Hi all,

I have a bait king leech container with a screw on lid. I have been able to keep leeches alive by just tossing it a few feet off shore and tying it to a nearby branch of some kind. This was in mid June and the first week of September.

If day time temps are in the 80s, would letting the container float near the surface keep the leeches alive?

Do I need a strategy, like putting a rock in the container, to get it down deeper? How deep? I don't want to lose the leeches if my rope works loose somehow.

Doe anyone have any experience with leech die off in August?

You will be fine if you put a rock in it and sink it down. I have a couple of suggestions for you. Drill a hole in you bait king at the thread area and put a cotter pin in the hole. This will prevent the bait king from opening. Also use paracord to secure it and get it out deep. I use the mesh bait bag for daily needs, and main supply in the bait king.

Our Leech King (the shorter version of Bait King) was just fine close to shore last week, no rock used as seas were calm. The leeches stayed very lively even though the water temp was in the high 70s. Just wish they would have been somewhat larger, but it's August. VNO oxygen bagged them inside our Leech King and we portaged that way (base camping). We used Leech Tamer mesh bags in the canoe while fishing.

No problem with critters getting into our leeches, but we did have a bit of excitement with a fisher fighting for our strung catch before we got them cleaned. Pretty tenacious fellow.

I was up there in the late July heat and our leeches had no trouble tied to a shoreline rock at camp in the leech king.

Thanks for sharing your experience.

I think mine is the shorter one as well. It does fine with a pound of leeches.

I will be entering next week.

I expect the smallies to be active and might have trouble finding the walleyes.

If there is weather forecast, don't leave your Bait King in the water. The waves unscrewed my lid and I lost all but 2 individuals out of 10 dozen. First night.

mike2019: "If there is weather forecast, don't leave your Bait King in the water. The waves unscrewed my lid and I lost all but 2 individuals out of 10 dozen. First night."

Always leave you leeches in the water. Sink them with a small rock. This also happened also to me and I lost a pound of leeches. To prevent the bait king from unscrewing you need to do a fix. Drill a small hole at the thread area. Then insert a slightly bent cotter pin on a paracord in the hole.

mike2019: "If there is weather forecast, don't leave your Bait King in the water. The waves unscrewed my lid and I lost all but 2 individuals out of 10 dozen. First night."

Feel your pain.. my lid unscrewed last year lost most of the leeches ... I like savages idea of the cotter key

Savage Voyageur: "Drill a hole in you bait king at the thread area and put a cotter pin in the hole. This will prevent the bait king from opening. "

Thats a great tip. I have lost leeches more than once. Thanks.

Do you have a picture?

Savage Voyageur:

Always leave you leeches in the water.

I am happy to report that I had no problem keeping leeches alive in the bulk container. I also did not lose any to the lid opening unexpectedly.

However, I wonder if I am doing something wrong with the mesh bags. It seemed like after every day trip the leeches in the mesh bags were either dead or in the process of dieing. I saw that the leeches would start to turn grey. This could be about a third of the leech and it could be on the sucker end or the tail end. It was like they were half way dead.

Do these mesh bags need to be sunk down in the water? They have some kind of floatation built in and hover near the surface. I think they are designed to be in a live well?

How long can a leech survive out of water? When crossing a portage the leeches in the bag will be out of water.

Any tips on using these mesh bags?

I am also happy to report that I found some walleye. :-)