Ice fishing: Where to get Live Bait?

[BruceW]

Any recommendations on where to get live bait/minnows in the Groton/Ayer, ma Area? Or Middlesex county?
I use to get em at Blue Northern, but with them closing.... I have no clue where to find them. Google Has failed me.

Any Help is Appreciated.

 

[Billsail]

Bite Me Live Bait Co
22 N Main St, Leominster, MA

 

[MadatMarek]

Under the ice

 

[Mountain]

Under the ice

You being a smartass or is there actually a chance of a minnow trap working this time of year?

 

[MadatMarek]

Sadly a smart ass

 

[mac1911]

Live bait is getting harder to find I went by the closest place I know and they are closed for the winter.
Fishing in my area anyway is close to dead. When I was a kid and went fishing with my dad it was hard to get a spot most days/nights. Now its not hard and often there are only one or 2 people at any decent hole. Ice fishing 20 plus years ago you had to get there early and claim a strip for your traps. Now I can go around 10am set up and wait for that 2ish run on traps

 

[Jacks07]

Cabelas, live bait and an excuse to walk around the store.

 

[whacko]

Live bait is getting harder to find I went by the closest place I know and they are closed for the winter.
Fishing in my area anyway is close to dead. When I was a kid and went fishing with my dad it was hard to get a spot most days/nights. Now its not hard and often there are only one or 2 people at any decent hole. Ice fishing 20 plus years ago you had to get there early and claim a strip for your traps. Now I can go around 10am set up and wait for that 2ish run on traps

True! My family (bro son and wife) were the only ones on the lake today. I know it was cold.....but.....20 to 30 years ago.....New year's day.....with 7 inches of solid safe ice the lake would have been packed.

 

[ccm75]

For those in the Metrowest/Boroughs area we go to Barry's Bait and Tackle behind USA Marine on Route 20 in Worcester.
Jim Barry still selling bait from there.
There is a guy in Shrewsbury, also on Route 20 that runs an aquarium store that also sells minnows - cant recall the name...

 

[kartooo]

yrs ago when i was into ice fishing me and a cousin would keep a 20 gal tank in the basement full of mumpers we caught during the summer for our ice fishing.
those were some some tuff dam fish. we had to sometimes bust up ice to get em out and on the hook. as kids we would buy em at the local bait shop in the a.m. on a really hot summer day.
they would come in a carboard box with some seaweed and survive all day looong. past few yrs have not been able to find any at the local bait shops. have to use your own traps and catch them yourself.

 

[Al-Jim19]

I saw a YouTube video the other day that suggested petco (or similar) for live bait purposes. I’m 100% a noob so if that’s retarded then move along.