Sarley: Advice for keeping your live bait alive during a hot Illinois summer

I’ve talked to you all before about the effectiveness of using live bait when you are fishing. Please realize that the key word in this subject is “live.” Keeping your bait alive and lively is extremely important if you are going to go that way.

Minnows are a very poor bait choice when fishing in the torrid temperatures we have been facing recently. People grouse about the bait shops when they find that the minnows they have purchased do not last very long before turning belly up. It’s not the fault of the bait shops. It’s virtually impossible to keep minnows alive in a plastic or metal minnow bucket.

They sell oxygen aerators for portable minnow buckets. These gizmos keep the minnows full of oxygen but really do nothing to lower the temperature. It still gets too hot and too fast for the minnows to last. You can throw handfuls of ice into the minnow water, but when it’s 90 degrees out, you never can have enough ice on hand to do the trick.

Worms are a live bait that is much easier to handle than minnows are, but you still need to be careful. Waxworms, which are great for panfish, are very easy to keep. They should not get overheated. Room temperature is ideal. Waxworms should not be kept on ice or refrigerated. They’ll last for weeks at 70 degrees.

Nightcrawlers and redworms are more temperature sensitive than waxies. They need to be kept cool. I used to harvest my own nightcrawlers in the early spring. I’d pick them up off the driveway after a rainstorm and end up with enough juicy crawlers to last for a whole fishing season.

The key was to store my nightcrawlers in Buss Bed-ding, a commercially prepared nightcrawler bedding material. It took virtually no maintenance, just a little water on occasion. I kept the cooler I used for my crawlers on the cool concrete floor in my basement. Perfecto!

I don’t nurture my own crawlers anymore, but if you use a lot of worms, this method works perfectly. Worms stored and raised like this are the biggest, fattest, liveliest worms you will ever use, and I will guarantee that.

When I am fishing, I need to keep my crawlers in a small container on ice in my cooler. Don’t let the crawlers get deluged in the melting ice. They’ll drown. Once I transported a flat of nightcrawlers in the back of my truck to northwest Ontario. A flat is 40 dozen. I put a bag of ice on the flat to keep it cool. I didn’t realize that the ice bag punctured and the melting cubes caused the worms to drown. Can you imagine what the odor of 40 dozen dead worms smells like? It’s not pretty, let me tell you.

My favorite live bait is the leech. Leeches are irresistible to most fish and are very easy to use. Once you can wrap your head around the fact that you are using something known as “bloodsuckers’ for bait, they are a snap.

Do bait leeches suck blood? I am told that the species used for bait does not. I don’t know if that is true, but I prefer to believe it. I’ve never known anyone who has had one attached to eat blood. They do use the sucker on the end to attach themselves to things to help move.

To fish with leeches all you need to do is to pierce the leech through the sucker with the hook pointing up and that is it. Leeches are incredibly tough and last a long time on the hook without having to change baits. Leeches are expensive but last and last.

Warning — if you use leeches on a lake like Geneva that is loaded with panfish, you can go broke quickly. Geneva rock bass can go through dozens of leeches in short order.

Leeches last a long time in the fridge if you regularly change their water. Please don’t let your spouse get surprised by their new refrigerator contents or you’ll be sleeping on the couch.

Here is a tip for next spring. Leeches are about the only bait that can get a smallmouth bass to bite during the spawning season. Please release everything you catch.

• Daily Herald Outdoors columnist Steve Sarley can be reached at sarfishing@yahoo.com.