Minnows are an ideal bait for ice fishing. They have a natural smell and appearance that will attract the biggest fish to bite.
But live minnows usually won’t survive for more than one fishing trip. If you buy more than you use on one particular outing, they will likely die before you can go fishing again.
In this case, you might want to freeze your leftover minnows so you don’t waste them and you can have reliable bait for trips when live minnows aren’t available.
Follow this guide for everything you need to know about freezing your minnows for ice fishing.
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Can You Freeze Minnows for Ice Fishing?
Freezing is a great way to preserve minnows for later fishing excursions. It can be easier than pickling the bait in oil or alcohol, and it is a much faster process.
You need to follow a reliable preservation process for freezing your minnows. If you just plop them into the freezer, they can be very difficult to separate later and they will almost certainly be too mushy to stay on your hook when they thaw out.
For my preferred process, you will just need some pickling salt (available from most supermarkets and usually sold next to the salt or the canning supplies), paper towels, plastic zipper bags, a freezer, and some dead minnows.
While a frozen minnow obviously won’t swim around like a live one, they still have the perfect appearance and smell of live bait. This is sure to attract the fish to bite.
It’s important to know the rules for live bait in your area. Some states prohibit minnow fishing or transporting minnows from one lake to another. While you might think these regulations don’t apply to frozen bait, in many cases they do.
These rules prevent aquatic diseases from spreading between fish, and frozen bait can still transfer viruses like viral hemorrhagic septicemia. Make sure to follow your state’s regulations for live and frozen bait. If you’re not sure, call a game warden to explain the rules to you.
How to Freeze Minnows for Ice Fishing?
Follow the steps below to salt and freeze your own minnows at home. The whole process takes 6 hours plus freezing time, but that’s only about 30 minutes of hands-on work.
Step 1: Soak in a Pickling Salt Solution
Start by taking the dead minnows out of their bag and placing them in a bowl. Add about 8 cups of the minnow water to the bowl (you can use freshwater, but the water the fish have been sitting in will preserve more of their scent).
To the bowl of minnows and water, add ½ cup of pickling salt. Mix it in thoroughly and chill it in the refrigerator for about 2 hours.
The pickling salt will preserve the tissue quality of the minnows so they do not become mushy when they freeze and thaw later.
Step 2: Dry and Coat the Minnows in Pure Pickling Salt
After 2 hours soaking in the pickling salt solution, the minnows are ready to come out of the fridge. Scoop them out of the solution using a slotted spoon and place them on paper towels. Pat to dry.
Hold on to the pickling solution that the minnows were soaking in – you will use it later.
When they are dry, the minnows need a solid coat of pickling salt. Cover the bottom of a bowl or plate with a layer of salt and press each minnow into the pickling salt one by one. Make sure all the sides are covered.
Put the bowl of salted minnows back into the fridge for about 3 more hours.
Step 3: Rinse the Minnows
Now that the minnows have been chilling in the fridge, it’s time to take them out and get that layer of salt off of their skin.
Transfer the minnows to a strainer and use the leftover pickling solution from step 1 to rinse them off in the sink. This will get rid of excess salt so they don’t dry out too much and also replace a little bit of the natural scent.
Step 4: Air Dry the Minnows
Your next move should be to lay the minnows out in rows on another paper towel to dry. Pat the top of the minnows with a paper towel and leave them out for 30 minutes or longer so they can air dry completely.
These salted and dried minnows are ready to package up and freeze!
Step 5: Bag the Minnows and Freeze Them
It’s important to be strategic in this step to make the minnows easy to use when you are out on the lake. If you just drop them in a bag and freeze them, they will form one solid chunk, and getting them apart can be a nightmare.
Instead, you should put just a few minnows in each bag and space them out with paper towels in between layers.
I usually find myself using about 10 minnows on an average day of fishing, so I would package them with ten minnows in a bag. Plan for how much bait you use on a typical day of fishing.
Fold up a paper towel and place it in a sandwich-size plastic zipper bag. This separates the fish and absorbs extra moisture to prevent sticking.
Lay out your minnows evenly on both sides of the paper towel. Try to space them out so they don’t freeze together too badly.
Press the extra air out of the bags and seal them tightly, then move them to the freezer. As early as the next day, they are solid and ready to take out on the lake. You can keep frozen minnows for a year or longer.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do Frozen Minnows Work?
A lot of fishermen swear by using frozen minnows for bait. Some even prefer to chop the minnows in half and use heads or tails when they target particular fish.
Frozen minnows are convenient and have a natural attractant because they are real fish. They are most effective in an active approach where you are jigging the bait yourself since they don’t swim to draw fish in visually.
Is it Illegal to Use Frozen Minnows for Bait?
This question really depends on where you live. In certain states, it can be. Your local Fish and Game Department will have some kind of policy on minnows, likely available on their website or their printed fishing regulations. If in doubt, call a warden.
In some states, it’s illegal to take minnows away from the lake after you have been fishing. In others, minnows are forbidden altogether. Often, the rules only apply to some lakes and not others.
These restrictions exist mostly to prevent the spread of fish viruses between bodies of water. This infection can even occur when you’re using frozen bait. Be sure to study your local regulations before using frozen minnows so you can help conserve the fish population in your area.
If you find that your state requires pickling rather than freezing the minnows, you can follow this guide from the State of Wisconsin on pickling your own minnows using oil or alcohol.