Keeping cockles alive

[Elecmuso 83]

G'day - been a while since I posted.

I've just collected 300 cockles from Goolwa (Tuesday morning) and are in a bucket of seawater with an aerator. I plan to be using them Friday and Saturday this week.

Will they stay alive until the weekend or should I be freezing them (or perhaps some of them)?

[Rybak 641]

Change the seawater daily & should be good to go alive. Not likely you will use the entire 300 over the weekend...Probably bag at least half in 1kg zip lock bags and freeze. Also try putting the meat only with sea salt in a glass jar and put in fridge (not freezer). Last indefinitely. They become rubbery/tough. KG love them. The unused ones just put back into the fridge until next time. I have many jars ready to go.

[Elecmuso 83]

Yep you were correct.

Froze some, kept the others in seawater which I changed a couple of times. The cockles that I did not freeze were still alive and well for both Friday and Saturday fishing sessions.

[Savage 298]

Did the freshness of the cockles represent in the total catch/s?

[Elecmuso 83]

We fished a couple of spots out from Moonta. Friday was poor with only 3 keepers but many baby snapper all of which  went back.

On Saturday when they were on they were on. Bites were solid with not many missed whether using live or frozen. We kept 16 whiting, threw as many undersized ones back, and also managed a good sized flatty.

Had there been many nuisance fish such as small leatherjackets stealing the bait I would bet they'd have a hard time stealing the live cockles and would have easily stripped hooks of the mushy frozen ones; that would have been reflected in whiting having a better chance of finding the fresh bait and a greater hookup rate. That's the theory anyway.

[Knackers 700]

On 26/11/2024 at 6:31 PM, Rybak said:

Change the seawater daily & should be good to go alive. Not likely you will use the entire 300 over the weekend...Probably bag at least half in 1kg zip lock bags and freeze. Also try putting the meat only with sea salt in a glass jar and put in fridge (not freezer). Last indefinitely. They become rubbery/tough. KG love them. The unused ones just put back into the fridge until next time. I have many jars ready to go.

Hi mate. Once mine are defrosted I put the meats in a small container in one layer. Then sprinkle table salt over them. Another layer and so on. As the water comes out of them I pour it off until they are almost dry. Store in fridge or in the boat. They take ages to go off if done correctly. Very rubbery and stay on the hook for ages. Just as good as fresh cockles

[Rybak 641]

1 hour ago, Knackers said:

Hi mate. Once mine are defrosted I put the meats in a small container in one layer. Then sprinkle table salt over them. Another layer and so on. As the water comes out of them I pour it off until they are almost dry. Store in fridge or in the boat. They take ages to go off if done correctly. Very rubbery and stay on the hook for ages. Just as good as fresh cockles

You can leave the water in the container as long its not overflowing. I use a glass jar with twist lid & keep in fridge ready to go.

[Rybak 641]

You can also muck around with "flavouring" the cockles in the jar if you want - curry powder, oil from cheap sardine cans, tuna oil, aniseed etc etc. Does it work, well I guess so. Still get Whiting. I find if Whiting are fussy, then some pilchard slithers do wonders or peeled prawns. Even Trumpeter slithers do well dipped in tuna oil..Always good to experiment as some days just need something different.