What to do with leftover bait

Before I started buying live bait I never had this problem.  After a great day wading yesterday my dilemma was fueled by necessity.  We needed to insure Dan and I had enough bait so I stocked up.  Today I had a dozen nightcrawlers and a dozen leaches to dispose of.  Time to drift the DuPage in comfort.  I grabbed my 6' ultralight, rigged it to float bait, and the leftover bait and headed to the Riverwalk.

I got a few small smallmouth, five nice smallmouth but the last only got a picture in the water.  You see I touched the fish and was about to lip it when she gave her head a quick shake and snapped my line.  Her energy was spent since I couldn't horse a fish on an ultralight so I played her until she was tired.  She flipped around and sat there in the water pointed back at the center of the river.  I reached in and gave her a little push to wake her up and off she flicked into a deeper part of the river.


In hindsight the line could have weakened while I was messing around taking this picture of her.

With all my bait gone I left the spot on the Riverwalk happy.  I used up all my bait so none was wasted and I got in some fun smallmouth bass fishing.