Live bait, ie. minnows, night crawlers & leeches all have their place for fishing and it used to be that there was no substitute for live bait when you want to catch fish. Today there are a lot great plastic baits that darn near rival live bait. So if you don't have to take live bait, especially minnows, you'll move quicker over the portages and have one less thing that's is empty and pretty useless (minnow bucket)to carry around when you run out of minnows. But, there are now some pretty cool options that I've listed on this page that you may want to take along.

May - June: live minnows are a universally good live bait in the Boundary Waters for this time of year, but they require more care in handling. You can lug them around on a 5 day canoe trip, but somebody is going to have to be diligent about changing the water in them while traveling in canoe. You gotta remember to stop paddling every now and change the water. Assigning a kid to this task is also not real reliable no matter how sharp the kid is unless you are using the Frabill Minn-O-Life bucket below. That collapsible bucket has a clear, viny, zippered, top plus when the aerator is on, you don't have to change water so often. To stave off the heat, you can use a solid, insulated bucket like the Frabill Kool Keeper. This is a solid bucket, but with the foam insulation inside, your minnows will keep longer in warm weather. Just don't over stuff the bucket with minnows. Putting over 4-6 dozen minnows in a minnow bucket is a lot of minnows in a confined space. It can be done but you'll either need to add an aerator or change the water frequently. Ideally, two collapsible buckets with aerators and 3-4 dozen minnow in each will be your best best.

When I was guiding, I would ALWAYS take the minnow bucket over ANY portage no matter how long or short. In warm weather the fastest, most sure-footed guy in the group goes first with the minnows, always. The last thing I needed was somebody spilling the minnow bucket all over a hot, dusty portage nowhere near any water. I did the same thing with my fishing rods, too. The first and only time I let someone carry my rod over the Wood Lake Portage, they broke the tip off of it.

Frabill Min-O-Life Collapsible Bucket	Plano 730 Bait System	Frabill Worm & Leech Lodge	Frabil Kool Keeper
Order for $15.99	Order at $10.99	Order at $6.49	Order at $8.99

Last week of June thru August

Night Crawlers and Leeches are what you use then and they certainly make life easier. Minnows tend to not perform as well as leeches and crawlers when the water warms up. We sell a couple of different hard-shell, insulated containers for hauling these guys around so if your 10-year-old leaves the night crawlers out in the sun for an hour, it's not the end of the world as long as the cover is down. Leeches will need their water changed periodically unless you throw a handy Frabill Leech Tote over the side while fishing. Make sure you secure the top. The advantage of night crawlers over leeches is that you get two for the price of one. I usually hook up and throw a whole crawler over the side to see what's down there. When we find fish we go to half crawlers and if they're biting really well, one-third pieces. This is harder to do with leeches (break them up) but it is common for leeches to remain on your hook for 2 or 3 fish so you do get a fair amount of mileage of each leech.

So, if you would like to take along live bait, make sure you take along the right containers for the job.

Back to Main Page