keeping livebait live for two day travel etc

whats the best way to keep large amounts of worms and minnows alive for a two day trip and for 10 days of fishing, between prefishing and tournament. i am travelling from detroit to bull shoals on the first trip. thanks,

[REW]

For crawlers, the best way is to simply keep them in a cooler on ice.
In the case of minnows, the best thing to have is an oxygen bottle, so that you can give them a shot of oxygen about every 6 hours or so, and keep them in a bag.
Other wise, keep them in a large cooler, with a 12 volt aerator going, and keep a block of ice in the cooler. If you can keep the water temperature in the cooler near 35 degrees, it slows the metabolism of the minnows, so that they need very little oxygen.

The thing that you have to be careful about if you do this is to warm the minnows up slowly when you go to use them of the sudden shock of temperature change will kill them.

Take as many minnows out as you need for the day, put them in the bag with the water from the cooler, and put the bag in your livewell, with lake water in the livewell. Let them aclimate to the lake water temperature for the 1/2 hour or so that it will take you to get set up, to your fishing spot, etc. and then the minnows will be in good shape to do their thing - alive and lively.

Take care
REW

[PigBoy]

I always take crawlers where ever I go fishing as they are easy to keep, simply put them in a cooler with ice. As for minnows, I just buy them at the local baitshop. Its easier to get decent local information if you spend some cash at the shops.

Mike... just make sure it is legal to haul minnies from Mich to Arkansas. There are places you can't do that.
We can't haul in certain parts of our state at all...no matter if you are a licensed dealer or not.

[dutchboy]

I agree with Pigboy, You will spend less money and create more goodwill by buying your bait localy.