Can't keep shiners alive!

I can't keep the shiners alive more than a half day. I use a bait bucket in my live well and use the auto timer for recirculation. The live well lid I keep closed. I know you die hard jig guys will say don't use shinners, but I use both. One rod with jigs and another with shiners. I just feel more comfortable with shinners on board :o.

Should I put ice in the live well? If so, how much. Thanks for your help. I also heard about putting something in the water - but don't know what it is.

i heard that about ice i going to check out what the guide use to keep them alive we are going on the 8th will let you know good luck, oh ya thanks for the info

Putting ice into your livewell is a no-no. Once ice melts it imparts chlorine and other chemicals that cities put into the water supply. Keeping your water cooler however
does allow water to carry more oxygen and thus prolongs life of your bait. It's better to put frozen bottled water of various sizes, depending upon how large your live well
is into your live well. Just do one or two small bottles at a time so as not to make your water so cold it will freeze your shiners. Another thing to think of is that ammonia
builds up in livewell water after the shiners poop in there and if your livewell could have a constant flow of good water in and bad water out, that would be good.

I recommend one of these buckets. Keeping ice on them is the only way to keep them alive. I've kept 100 shiners alive in this bucket in 100 degree heat. No aerator in the world will keep them alive if the water isn't around 75 degrees. 73 is ideal. I 2nd what gasdad said. Freeze 4 or 5 bottles of tap water and throw them in your ice chest. Keep swapping out the bottles from your shiner bucket after they've melted in the bucket. Also make sure there's plenty of water in there. The amount of water they give you at the store won't keep them alive. This bucket comes with an aerator, takes D cell batteries. I've had mine for about 10 years and it's still working. Academy is the best place to find them.


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I didn't think about the chlorine and other chemicals - thanks. I do have a semi-constant flow of water with the timer. My livewell is roughly 15 gals I guess. It pumps water from the below waterline intake, and an overflow in the well itself. So I assumed the oxygen level is okay. 73° best temp? I guess I'll try putting a frozen 16 oz water bottle in there and monitoring it. Got to keep the shiners alive, the crappie never have taken a dead one from me - only live ones.

I may consider the Aerated bucket if all else fails. Just didn't want additional clutter in the boat. I tend to walk around it alot. Thanks for the help. Additional comments appreciated.

Like they said above:

1. You can not keep too many in a small bucket - spread em out, keep multiple buckets

2. Keep the water cool - do NOT put ice directly in the water, put a frozen water bottle or a ziploc of ice in the water, they will be extra frisky

3. Change the water often, and then re-cool the water

There is some science behind the dissolved oxygen and temperature, but don't take my word for it, I remember very little about chemistry, BUT the higher the temp, the less dissolved oxygen, cooler water has more dissolved oxygen. Thats all I can remember about that, but it makes sense. Cold water, more oxygen, hot water, less oxygen. Enough chemistry for this year! Will have some shiners tomorrow fishing with the wife. I may even use one or 20 myself:cool:

I use a big igloo cooler I bought from walmart for 25 bucks. We have well water, so it has no chlorine. I fill it full of water and every day add ice from the fridge and kept a lb of minnows all last week with one of those 8 dollars aerators, running part time. I changed the water a couple times , losing maybe 20 all week. keeping the water cool is the most important part. When fishing, I keep a little bucket up front and only have about 20 in it, so the big cooler stays cold. just dip out what you need.

I have the frabill 6 gallon bucket w built in aerator. Bought 100 shiners the other day fished for 7 hours and with only 2 casualties.

I usually just put 4 or 5 ice cubes from my cooler directly in the bucket when the water starts to warm. Might loose a few that way but I don't want anything bouncing up against the shiners that will kill them quicker then anything else.

If youre pumping lake water into your livewell then youre adding WARM surface water to your minnows. You'd be better off with a minnow bucket and an airator. Adding ice will make your minnows live in the bucket better but if the water is too cool when the minnow hits the lake water they'll curl up from the warm surface water. There's a fine line during the summer on just how cool to have the water in your minnow bucket. Bottom line, it aint easy fishing minnows during the summertime.:rolleyes: