can you salt chicken necks?

[CMC]

After about 2 hours my chicken necks start to break down in the warm summer water. Part of the problem may be that the necks have been frozen and then thawed for the trotline. Has anyone ever tried salting the thawed necks over night before using them the next day?

[Harford Crabber]

If I'm gonna reuse a cn trotline I been salting em down as I pull it in the bucket.  So when you go to thaw it next time it only needs to sit out a couple hours and its ready to go. I suspect if it was salted real heavy it may not even need to be frozen.  

Back in the 1960's I'd chop eel for baits and salt it heavy and never did freeze it.  My Dad trotlined commercially back then and his trotline stayed in a salted brine barrel on the boat and he used it day after day, just added baits as needed.  And yes, in July - August after about 3 days of use it was stinky so he'd leave it out in the river and let the crabs strip it off and rebait the whole thing. Most of the other crabbers did it that same way.

[reds]

Sorry...Double post.

[reds]

After about 2 hours my chicken necks start to break down in the warm summer water. Part of the problem may be that the necks have been frozen and then thawed for the trotline. Has anyone ever tried salting the thawed necks over night before using them the next day?

I used fowl necks and always kept them in salt under refrigeration. The salt makes the necks tuff. Last longer when the water is hot.

[Crabslayer]

We hear you the first time Mike! 

[Harford Crabber]

I forgot to say that Mix-N-Fine salt is what's mixed in cattle feed. It's available Tractor Supply.  It's not for human consumption like most other things a crab eats.  It cost $10 for 50 pound bag.  At 20 cents a pound it's the right price to preserve crab bait.

I switched to using a seed spreader container to put it on line.  A lil sprinkle every 2-3" of depth of line in bucket does the trick. The other day I took it from freezer and about 1 1/2 hours later was deploying it in river with no issues  with frozen line-baits.

[Stabilizer]

After about 2 hours my chicken necks start to break down in the warm summer water. Part of the problem may be that the necks have been frozen and then thawed for the trotline. Has anyone ever tried salting the thawed necks over night before using them the next day?

So last weekend my necks got down to bone and lots of missing baits by 3-4 hours into the first day crabbing.  And I reuse the baits/line to crab a second day.

This weekend I poured a half pound of table salt and a similar amount of course kosher salt onto my freshly thawed 40 lbs of fowl necks.  I only had a few hours of brine time, but I can definitely say those few hours of salt really helped toughen the chicken.  After 6 hours of use the chicken very few got down to the bone and cartilage as you might typically see.  

I plan to hit the necks with some salt every weekend ahead of using for the first time.

i will reload the lines into the trash cans again and replace missing baits, but I saw very few after crabbing that needed attention.