I'm not a big fan of fishin with bait, I only keep a few fish a year. Using live bait I find myself handling the fish too much. Plugs and jigs are my faverite. When I get home from a hard night of fishin the last thing I want to do is argue with my old lady over where I've been all night, and why do your hands smell like that.

Ugh, I know that smell. And even after you think you have washed you hands very well, you find a bunker scale glued to your hand. And not to mention the stains. I have shirts that used to be white but have been tie-died by bunker oil and fish blood. Just like our hippy forefathers used to do. I am through with cut bait fishing. I don't even carry lead weights in my bag anymore. I'm going to be an 80% plug fisherman, a 15% eel fisherman and a 5% live baiter.

I have an old cooler that I used to pack my bunkers and mackerals in. That stink could take the paint off a car. One time while I was surf fishing, I met up with one of my pals with a boat. He asked me if I wanted to go out. We got out to "18" and when he flipped off the lid of the bait container, he nearly passed out. No lie.

I'm just going to ignore the "where you hands have been" line. <gag>

I have to admit I forgot a bag of sandeels in my weighter pouch and put them in the closet. I found them a week later when i got back from doing stuff with da wife.
The new rule is no fishing gear in the house it stays in the garage.
No wonder she won't let me use the pool for a livewell.just my luck the neighbors are down wind.

Mike
CCT

Other than occasional lost eel in the backseat or wayward herring (note to self, do a headcount on the baits) I haven't had too much trouble with the live baits. Dead bait, that's another story but I rarely chunk fish. Much rather the live eel or bucky when using bait and it's really hard to beat a fish busting a popper on the surface!! ;D

Being a dedicated chunker I can hold that smell for a long time. I remember going into a crowded ATM and clearing it out while someone said they smelled fish! My old friend at Budds used to give me his rotten pogies for chum. I think he wanted to just get rid of them. But they made great chum and you didn"t need a knife to cut them. My wife kept complaining about some smell in the basement (she smells everything!) and lo and behold I found it, it was a bottle of fox urine that had busted open in my hunting draw.