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My boat has two live wells. I really like using the one up front. All I have to do is reach down and drop them in. Problem is that especially the bigger crappie don't seem to live long in it. Any tips on keeping fish alive in front livewell? Sometimes I fish all day and half or more will be dead. It doesn't have a recirculating feature.
Small bucket, dip out water, pump more in. What I do on my little plastic boat. That's when I forget to buy a bag of ice to put down in it anyway.
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How does it work? Can you pump in fresh water?
Put in some Bait Mate or whatever the brand name is for the blue stuff they put in minnow tanks. Put a couple of frozen water bottles or even a 1/2-1 gallon milk jug of frozen water in it. This time of the year I fill my livewell with ice and add just enough water to let the fish be covered. Catch and Release is gone but if I'm keeping them for clients or myself, they are better tasting and easier to clean if they have been on ice since caught.
You can also get a 12 volt air pump fairly cheap and
put a air line with air stone in there.
the bubbles really help.
Is Livewell clean??
Bacteria ain't good,,,,,,,
Timer, to add water routinely...
Or let pump run continuously....
I add ten pounds of ice and rejuvenate to my live well and fill it with water. I turn on the air pump and never add water. I add bottles of frozen water through the day as it warms. I can keep fish alive all day.
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tncrappiebass, I agree with a lot of the posts. I also have a front (small) and back(larger) live well. Since I fish mostly by myself, I use the front live well. IF you don't use the rear live well, turn it off with the nob/switch inside the well. This will give you lot more water to the front live well. Also, I try t remember to turn on the pump most of the time, but adding ice, either actual Ice or frozen water bottles to the Live well will help A LOT! Just save some of your water bottles, fill them with water, freeze and take a few with you on the trip. Drop one in the live well about every hour and you should be good. Just make sure you run the pump about every 20-30 minutes to get some fresh water in the well to mix with the cooler water . Lastly, if you are going to clean everything you planned to put in the well, plug the hole, put a bag of Ice in there and just keep them on Ice. They should be good for most of the day on Ice. I put anything that is legal size, but small by my standards that is Gut hooked on Ice in a separate cooler since I know they will not survive. Hate to put these back in the lake. The other fish I keep alive just in case I don't want to clean ALL of them, then release what I don't want.
Very good responses everyone. Much appreciated. I have some bottles frozen for fishing the next three days assuming I catch something! LOL.