Thread: Fishing Buckets

I have found a good place to get 5 gal. fishing buckets, Fire House Subs. Here in NC they sell the empty pickle buckets with lid for $2.00, proceeds go to some Fireman's group. Bucket with a lid at the Blue/Orange box stores are 3x that price.

Plus they are nice to have around the house/garden etc.. I just splash in a little bleach and leave out side for a few days to get rid of the pickle/garlic odor .. ready for use.

Yes, you need to 'season' a new plastic bucket to render it fit to keep bait alive and have any residue left that might kill your bait.
i always place mine outdoors under the drip line of the house and let it fill with rain water.
After a few days when you see algae and mosquito larvae it is ready to dump, rinse and fish ;-)

Originally Posted by Pier#r

Yes, you need to 'season' a new plastic bucket to render it fit to keep bait alive and have any residue left that might kill your bait.
i always place mine outdoors under the drip line of the house and let it fill with rain water.
After a few days when you see algae and mosquito larvae it is ready to dump, rinse and fish ;-)

Plus you wouldn't want pickle flavored fish!

man i bought one a few summers ago and forgot it in my van for a week ,OMG pickles for months in the van!!!

you can also check the deli at grocery stores , cake icing come and other foods come in 5gal buckets

Just FYI, Lowes stocks 5 gallon food grade buckets for $4.68. Based on their website, they have a bunch of them in stock at the Foley store right now.

Being food grade and unused, they shouldn't need anything more than a good rinse to be ready for bait.

Originally Posted by backwoods

Just FYI, Lowes stocks 5 gallon food grade buckets for $4.68. Based on their website, they have a bunch of them in stock at the Foley store right now.

Being food grade and unused, they shouldn't need anything more than a good rinse to be ready for bait.

That might be a good one. Shop Encore Plastics 5-Gallon Commercial Bucket at Lowes.com
Just beware of their blue self-promotional buckets, they are built too light in the bottom for bait duty.

A few more sources for good buckets are painters, pool cleaners and anyone who operates any sort of heavy equipment.

Latex paint cleans out of buckets easily and are good to go bait wise as soon as you're done.
Chlorine buckets take a bit of time to get seasoned as David described earlier.
Oils clean out of buckets easier than you'd think. The trick is to clean it out with an absorbent, cat litter, paper towels, dust and maybe even flour, (even though I've never tried flour) first. Follow that with some water and detergent with a through rinsing. The big problem then is getting rid of the oily absorbent in a responsible manner.

My go to spot for 5gal buckets is any Chinese eating place they buy their soy sauce in 5 gal buckets and we all know how much of that stuff they go thru, also itailan places get their cheese in them , I just ask the guy out back smoking a cig if he would mind if I took a bucket and 9 times out of 10 they say take as many as you want.