Bait Livewell Project

I have a project in mind. I am looking to make a minnow livewell and I thought this would be a great cooler to use, its a Igloo Legend 12 can cooler, about 10qts give or take.
For an aerator system, I was thinking about using one I have now and making a pvc bubbler by drilling holes in it and hooking the hose to it that comes from the aerator. Has anyone tried this, will it work, or should I just use the aerator as it is?

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A regular aquarium aerator stone would probably produce finer bubbles than anything you could craft out of PVC.

Plus, now this is just my opinion (others here on the site have heard it before), I don't aerate my minner water. I chill it with ice. Cold minners are less active, need less oxygen and live longer in my experience. And an aerator is just a heat pump. I don't use an aerator in Florida where I now live, and I can keep minners alive for weeks in an iced down (daily), dark Omaha Steaks cooler. You know those thick walled, only Styrofoam ones. Like I said, just my opinion, I'm sure others will chime in with additional advice.

I made one out of a cooler a couple of years ago. I used and aquarium stone and used silicone to glue it to the bottom. I also used ice to keep the water temp down. When I returned home I poured them back in the bait tank.

What do you guys use as a bait tank to keep all of your minnows?


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I made one similar to that i used a little bigger cooler but it was just one I already had and use the 12 volt air bubbler. It works great and I have no problems keeping several dozen minnows alive
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Another thing that I am trying to stay away from would be cords like to a 12v battery. I found this really cool aerator that has a solr panel on it, its around $30 on amazon. I think thats what I am going to use and also get something like this engle air tube fitting to make it more of a cleaner look to it.

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I would need a lunar powered area torrent since I crappie fish a lot of times at night

There are tons of options on the aerator.... Lots of different battery powered options.... I actually started out with a battery powered one but spent to much on batteries so tried the 12 volt and have loved it

If your gona spend that much money on one mite as well buy a Engel bait cooler
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I built one based on the system "Erin Brewer" posted above but used a 18AH battery to power it.

I also built a similar D-cell battery powered portable for my lil jon boat. There are quite a few of these posted in this section.

Wanted a bait well big enough to keep bluegills alive in for cat fishing , minnows alive in for slow trolling,or shad alive in for hydrids....
Went online and found a Moeller round 24 gallon tank with round lid.Used 1 1/4" thru-hull mounted from inside tank with hose barb pointing out.Used bilge pump intake plastic screen under thru hull to keep minnows from coming out of tank(it is removable ). Used rubatex (K-Flex) industrial insulation sheeting and cement to insulate entire tank. Spray painted white with Plastic rated paint to go from black to white outer color .Installed plastic ball valve in drain line over transom.Mounted a Power bubbles aerator to top of tank after sealing aerator from water exposure.....Can remove install from either of my boats with 4 screws....Works just fine for me.....

In addition,I used another type intake screen and mounted on suction side of a bilge pump connected to a 8" 3/4" hose to pump discharge for pumping water from lake to live well and can open the ball valve to drain the tank on big boat . On jon boat I use pump to remove water from live well and refill.Mounted an SS eye bolt inside tank to connect brass dog snap and rope connected to hose/pump assembly.Don't have to hold and will not drop into lake....

Just buy the engel 13 quart bait cooler. No fussing with diy projects. You'll probably spend less, too.....


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