Sand fleas as a bait are hard to beat, as they are near the bottom of the food chain. The issue is keeping them alive is a pain. They stink to high heaven, need damp sand, kept cool, and sand changed often.
Boiling them keeps them fresh for the whole spring season for me.
Boil water, toss them in and wait for them to float.
Put them in any kind of container with paper towl and I like add a crap load of kosher salt. Do NOT use ionized salt as it it believed to be a fish repellant. The salt further pulls moisturizer out of the crabs. I will change out the paper towl once a day untill it stays absolutely dry. I keep them in the fridge, when not at the beach.
Happy fishing!
