problem keeping worm bait fresh

The last few trips our worms have been useless after a couple of hours.
We use a cooler box with ice packs at the bottom with the worms in plastic containers with a little salt water and newspaper.
we do take out any dead worms but maybe not checking them regular enough.
Also the salt water is bottled and kept in the fridge could that be affecting them?


any tips would be great.

If its ragworm make sure that the freezer blocks are not up against the containers, Make sure there is no spare room in the cool box use newspaper if you have too but dont just leave the tubs rumbling around the box. Contaminated sea water can kill worms alright so if in doubt dump it and get fresh water and dont keep it too long, constantly changing tempretures can kill off the worms so take out what you need for a few casts and close the box and leave it closed as long as you can I tape the gaps around the lid while travelling hope this helps.

i take them out of water the day before and put them in fine sand or weed or a mixture to toughen them up as they are very soft straight out of water and go off alot quicker in the heat

Thanks lads will try these tips.

Put them in newspaper first and then use see weed and sand which is very good. Always works for me and fresh sea water is vital