LUSTY LEECHES: Part Two CATCHING AND KEEPING LEECHES

Keeping leeches, subject to spousal approval for kitchen refrigerator access that's as likely in most families as teenagers keeping tidy bedrooms, is as easy as stashing them in buckets in the fridge. Side-by-side coolers -- one for leeches, one for minnows -- on the top shelf with room for other baits below offers an ideal setup. Wise anglers preserve domestic tranquility with a separate bait and beer refrigerator in the garage.

You can also hold a season's worth of leeches in an inexpensive water filled Styrofoam cooler set in a cool, shades spot. Divide all storage containers in half with window screen so you can either keep both ribbon and tiger leeches, or large and small leeches, separated. Bigger leeches work nicely for bass or walleye; smaller specimens work for trout or panfish. It's MUCH easier to segregate leeches by size into plastic containers at home.

Wide-mouth gallon glass jars full of water work too. Half gallon plastic milk cartons hold smaller numbers of leeches and other aquatic baits, but pack so tightly in the refrigerator that the total amount of bait may be larger than in big containers. Several small containers offer hope when some leeches turn suckers up too. If kept in clean water at temperatures under 50 degrees, and sorted once a week to remove dead and dying specimens, leeches caught in spring should last all summer without food. They just shrink a bit.

Feeding leeches with small amounts of sliced liver -- if the water's changed regularly -- avoids this shrinkage. However, some feel such fasting leeches improve in texture and, since they're hungry, they seem more lively on the hook. However, chlorine can kill leeches, so use unchlorinated water such as rainwater or buy pills to remove chlorine from drinking water from pet stores. At the end of the leech fishing season, when your local waters drop below 50 degrees and leeches become dormant, you can return leeches to the pond where they were caught, or cruelly flush them down the toilet.

LURING LURKING LEECHES

Spring remains the best hunting season for lurking leeches because of the maximum numbers of "pre-spawn" adults. As summer warms waters, leech numbers drop when adults die after they leave the cacoons that hold the next year's leech population. Summer collection is possible; it's just not that productive in most waters. Such is also the case for overwintering leeches at home during winter.

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