On Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 55 (How 2 Tuesday #17), I show you how to keep your shrimp alive overnight so you can hit the water before the bait shop opens or save leftover bait for tomorrow. After years of killing shrimp in five gallon buckets, canals, and pumps that ran too hard or got too hot, I learned it comes down to a few simple things: oxygenate the water with an aerator and a weighted air stone, keep the container cool in the air conditioning, give the shrimp something to hold on to so they can rest, and never keep them in with pinfish or crabs.
Listen now: Spotify · Apple Podcasts · or press play in the player above.
The trick is to oxygenate the water without making the shrimp swim all night. I put a weighted air stone on the bottom of the container and run an aerator, then keep the whole thing inside in the air conditioning so the water stays cool. Just as important, I give the shrimp something to hold on to, like a piece of screen, so they can rest instead of swimming themselves to death.
You need an aerator, not heavy circulation. Shrimp do not need the water moving to survive, they need the whole water column oxygenated. A weighted air stone and an aerator do that. A pump that pushes water out and back in often creates too much flow, which forces the shrimp to swim all night until they tire out and die.
Hot water kills shrimp fast. My canal behind the house never worked because the water was too hot and there was not enough flow. Some pumps even put off their own heat and cooked the bait. I keep the container inside in the air conditioning so the water stays cool through the night.
You can keep a lot of shrimp in a five gallon bucket with about four gallons of water, as long as the air stone is all the way on the bottom and the water stays oxygenated and cool. Crowding too many shrimp into too small a space causes problems, so give them enough water and make sure the aeration reaches the entire column.
Two setups work for me. The first is an AC aerator from an aquarium store with a big air stone, kept inside in the air conditioning, with something for the shrimp to grab. The second is the Frabill Magnum Bait Station, a cooler with a built-in aerator on top and an interior net the shrimp can hold on to, which solves most of the common problems at once.
The biggest mistakes are too much flow, water that gets too hot, a dead battery on a splashed aerator, and nothing for the shrimp to hold on to. Keeping shrimp with the wrong bait is another one. Pinfish will pick at them all night and kill them, and crabs do the same, so I never keep shrimp in with either.
Here is the overnight setup I use to bring my shrimp home alive.
I walk through every one of these, with the stories of what I got wrong first, in the episode. Press play in the YouTube player at the top of this page.
It does not seem like keeping a few shrimp alive should be hard, but I struggled with it for a long time. I tried five gallon buckets, water circulation setups, even keeping the shrimp in the canal behind my house, and they kept dying on me. The reason surprised me once I figured it out, and it changed how I think about keeping any live bait. I lay out exactly what was going wrong in the episode, so press play in the player above.
Oxygen, temperature, and space get all the attention when people talk about keeping bait alive, and they matter. There is a fourth factor that I missed for years, and it made the biggest difference of all once I caught it. It has everything to do with what the shrimp are doing all night when nobody is watching the bucket. I explain it in full on the episode, and it is the kind of thing you will not forget once you hear it.
For years I built my own rigs, screens around buckets, every aerator I could find, even pure welding oxygen with a giant air stone that I had to keep getting refilled. It worked, but it was never ideal. The Frabill Magnum Bait Station took every one of those headaches off my plate, and I have been impressed with it. I walk through why it works so well in the episode, so press play in the player above.
This is one of those practical answers I wish someone had handed me when I was starting out in the Keys. I burned through a lot of shrimp and a lot of money before I understood that it comes down to oxygen, cool water, rest, and keeping the wrong bait out of the bucket.
The bait shop keeps shrimp alive for days, so there is no reason you cannot do the same thing at home. Send me your questions at podcast@saltwaterexperience.com and press play in the player above.
Frabill Magnum Bait Station · aerator and air stone · AC aerator from an aquarium store · five gallon bucket setup · welding oxygen rig · live shrimp · pinfish · crabs · bonefish · tarpon · Florida Keys · How 2 Tuesday · Saltwater Experience
How 2 Tuesday is my weekly series where I break down one fishing skill at a time, from knots and casting to gear, tactics, and the habits that make you a better angler. Watch and listen to every How 2 Tuesday episode from Tom Rowland.
I'm Tom Rowland, a professional fishing guide based in the Florida Keys, host of the Tom Rowland Podcast, and the longtime host of the Saltwater Experience television show. On the podcast's How 2 Tuesday series I answer listener questions and break down one practical skill at a time, from bait and gear to technique and the habits that put more fish in the boat, in short, focused episodes you can put to use right away.
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