Have you ever spent your hard-earned money on live bait only to have it die before your fishing trip came to an end? It’s no secret shrimp and croaker are prime live bait options for catching a spectrum of gamefish and other species along our Texas coastal waters. However, to keep bait alive involves a whole lot more than just throwing them in a livewell or an aerated cooler until you attach them to a hook.
Jenna Alexander, the general manager of Marker 37 Marina in Corpus Christi, said her crew regularly encounters anglers who purchase both live shrimp and live croaker before hitting the water in pursuit of speckled trout, redfish, flounder and black drum. Her suggestion for anglers who would like to carry both along for a fishing trip is to store the two types of bait in different livewells or containers. According to Alexander, the croaker will eventually try to eat the shrimp as they become hungry, and it could happen rather quickly if they haven’t recently eaten.
As for shrimp, she urges anglers to keep an eye out for individuals that perish in the livewell or container.
“Shrimp emit ammonia into the water after they die,” Alexander explained. “Once they start to turn pink, they really become a danger to the other live baitfish that are sharing the same water with them, as that is really when they start to release toxic levels of ammonia into the water. The best practice is to remove any dead shrimp from the water as soon as possible. If you catch them before they turn pink, they usually still work well as fresh dead bait.”
When it comes to best practices for keeping shrimp and croaker alive while on the water, Alexander suggests anglers fill their livewells or bait storage containers with water from her marina, or whatever bait stand they purchase live bait from.
“Our water is cooler than what is in the bay this time of year, plus it contains some chemical additives that promote higher oxygen levels to keep the shrimp and croaker in good shape,” she said. “After filling their livewell with water and live bait from our marina, I encourage folks to use a bubbler-type aerator system, or one that only recirculates the water that is already inside the well or container where they are storing their bait.”
Alexander said pumping in new water from bay will certainly increase the temperature inside the livewell, and change the chemical makeup of the water from what the bait is used to. This could ultimately result in shrimp or croaker dying before they ever see a hook.
Baytown area fishing guide Capt. Ken Terry primarily sets his anglers up to fish with live shrimp which he keeps in a cooler rigged with a bubbler system. On his way to the boat ramp each morning prior to a fishing trip, Terry places a bag of ice inside the cooler. Once he launches his boat from the marina, he removes the bag of ice and places it in a different ice chest for fish that will be kept.
“When I add live shrimp to my bait cooler, the box is cool from the bag of ice I had in it,” Terry explained. “I will also add a frozen water bottle or two in with the shrimp to continue to keep the water cool.”
Terry said opening and closing the lid to a livewell or live bait cooler will increase the water temperature over time. He likes to use a smaller cooler or bucket to hold a handful of shrimp he can easily grab when it’s time to re-bait a hook, as it helps him minimize the number of times he’s opening the lid to his main live bait box.
Upper coast angler Harrison Cohen said his strategy for keeping shrimp and croaker alive on his boat really depends on where he’s fishing. If he’s hitting the same bay system where he purchased his bait, he likes to constantly recirculate new water from the bay into his livewell, and keeps frozen bottles or jugs in the well at all times to keep the water cool.
“If I purchase bait at one location, but then trailer my boat to a different bay system, I prefer to use a bubbler system to aerate the water I got from the bait stand to keep the bait alive,” Cohen said. “Adding water from a different estuary than where the shrimp or croaker came from is going to change the salinity and chemical makeup of the water in the livewell compared to what they have been living in. This could ultimately cause the bait to die.”
There are many types of aeration and livewell systems out there, but it seems most anglers have steered away from using oxygen bottle systems. Most are using traditional bubbler systems or devices that recirculate water or pump new water in.
