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What's the best way to keep minnows alive? Seems when I buy them they are okay but half are dead before I get to the lake. the Other half are dead before I can finnish fishing. I use an aerator on them and have tried cooling the water but no good.:confused:
Are you putting too many in the bucket? Are you using chlorinated city water?
The only other thing you could be doing wrong is not haveing enough air for the quantity of minners.
Explain what you are doing then I can maybe figure out the problem.
I use the water that the bait store puts in the bucket. I also use one of those small aerators that uses 2 D cell batteries. It may be that there are to many minnows in the bucket cause the guy is pretty fair about giving you more than you pay for. If it is really hot out I cool the water down with ice. Maybe the ice has enough chlorine in it to do the damage. I don't use very much and only cool it down a few degrees.
I would bet that you have too many minnows for the amount of O2 being produced. I would suggest get another aerator or go to Academy and get a 12Volt aerator that uses 2 stones ($25) and divide up the minnows into 2 buckets. You can use a styro ice chest also works well. Warm water retains less O2 than cool/cold water.
Thanks George, I will try your suggestions.
Tom
Also, as suggested you could use bottles of frozen waterin the minnow bucket to cool it off if needed. That way as it melts it doesn't add the chemicals to the water.
briliant idea Damon.
Any baitshop worth a darn will be able to bag your minnows and shoot some oxygen into them. I don't allow them to put more than a quarter pound per bag in and will buy two to three bags. I keep two unopened bags in one livewell, open the other and in the summer, it's a must to keep just 6-10 in a small bucket to use for fishing while keeping the rest over the side of the boat in a perferated minnow bucket. The frozen water in a bottle works, but, it thaws so fast it's almost not worth the trouble unless you bring an ice chest full of frozen bottles. I keep a couple of small ice cream buckets to keep a few handy while fishing. This way, you don't end up having several die at once. If you have enough room in your ice chest, stick the extra bags of minnows in there and they will last in good shape for a day or two until you're ready to use them.
Several years ago when I still lived in Ada, my son and I planned a fishing trip here to Eufaula. We bought our minnows there in Ada so in order to keep them fresh, I laid the minnows (in a bag with O2) on top of a layer of ice in the big ice chest, and then covered the top of the bag with minnows with more ice. I told my son they would be fine since we were able to keep them cool all the way over.
When we got to the boat ramp at 9A, the minnows were all teats up......... they looked like they had frozen to death. It was 2AM and no place open to buy minnows (that's why we brought em from Ada in the 1st place).
So, the moral of the story if there is one, don't get em too cold or it'll kill em too.
George gave you some good advice, try his method and go by what reapers says too. Bottom line: Minnows are just really hard to keep alive in the heat of summer.
We do that alot here in summer, I use a 5 gallon bucket with the aerator built in fill it 3/4 full of water uvcovered overnight {lets all the chlorine go} Then before we head out I turn on the pump and add 2 bottles of ice, stop for the minnows pull the 2 bottles out [by this time their melted] and add one new one. They always keep good and lively all you have to do is add bottles as needed.Quote:
Originally Posted by dnchance