Freezer Temp.

Not sure if you're still asking but I've had several freezers over the past 8 years and I can give you some of my experiences. My first bait freezer was a split fridge/freezer on my porch. I kept beer in the fridge and bait up too. the freezer digital thermometer I put in there read 25 degrees. Bait would freeze over night but a 2ft squaring section of ray would thaw out in a couple hours in the back of my truck or overnight in an igloo cooler. I had a 5cu ft chest freezer for the past 3 years that read 20 degrees. It iced up a lot but bait would stay frozen in my 150qt igloo for 2 days. Having to take it out to thaw before running a bait was kinda annoying but the cooler didn't stink and it was staying fresh. Especially the tuna and bonito.

No I have an 18 cu ft stand up freezer and its 0 to -2* F. We had bait in my 150 for 5 days and it stayed frozen the whole time even opening it frequently to get new baits. Big chunks of ray freeze solid in about 6-8 hours (I haven't checked them sooner) and a gallon bag of 10" mackerel is frozen in just a few hours and they are the best baits I've had, always thaw nicely and are firm as the day I caught them and stay on the hook very well.

I bought a new thermometer and left it in the freezer over night instead of just taking a quick reading and the stand up deep freezer that works so well now is at -29.7*F. No wonder the bait stays frozen all weekend.