elliminating crawler mess ?

[Cheers]

Any one have a good solution to keeping the boat clean when using crawlers ? I have my crawlers in worm bedding and by the end of the day the boat it a mess .

[PurpleFloyd]

Transfer them into a container with shredded moist newspaper.

[UMC]

Fished with a guide a couple times who would put his crawlers in ice water at the beginning of the day. Seemed to work well. Not sure on the survival if you don't use them all that day...

[Northlander]

Put in one of the mesh leech bags and put in the livewell. Keeps crawlers plump.

[hanson]

2 good solutions are crawlers in ice water, and crawlers in a Leech Tamer tossed in the livewell. Both mentioned already!

If you are at all concerned about survival, put a half dozen in ice water. You'll find you use them up quickly. Put a dozen in ice water, will last a bit longer. You'll find out how many you can put on ice and use before the ice melts and the water warms up.

Just keep the crawlers in your worm bedding and wash and transfer them to an ice water container as you need them.

Leech Tamer works well bust most folks don't think you can put worms in water. Experiment with it.

[paceman]

Yep like already stated. I simply transfer some into a container of water. It makes a huge difference. The boat stays way cleaner, even with kids along.

[pooly_31]

i guess i go the simple way, hold the container over the water when i dig the crawler out, put cover on, throw container back in cooler, dip hand holding crawler in lake and wa-la, no dirt in boat, clean crawler in hand

[dfv87]

i guess i go the simple way, hold the container over the water when i dig the crawler out, put cover on, throw container back in cooler, dip hand holding crawler in lake and wa-la, no dirt in boat, clean crawler in hand

Sure until some HUGE musky does a "JAWS" on you and you lose the hand... jk.

[JohnMickish]

Put one of those blue ice things in a small cooler, put a few wet paper towels on top of the blue ice, wash crawlers, put crawlers in cooler. Clean, cool, and alive crawlers for the day.

The key is to wash the crawlers and keep any crawler dirt out of the boat. It sounds silly but once you start to wash them, you will wonder why you have put up with such a mess for so long.

[blue_healer_guy]

live with the mess and get yourself one of those hand held brissle sweepers. I have 3 in my boat and take minimal time and your good to go. sorry I dont know the name of the product but they work well.

[leech~~]

I have one of those little 12v car vacs in my boat. I just pug it in and do a little vac job at the end of the day or let it sit and dry until the next trip and vac it up then. It only takes a few min's.

[harvey lee]

I pick all of my crawlers and buy the worm bedding in a bag.

I put bedding in an ice cream pail and then 10 dozen crawlers per pail.

I either use this container for sturgeon fishing as we go through so many crawlers or go to a smaller container for eye fishing so the container will fit in a small cooler.

There is next to no mess with this bedding as it has no dirt in it and usually when I get home, all the little bedding pieces I spilled in the boat if any are gone.

Love the stuff.

[efgh]

My son, who fishes the Misouri river,has a small pail in the boat with a 1/2 in. of water in it, puts in a dab of scent, then a dozen crawlers. The crawlers come out clean, so are your hands and the boat.

[tacklejunkie]

You could always use GULP crawlers

[SkunkedAgain]

I pinch, rinse the worm and fingers in the lake, and then bait my hook.

[Jarrid Houston]

I guess I just deal with it, and try to vacuum when I can! It is inevitable tht crawlers are dirty and leave a mess. But they DO CATCH FISH!!

[TyGuy02]

You could always use GULP crawlers

+1

These have been the best investment I've made this year. I don't really like the leeches, but the crawlers are amazing. They rarely come off if you catch a fish. Little fish don't nip the crawler off. You can go 1/3, 1/2 or full crawler. Ideal for with slow death because they go on the hook beautifully! Perfect for texas rigging. The only problem is that the juice really stinks!

[Fishinguy40]

After reading this thread, I decided to try putting my crawlers into water, like was suggested. Spent all day yesterday fishing on the river and I have to say it worked great! No mess. Crawlers survived well and were still quite lively when trying to put them on the hook. At the end of the day I just grabbed remaining crawlers out of the minnow bucket that I used and through them back into the original container they came in and put them in the fridge.