Freezing and thawing bait without ruining it

WHAT FREEZING PHYSICALLY DOES. Water inside the tissue forms ice crystals. Slow freezing produces large crystals that rupture cell walls; fast freezing produces small ones that do less damage. On thawing, the ruptured cells release their contents, which is the pool of liquid at the bottom of the bag. What is left is softer, wetter and structurally weaker than it was, and much of the water-soluble content it would have leaked into the water has already leaked into the bag.

THAT IS THE WHOLE STORY, and every practical rule follows from it.

FREEZE FAST AND FLAT. Baits spread thin freeze faster than baits in a lump, so single layers in a flat bag beat a block. Freezing in the portions you will actually use is the same rule wearing practical clothes, because it removes the need to break a block apart.

EXCLUDE AIR. Air in the packet causes freezer burn — surface dehydration — which is a separate degradation from crystal damage and ruins the outside of a bait while the inside is fine.

KEEP IT PROPERLY COLD AND KEEP IT STABLE. A freezer that cycles warm repeatedly partially thaws and refreezes its contents, which grows larger crystals each time. A domestic freezer door opened constantly is worse for bait than one that is not.

NEVER REFREEZE A THAWED BAIT. This is the rule that matters most and it is broken constantly, because a session ends with unused bait and refreezing looks like thrift. A refrozen bait has been through two crystal cycles, and it comes apart on the cast. It is also a food-safety issue if the bait is a fish anybody might eat, though for bait the practical objection is that it simply does not work.

THAW SLOWLY AND COLD. Overnight in a fridge, or in a cool box on the way to the water, produces a far better bait than thawing in the sun or in warm water. Fast warm thawing accelerates the breakdown that has already started and produces mush.

THAW ONLY WHAT YOU WILL USE. This is the practical answer to the refreezing problem: portion at the freezing stage, and take out what the session needs.

WHICH BAITS TOLERATE IT, ROUGHLY. Oily fish baits and squid freeze well and are routinely bought frozen. Peeler crab freezes acceptably if prepared and wrapped first. Lugworm and ragworm freeze poorly unless salted first, and a frozen unsalted worm is close to useless. Live baits do not freeze in any useful sense: a frozen maggot is a dead maggot.

AND A NOTE FOR ANYONE WHO EATS WHAT THEY CATCH: the freezing guidance for bait is not the freezing guidance for food. Fish intended for eating, particularly raw, is subject to specific chilling and freezing recommendations for parasite and spoilage control, which are a food-safety matter and set out by the relevant food authority rather than here.