
Always clean your hands before handling delicate fish as they are very sensitive to chemical interaction. A dip net is highly recommended. Handling your fish through the net is the best method for avoiding injury to the fish on its way to the hook.
Goldfish
WHY YOU WANT THEM:
Catfish
We will store goldfish in a separate tank from other small aquatics as they emit amonia which kill other fish in an enclosed environment.
Keep your goldfish and other aquatics separated maintaining the same conditions as above. Gold fish mixed with other species are better kept in a larger environment for long-term keeping such as a pond.
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Nightcrawlers
Redworms
WHY YOU WANT THEM:
Catfish
Crappie
Hybrids
Small- and Large-mouth Bass
Muskie
Trout
Walleye
Redworms come cupped two dozen to a container and are kept refrigerated in their own shipping soil.
Nightcrawlers are delivered and sold in their own 12ct or 18ct cups. Nightcrawlers are kept refrigerated for longest possible life expectancy. They are checked before you buy them. This practice assures you have a superior product before it leaves our store.
We do not raise our own crawlers and would discourage you from trying in the name of saving time and money.
By the time you see crawlers they are four to six years old with an occasional baby found among the adults. They are excavated out of the ground, not farm-raised. Crawlers must reproduce in their own earthly environment which provides balanced amounts of light and dark, dry and moist, cold and warm.
It is virtually impossible to simulate the earth's natural environment in your garage or basement or back yard. If it were that easy, we'd be doing it.
If you buy it refrigerated, keep it as close to the same condition as possible for immediate use and prolonged storage. Your home refrigerator is colder than our commercial-grade temperature control. Therefore store your worms higher up and toward the front and/or on the door of your refrigerator, NEVER in the back or low near the crisper. NEVER airtighten your crawlers. Plastic bags can be used tied loosely. Make sure the container lid is snapped on completely or they can and will escape the cup.
Check the bedding after one week for moisture. If squeezing a piece of the bedding doesn't yield a small amount of water, the bedding is too dry. Add a tablespoon at a time of distilled water, water that has been left standing out overnight, bottled water or pond water. NEVER use water directly from the tap and do not overwater. Crawlers do drown.
Your crawlers should have a color consistent with light coffee. If they appear gray in color, they are on the verge of expiring. Remove the dead from the container, as one dead crawler will contaminate the others.
Never stretch your crawlers as they will not be able to reshrink themselves. Pick up a crawler from its middle and handle them gently for longer storage.
Mealworms are the brown exoskeletal (hard outer shell) worms which come in two types: Standard which require refrigeration and Giant which do not.
Wax worms are the white soft worms that come in vats of almost 300 or small cups of three dozen.
All kinds are kept refrigerated for dormancy.
For immediate use: no need to refrigerate.
For Future Use: Keep refrigerated to keep them dormant. It takes less than 10 minutes for the worms to begin stirring after they reach room temperature. Wax worms, when left at room temperature for prolonged periods, will begin to weave in its bedding in preparation for becoming a moth.
NEVER let wax worms crawl freely in your environment. They will embed in furniture and carpeting in numbers and do their weaving magic.
Graying worms are about to expire and turn black. Death in the cup is malodorous but not threatening to other worms.
There are two kinds of leeches available on the market: water and mud leeches.
We currently carry water leeches which we keep in a refrigerated gallon container with water from the minnow tank. They are sold by the dozen.
Over the last three years, it has been cost-prohibitive to stock mud leeches.
Though leeches have the reputation for being the most undesirable bait to handle, they are among the best bait for catfishing.
Water leeches are smaller and more worm-like than mud leeches which have a more leather-like consistency.
Keeping your water leeches in a refrigerated container with plenty of water assures that the water will stay cleaner longer as leeches emit slime requiring the water to be cleaned and changed daily for prolonged storage.
We recommend a glove for handling leeches and applying them to the hook since they tend to be more active and harder to grasp.
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Catalpa Worms
WHY YOU WANT THEM:
Catfish
Catalpa worms stay alive for about a day away from their normal environment (which is to live on the tree), then sold frozen by the dozen.
"Catalpa," "Catava," "Tava" worms, how ever you pronounce it, are among some of the best bait for any kind of fishing.
For immediate use remove the worm right from the tree while it's still alive.
Longer storage of the worm means leaving it on the tree until you need them if you want them alive, as these worms make a steady diet of the leaves of the tree on which they hatch.
Removing the worm from the tree means bringing plenty of leaves with them. Once the leaves are gone the worm stops eating and dies which can then be stored for later use by any of the many ways to preserve them.
Just Google "catalpa" for thousands of pages of suggestions.
Crickets
WHY YOU WANT THEM:
Catfish
Bass
Bluegill
Our crickets are farm-raised and are kept in their cage with the door open for air circulation. This would be the only live bait that we feed and water on a daily basis.
We sell then by the tube or sleeve (about 100), half-tube or minimum of $1-worth (about 20 crickets).
The life expectancy of an adult cricket would be about six weeks.
They should be kept in a container designed specifically for them such as the several styles of cages that are available. They can be transported in a paper or plastic bags for quick trips but will not survive in that kind of container for long periods.
Large cages holding large numbers of crickets should be cleaned on a daily basis. Some individuals may become sensitive to the oily dander and feces produced by them. It would be recommended to wash hands thoroughly after handling them and keep them and your hands away from your face. NEVER expose crickets to areas directly treated with pest-control chemicals.
Crickets need warmth. So using them on a hot summer day will not affect their longevity, but they are carnivorous, which means when you are hungry or thirsty, so are they.
If you expect to keep crickets for longer than a day, keep them away from a chill such as you would find in direct contact with an air conditioning vent or colder outdoor temperatures.
Most distributors ship crickets with potatoes because it's more cost-effective. But for the consumer (and dealers) it's a smarter move to feed them about twice daily with a small chunk of fruit and a water source such as a soaking wet sponge. They prefer sweet and wet though they will eat anything, including each other if they lack a food supply.
Meal worms
Wax worms
WHY YOU WANT THEM:
Bluegill
Crappie
Trout
Leeches
WHY YOU WANT THEM:
Catfish
Crappie
Hybrids
Small- and Large-mouth Bass
Muskie
Trout
Walleye
