This is gonna sound ridiculous but I swear it works. We have coolers with removable trays (wood frame/fine mesh chicken wire) that suspend off the bottom of the cooler. Second tray suspends above that one for a total of two. Throw one of those large cooler packs in the bottom. Place the first tray in lined with wet news paper then a layer of minnows. Do the same with the next tray. Don’t put a ton in each layer. That’s it. No water, no ice, they have lasted days for us doing it this way.(replacing the cooler pack obviously)
They will look dead but the moment they hit the water they instantly come alive. We fished for flounder for years at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay using minnows in coolers rigged this way.
