Can you refreeze frozen boilies?

Hi Shaun,

The jury is out on this one. Logically speaking there should be no problem in re-freezing baits so long as they haven’t already been out of the freezer for too long in the first place.

Let’s say the air temperatures are going to give a freezer bait a life of three to four days, freezing them on the third day isn’t going to give you another three to four days life when you thaw them out again, as they will have started to breakdown in freshness and re-freezing will simply put this on halt but not rejuvenate them.

In my opinion, so long as the baits aren’t too old then it is fine to re-freeze them even if certain bacteria have attacked the baits. The reason I say this is because most baits on the market today (having said that I can only really vouch confidently for the baits we produce) are made with either human or certified animal grade products, care has been taken in their manufacture and care has been taken with your purchase. Then they are thrown in a lake or river that is full of stuff that would make a billy goat puke. Lakebeds are just dirty stinking environments that are breeding grounds for all sorts of nasties. Hence a few more bacteria going in shouldn’t present too many problems.

What maybe more of an issue is that freezing removes a certain amount of moisture from everything. Continual re-freezing could well make the baits hard, or soft and crumbly if left in the bag with moisture and therefore potentially unusable. Freezer burn is more of an issue too – have you ever tried eating anything with freezer burn? It certainly doesn’t do much for anything it attacks from bread to meat.

Personally the idea of drying them out is by far the best but you will have to keep them drying for many days if you want to put them into an airtight container. Any moisture remaining in the bait may sweat out in this type of container. This sweat will then start attacking the baits and mould could start within a short time. Try leaving them in a mesh bag instead remembering to keep shuffling the baits around each time you walk by them so the baits in the middle get a chance to dry too. They will go hard but will rehydrate quite easily in the water when used.

You could save yourself a whole load of bother and start using a decent shelf-life bait. Most are easily as good as freezer baits and if anybody tells you otherwise take it with a pinch of salt.