Thread: 84° surface water temp, minnows dying?

I haven’t used minnows in so long, I unfortunately don’t have any suggestions specifically to minnows. Instead of using only hot water from the lake, you may need a combination of water additive, aeration, a little bit of ice to keep the water from warming up, and an insulated ice bucket with ventilation. My reasoning is for how I keep my fish in the livewells.

For the fish that I keep in the livewells this summer, I pump some fresh water in early, drop in a block of ice (sealed OJ bottle with frozen water) to cool the water down, and pour a serving of G-Juice. When I start catching fish, I recirculate (not continue to pump in fresh) the water at intervals (timer). After 2 or so hours and ice block is thawed and still plan to fish, I replace the ice block with another since the water can heat up. When I am ready to go home, generally after 4-5 hours depending on the weather, I pump fresh water before getting the boat out of the water to help remove waste, pour another serving of G-Juice, replace ice block, and start recirculating when I head back to the ramp and trailer home. I don’t recall any lost fish, and my livewells are insulated at the lid with a V-T2 vent on each one for fresh air.


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Right now I have done most every trick I know to keep the shiners strong but you can't beat time. When I'm adding shiners to my storage tank I allow at least 1 hour for the water in the bag containing the shiners and my tank water to acclimate. This is usually a 10 degree or less differential. Take our river or lake surface water temps even as low as 84 degrees (ours is 89-92) your shiner needs to be acclimated to 79 degrees would be best but if you have them acclimated to 75 degree water you can sneak & squeak by with 84 degree surface temps. The amount of time to acclimate a shiner to a 20+ degree temperature difference under the proper controlled circumstances is several hours not just one. We all chill our holding water in the bait bucket to increase the dissolved oxygen but usually ammonia kills them first. I interviewed the owner of Anderson Minnow Farm for a CrappieNow Magazine article. Anderson's Farm one of the largest minnow farms in the US. Mr. Anderson told me it's the ammonia that kills the fish first not lack of oxygen. It is interesting that you started this thread now because the last thing I did before walking out of my shop last night was to unplug my chiller with 500+ shiners in the tank. I have emergency chemicals standing by for added ammonia control but kill'em or cure'em I'm going to see if holding the shiners in much warmer waters will allow them to survive being dunked in our warmer surface water rivers.

"We acclimated the minnows with the lake water before fishing"
Best idea I can think of. If you DON'T do that, minnows will be dead about 10 seconds after hitting the water. The shock from the sudden temp change will cause that.

HELLO Pescador!!

I appreciate the replies.

Rojo, please post your results from the warmer water temperature test.
My friend and I fished for close to five hours and even towards the end the minnows were very lively in the bucket. This was after removing a quart of water and replacing with lake water once an hour. Donno???


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Maybe adding some salt? I wait for cooler water temps to use minnows. My minnow bucket is a 5 gallon Igloo insulated water cooler.

Biggest minnows you can find, bigger ones seem hardier

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If you are keeping fish, get a big cooler of ice to put the fish on. Get an Engel or comparable minnow bucket and throw enough ice in the minnows to keep them active. This time of year the problem in oxygen levels in the water. Colder water will contain a higher level of oxygen than warmer water can. (It’s a physics thing)


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Ah, I guess that I was still a little out of it yesterday from working long hours all week and misunderstood when the minnows are dying. I'm beginning to think that the minnows that you buy aren't acclimated enough in a short period of time and will die regardless due to stress and shock of the sudden water parameter changes. You may want to get a sample of the water that you fish in and compare the parameters to the water that the minnows come in, see the differences and then study how and how long it really takes to acclimate the minnows. Granted my thoughts are based on how long I'd wait before introducing new fish into my existing community aquarium and not necessarily to get a day's worth of fishing out of minnows.