I buy live shrimp at a bait shop on the weekends and use most of it but I always have some left over that I have been throwing out. Is there a way to save recently dead shrimp in the freezer to preserve them as bait for 1 to 2 weeks, until I go fishing again.
What exactly would I need to do, and is there a risk of it making the freezer smell?
Eat them. Nothing wrong with eating them.
Shrimp are shrimp and there fine to eat as long as they are alive (or at least recently dead) when you start to cook them. I wouldn't want to cook shrimp that have been dead for 12 hours in the sun, but live shrimp kept in a bait well or cooler should be quite good. And they make for an awesome snack while (before) you clean your catch, or a decent consolation while you mope over not having a catch.
As for freezing them, they won't be alive anymore but they should still work as bait. Whatever you do though don't cook or eat the frozen shrimp.
I would just place them in a ziplock bag and freeze them until you go fishing again.
It's worth point out that people going fishing with frozen bait, and I doubt it would smell.
The single most widely available bait in Florida is the Frozen Shrimp. Many bait shops bag and freeze any shrimp that die in their live shrimp holding tanks at a discounted price. Other frozen shrimp come strait from a distributor, these frozen shrimp range in quality from freshly frozen to shrimp that have been frozen and thawed many times (reducing the quality of the bait)
Live or Frozen Shrimp for Bait
I don’t catch my own shrimp, but I do buy them sometimes. When I have some leftover, they too go into plastic bags and get frozen, unless they are jumbos. Those go in the frying pan! The same thing applies to frozen shrimp as it does to every other frozen bait; keep them cold until you put them on the hook.
Another solution is to add salt and leave them to absorb as much as they can for 3-4 hours. Then, store in the fridge. Following this procedure, the shrimps become more touch, and it is difficult for a fish to remove from the hook easily.
