Salted Minnows

[bearplott]

Can someone give me a step by step on this? I have read through some past posts about it, but am not positive what works best. Last year we salted some but they were basically decaying away to the point that they didn't stay on the hook very long.

I have read where you should mix salt with borax and this firms them up.

Should I mix the salt and borax and pour it into the minnow bucket and once the minnows are dead rinse them and then freeze them?

Any help would be appreciated.

[Crow Hunter]

the method I have used is to mix salt and sugar 50/50; pour a layer in the bottom of a container, place a layer of minnows on it, another layer of the salt/sugar, another layer of minnows, etc. Leave them in this for a couple of days. It worked well. Other guys have had luck with other methods too. Good luck.

[RK]

This might sound wierd but...kill them with Coke rather than putting the salt in the water. For some reason it seems to help them stay together and keep their color a little more. Then salt as Crowhunter described... BWCA canoe guide told me about the Coke thing years ago, and it does seem to work...

Cheers,

Rob Kimm

[nofishfisherman]

Mmmmm...

Coke and Salted Minnows, sounds tasty.

[jmikes]

This is the process my family has used for canada.

Place the minnows on a screen contraption that allows the minnows to die and also dry off (Old window screen boxed in). Place a layer of salt on meat plastic containers (we buy them at the grocery store). Place the dead minnows over the first layer of salt and then apply another layer. Place in zip-lock bag and freeze. When using the minnows try to keep them frozen and they will stay on the hook better. We found the best minnows to use are sucker minnows, have tried shiners we trapped. Suckers will catch 2-3 fish each minnow.