my son and i are planning to fish Sunday/Monday after i get off work at 11 pm or a touch earlier on Sunday. the bait shop closes at 6 pm so i want ot get some today (Friday). i go into work Saturday morning and can't get out till i get off Sunday night. looking for suggestions on how to keep them fresh till we go. 1. freeze them dry? 2. cover them in water and freeze them? 3. put them in a air tight freezer container and put them in the bottom, back of the frig dry? or any other ideals.

I would try to keep them as dry as possible. Put them in a few zip lock freezer bags and line an ice chest with ice and put the bags in and cover with ice. I would think if you covered in water and froze they would be more likely to be mushy when they thaw.

Make sure that they are FRESH dead, not thawed fresh dead. Freezing a second time will make great mush balls out of them.

Pinch off the heads, they keep better, longer when their guts are removed. Rinse / quick soak them in a brine solution, pat dry then either freeze or keep cold in the fridge in a sealed container. They keep refrigerated for a few days, longer than that freeze. Vacuum packing / freezing also works for longer term storage.

I usually buy a large amount of shrimp then "process", separate into smaller quantities, then freeze to use on quick trips. A quick dip in salt water seems to toughen them up a bit even if they get frozen more than once, although I don't condone that.

Use Kosher, canning salt, one that doesn't have iodine in it. Iodine plays havoc on preserving anything.

Gulp Shrimp work wonders, just get a bucket of New Penny in 3" or use fish bites. However, People use a combination of ice and saw dust to keep shrimp fresh. It also helps to NOT take the ice out of the bag in the cooler.

Gulp Shrimp in a bucket..

I use gulp shrimp and they work well, although you need to keep them moving IMO. I have had days that I would tip a hook with a little piece of gulp, one that has been torn up from another fish or something, and tear up the whiting and croaker, other times not.

Fish bites have their day. There are times they will out catch fresh dead, other times they won't hook up a thing and fresh dead ends up being the bait of choice.