Fresh bait

Continued from page 8 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.

Slow day

Continued from page 9 in a bank account for 2024. Each species carried a prize of $500, $400 and $200 for the top three spots.

Valient’s father, Joe, said fishing this year was one of the hardest times for his team of three.

“We fished from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m.” he said. “Only my son (Valient) caught a fish.”

That was the trout the young Rodriguez caught using a lure within the first 15 minutes. The trout was so skinny Rodriguez thought about letting it go, thinking it

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.