Amazing information Jay.


I think, in the late 1960s, when I worked at "the bait shop" in West Sac the sardines were almost all gone on the California coast.

We got frozen very large sardines from South America that were treated with formaldehyde.....yikes.

We really needed fresh sardines for bait in the Sacramento River, which was loaded in the Spring with millions of Stripers.

On the off-season the bait suppliers from Sothern Cal would call us and say they had just found a huge supply of sardines.

My boss, Harry Boley, would order up a large amount of wooden flats filled with iced down super fresh sardines.

We would put maybe 6 sardines in a half-gallon waxed cardboard milk carton filled with water and put them in our large walk-in freezer.

Then in the Spring during the huge Stripers run we had nice sardines for our best customers and our Striper guide service.

Today, good bait shops will carry dozens of different types of bait.