How Do You Brine Your Baits?

[whitey]

I have heard and seen a million ways to brine trolling baits. How does everyone here do it??

Personaly, I let them thaw in a bucket of ice and saltwater untill they are ready to rig. I know alot of people thaw them in a saltwater/baking soda combo. What do you prefer and why?

[flatbottom]

I don't rig and use a hundred a day. The ice bucket/salt slurry mix works fine for the 4 hrs out there

[pitch bait]

Baking soda is supposed to help them hold there color better. in my opnion that should be done when they are first caght before they are frozen the first time to be packaged. I do the same thing you do. Slow thaw in bucket of salt water and ice. maybe alittle bionic brine in there.

[z71offshore]

This way works pretty good for me.

Say i'm fishing on saturday. Friday morning, i put a bag of ice in the bottom of a cooler, put the stainless tray over the ice, and then lay a couple of packs of ballyhoo on the tray and let them thaw naturally throughout the day in the cooler. When I get home that afternoon, I pull them out the bag, poop, pop out the eyes, and limber them up, lay them belly up and brine the hell out of them with a mixture of homemade brine
(baking soda/kosher salt about $2.50 compared to ~$6.00 for bionic brine).

If I have time that night, I like to rig up about 12-15 baits so when I get to where I'm going, i can just pull out a couple of baits, snap them on and I'm ready to fish/take care of other things. The bait cooler always goes along with me on the boat so long as we have room. In the cooler I have extra rubber bands, rigging wire, extra brine, arrow for poking out the eyes and a couple more packs sitting under the tray on ice for later in the day.

another nice thing about circle hooks is its real easy to rig up lots of baits and keep them in the cooler ready to fish, all you have to do is slip the circle hook through the monel loop and place them in the spread.

[Double D]

Saltwater and ice in a bucket, beaks down. Then a nice coat of salt/baking soda mix like z71.

The baking soda seems to enhance the colors

[fishingkdr]

Overnight with baking soda and Kosher Salt.

[Deep C]

A bait of mine never sees ice... They get straight salt... If I catch my own, they go straight into a very cold cooler on a bed of saltwith more sprinkled on top. They get 12 hours like this. Juice is poured off. A second twelve and a second dejuicing before they go into the freeze.
They are taken out the afternoon before fishing, again sprinked with salt and allowed to slow thaw. Once thawed I use non ice cold packs to keep cold. Even in solution fresh water ice doesn't mix 100% and can start a break down. I troll a little harder than most with most of my spreads so I need em tougher.
With new regs, the combos I have been dragging for years will most likely be put to sleep for this year so I may ease up and just do twelve on the salt at the beggining and no additional during the slow thaw. Those baits are a bit more limber and look better for slower speeds.

[Tuna Taxi]

I thaw mine in a bucket of saltwater then lay them belly-up in a bait tray and sprinkle some bionic brine on them. I do that the evening before, then I sit around and wait for someone to offer to rig them.

I use baitmasters hoos so I'm not sure if brining them is even necessary, but it doesn't hurt.

[Bodie]

thaw them in bucket of saltwater with brine mixed in. THen lay them out on a big cookie sheet (that is what we use works as good as these #100 trays i see)then sprinkle some more brine/salt to toughen them up. Rig'em the night before or on the way out depends on what the seas are going to be on the ride out.

[Wild Life Management]

Good question there Whitey, curious to see the responses.

The only method I have tried is the slow thaw in a bucket, then brine with salt on a tray in a cooler. I have used bionic brine a couple times, not sure if I could tell a difference compared to slat only.

I agree with Tuna Taxi, there have been times that I have trolled baitmasters bally for hours without brine. They last quite awhile, especially when fish aren't biting them.

I normally brine them belly up, but I have also done one side at a time, covering the entire bait. Am I wasting my time brining the entire bait, or is the belly the only part that needs brine?