Post by Steve Sutton on Apr 11, 2010 13:05:14 GMT -5
The secret to keeping your fiddler alive for weeks to come is to make sure that you keeping washing them out. My plan is to wash them out in the morning and in the afternoon. There are all kinds of keeping the fiddler alive theories that work. However, if you don't wash them out the urine that they make will kill them. Although this doesn't sound significant, it definitely is. When the fiddlers are in the wild they burrow down in holes in the mud, sand, and basically anything that offers them shelter. As you know we have four tides in a 24-hour period. When the tide raises it floods the marshes washing out all the impurities. This is when the fiddler's urine is washed out. Now when fiddlers are contained in a bucket or in mud that is in a bucket or in moss the urine becomes very concentrated, because it's trapped. On most occasions you can smell it. In this case if you can smell it you are basically killing your fiddlers. So therefore come up with a plan and do the washing thing or you fiddlers won't live very long! You can wash with fresh or salt water. If salt water (creek water) is available I suggest using it. Oh, I almost forgot to mention keeping them in a closes area such as a garage is not a good thing. The areas that you are keeping the fiddler bucket in needs to be well ventilated. The reason being is due to the fact even if you wash them twice a day they still stink. If you keep them outside, please remember to make sure you have a top on them so that birds and other wild animals don't help themselves! The bottom line is you take care of your fiddlers and a catching you will go! When you are done with the fiddlers, please release them as soon as possible! The more we release the more we will have to use as bait!
The old white towel trick!
There is one more thing that I need to suggest. Let say, While driving in your car your fiddler bucket tips over allowing them to escape. Stopping the car as safely as possible and trying to retrieve as many as you can works to some degree. However, while grabbing fiddlers against a hard surface they crush easily. The juice of the fiddler in your car on a hot summer day with the windows closed produces mega triple stink. This means more stink on top of heated stink!
So here's what I suggest that you do when the fiddlers go a-rye in your car. Immediately stopping is always an option, but you certainly aren't going to retrieve all of them. The best suggestion that I have and it comes from lots of experience in this department is to simply lay a white towel on the floorboard and wait. The fiddlers are drawn to the towel, they hid there, and it's easier picking them up this way. Now you might have to do it several times! The other option, it's best to just hold your bucket no matter what!
The old white towel trick!
There is one more thing that I need to suggest. Let say, While driving in your car your fiddler bucket tips over allowing them to escape. Stopping the car as safely as possible and trying to retrieve as many as you can works to some degree. However, while grabbing fiddlers against a hard surface they crush easily. The juice of the fiddler in your car on a hot summer day with the windows closed produces mega triple stink. This means more stink on top of heated stink!
So here's what I suggest that you do when the fiddlers go a-rye in your car. Immediately stopping is always an option, but you certainly aren't going to retrieve all of them. The best suggestion that I have and it comes from lots of experience in this department is to simply lay a white towel on the floorboard and wait. The fiddlers are drawn to the towel, they hid there, and it's easier picking them up this way. Now you might have to do it several times! The other option, it's best to just hold your bucket no matter what!