tablerite

This is a great article, however, when using oily fish such as shad my worry is the bait becoming waterlogged before it freezes. With shad a skips being so oily, which adds to their awesome scent trail, being frozen in water may dilute this trail. I do not know if this would actually make any difference in its attraction, but it is something to think about. For gills and other non-oily fish this would prob work well. Here is a link to how I prep my shad. I have great luck using this method and have used shad over a year old with good results. Freezing Baitfish or Bait Info

This article came from field and stream. It was short and sweet but, did not take into account the effects of water block freezing. Thanks for the point you have made about the oil scent trails. I have used cut gill, shad, ckicken liver, and shrimp. All fresh and the results are way better than any rotten bait. Rotten bait is a old wise tail for green horns to believe. I am getting a vacumm machine and use the 5 step technique that is mentioned in the comments from the blog. Thanks for pointing that out!!!!!

Nice article but they forgot to mention a way to suspend the fish in the middle of the water column before freezing. I suspect the fish would either float or sink to the bottom leaving one side exposed after freezing. A ziplock hand vac is cheap and works well enough. Thanks for the read.

This is absolutely hilarious and could be modified with a vacuum to make it safe for usage with bait of any sort for freezer storage....

Yeah she said that this actually works and I can do this with regular freezer bags. See storing bait that is oily or not, can be productive if frozen correctly. I could store shad or bluegill using this method and just have to buy regular gallon bags (or smaller) and zip lock them airtight. Only would cost me my time and effort.

Catch em, place them in a cold water bucket with bubbles (use ice if needed), pat em down for storage, air seal em, freeze them is still the golden rule.
The fresher the better and saving money is a big bonus.:Money:

Well if you spin the sides of the seal or push the stuff flat you can get the air out. I have not tried this yet but, skipjack bandits say this is cheaper than vac sealing and alot quicker.
GLAD Press'n Seal® Wrap

Or you can use an actual everyday vacumm and go postal like this guy did...:cool:

http://www.catfish1.com/forums/f162/...lp-138384.html

#1 Rule, continue to learn and you will figure it out!!!

Check out this thread from South Carolina on frozen cut perch and everyone is has different methods. All methods have been spoken about in this blog, even the water freezing method. Bottom line is to keep air out of the freezing process for nearer to fresh thawed out bait. This will increase your chances, with proper presentation, dramatically for catching big and many catfish.

http://www.catfish1.com/forums/f138/...rk-160069.html