minnow bucket

I am keeping minnows in my pond in one of the galvenized minnow buckets with holes in it and a snap shut lid, has a little styrefoam in the top to make it float.
Not a lot of bait shops anymore, the ones there are open to late in the morning, so I buy minnows ahead of time then get em out of my bucket when I leave to go to the lake.
Problem is these buckets eventually rust out.[COLOR="Green"] Does anyone know if there is an all aluminum version sold anywhere?[/COLOR]
Have thought of buiding something out of a five gallon plastic bucket but have not had the best luck with minnows living in the plastic. Any follow up posts greatly appreciated. Have coons around so an open tub like a clothes dryer tub won't work, they will rust out to.

I use a old 48 qt cooler with a areator works great,add some ice when it gets hot. and do not feed the minnows, change water every 3-4 days and use water conditioner from BPS

Make a minnow box and cover it with 1/4" galvanized hardware cloth. Put the box in your pond. Coons cannot get to them and the pond will keep them fed.

I made some buckets out of 5 gallon plastic buckest and they work well for me.

I drill holes all in the bucket and use pool noodles to float them. I take them out and place them in the pond and at times have kept minnows for a couple of months. I had to stop doing that because it was not my pond and when the weather was nice, my nephews were too lazy to go to the bait shop.

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Originally Posted by flydown

I made some buckets out of 5 gallon plastic buckest and they work well for me.

I had to stop doing that because it was not my pond and when the weather was nice, my nephews were too lazy to go to the bait shop.

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Ha, Ha:p
What is it with these kids these days??

I keep mine in my little gold fish fountain.....I use my grand kids butterfly net to scoop them out when I'm ready to go.....Works great I've kept them alive for months and just feed them like the gold fish.

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Originally Posted by DRPEPPER

Ha, Ha:p
What is it with these kids these days??

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I don't know what it is with the kids but my nephews are in thier late twenties to early thirties. :mad:

Thanks for chiming in guys. I think I am going to build a couple out of five gallon plastic buckets. Drill some holes to let the water flow back and forth, cut a treated plywood lid to go down inside buckett at top, attach 1 inch styrefoam to bottom of wood, cut door and hinge it with stainless hinge and some type of latch, at inside edge of buckett,should allow for easily pouring minnows into the buckett I take to the lake, attach wood with some stainless screws. Should last forever or untill the UV rays make the platic brittle. Hope I can also keep bream for trotline use. Might build a 20 gallon version, with a big enough door it could double as a place to store catfish till cleaning time.

My dad made a bigger version, for keeping trot line bait, out of a 20 or 30 gal. galvanized trash can. Drilled it full of holes and used a tarp strap to hold the lid on.

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Originally Posted by fishbaskett

Thanks for chiming in guys. I think I am going to build a couple out of five gallon plastic buckets. Drill some holes to let the water flow back and forth, cut a treated plywood lid to go down inside buckett at top, attach 1 inch styrefoam to bottom of wood, cut door and hinge it with stainless hinge and some type of latch, at inside edge of buckett,should allow for easily pouring minnows into the buckett I take to the lake, attach wood with some stainless screws. Should last forever or untill the UV rays make the platic brittle. Hope I can also keep bream for trotline use. Might build a 20 gallon version, with a big enough door it could double as a place to store catfish till cleaning time.

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Will the arsenic in the treated wood not harm the bait. I cut a hole in the plastic bucket lid and used stainless hinges to reattach the door to mine.
Also, I used foam pool noodles around the outside to float mine.

I used the center of a washer, drilled holes, cut a hole in sheet of plywood for it to sit down into, layer the underside of the wood with foam for floatation, made a hinged plywood lid for it. I probably have over 150 minnows in it, some of them have been in there for a long time.