Choosing Between Frozen Blocks, Frozen Bags and Freeze-Dried Minnows

Not every customer needs live fish. Some want cut bait for the freezer, some want a convenient way to feed fish or pets, and some just don't want to run a tank. Anderson Minnow Farm in Lonoke, Arkansas, sells minnows three ways that skip the aerated bucket: frozen blocks, frozen one-pound bags and freeze-dried. They look similar on a menu, but they solve different problems.

Frozen solid blocks

The block is the big-volume choice. The farm sells frozen solid blocks in 8, 20 and 30 lb sizes. Its product copy points out that no water is used in the freezing, which matters when you're buying by weight, because ice that isn't fish still takes up freezer space. The store also says the blocks are guaranteed to arrive frozen.

Blocks make sense when you go through a lot of bait. A bait shop with a chest freezer, a guide who fishes several days a week, or a club that buys together will use a block steadily. If you only fish now and then, a 30 lb block is a lot of fish to carry around, and a smaller option is a better fit.

Frozen one-pound bags

Bags break the same product into smaller units. The farm's frozen 1 lb bags come in golden shiner and fathead, packed in 12 or 18 lb boxes. The store lists free shipping on them. Having separate pounds means you can pull out only what you need for a trip and leave the rest frozen.

There's one hard limit. The farm says the frozen bags cannot ship to Alaska, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Minnesota, Montana, South Dakota, Utah or Vermont. In the store's shorthand, that's AK, DC, HI, MN, MT, SD, UT and VT. If you're in one of those places, check with the farm before you build a plan around bags, since the restriction is theirs and it's firm.

Freeze-dried minnows and pet treats

Freeze-dried is the third route. The farm's bulk freeze-dried minnows are golden shiners, and the product copy describes them as 100% Arkansas farm raised, all natural, grain and gluten free, and USDA APHIS inspected and certified. Freeze-drying removes the water, so the product is light and takes up little room compared with the same fish frozen.

The farm also sells Anderson's Freeze-Dried Pet Treats. The label lists crude protein at 70 percent, fat at 3 percent and fiber at 3 percent. That's useful if you compare labels the way you'd compare any food. For questions about whether a particular pet should eat them, ask your veterinarian, because the farm's published facts are about the contents of the product, not about any animal's diet.

How to choose

Start with how much you'll actually use and where you'll keep it. A chest freezer and steady bait use point to blocks. A normal kitchen freezer and occasional use point to bags, as long as you live outside the restricted states. Light storage, no thaw and tidy handling point to freeze-dried.

Think about the job, too. Frozen bait is a standard choice for cut bait and chum and for anglers who don't want the work of keeping live fish. Freeze-dried is more of a feeding product than a fishing one. And if you need bait that moves, frozen won't replace live minnows: for that, you'd want a shipment of live fish and a holding setup.

Storing and using frozen fish

A few habits protect what you bought. Keep frozen fish frozen until the day you use them, and thaw only what you need. Once fish have thawed, refreezing them hurts quality, so thaw in portions you'll finish. If you're working from a block, ask yourself how you'll break it up before it arrives, since cutting a large frozen block is easier with the right tools than without.

Check the delivery as soon as it arrives. A frozen product is supposed to show up frozen, and if it doesn't, contact the farm right away at 1-800-20-MINNO (1-800-206-4666) or admin@andersonminnows.com, with photos. Move everything straight to the freezer, and then sort out the unpacking.

If you can't decide, call the farm in Lonoke at 1-800-20-MINNO (1-800-206-4666) and describe how you plan to use the fish. Ask about frozen order timing and your state at the same time. Live orders ship Mondays and Thursdays and need to be in by 10:00 a.m. Central on those days.