Brining your bait

Whole clams threaded on a hook will catch striped bass. Many tackle shops sell shucked whole skimmer clams for bait. The problem is however, when clams are frozen and then thawed, they become soft and are easily torn off the hook. I like to thaw the clams a day before fishing and mix them with a good helping of Kosher salt. The salt will toughen the tissue considerably making it very difficult for the fish to steal your bait. The salt does not seem to reduce the attractiveness of this bait. Any leftover salted clams can be refrozen and thawed again without seriously hurting the quality. I always have a couple of boxes of Kosher salt handy for this purpose or just for making up a brine solution for rinsing fillets. Some bait and tackle shops do carry salted shucked skimmer clams