The lake water is way too warm to keep my minnow bucket tied to my pier, they all die overnight. I have a fridge on the dock and was thinking maybe I could put the bucket in the fridge to keep it cool. Or would it be too cold and kill them?
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The lake water is way too warm to keep my minnow bucket tied to my pier, they all die overnight. I have a fridge on the dock and was thinking maybe I could put the bucket in the fridge to keep it cool. Or would it be too cold and kill them?
How about a floating bait bucket on the shade side of your dock?
That is what I use, but this time of year with the high water temps, even the shade isn't cool enough...
Freeze a bottle of water and set it in the minnow bucket to keep the water cool.Remove the labels and any glue.
One of those battery operated aerators would help too.
They should keep ok in the fridge as long as it's not set to cold. Only problem is that if you take them out of to cool of water and drop them straight into this hot water it will kill them also. If you take out of fridge give them plenty of time to warm up in the bucket before putting on hook. Figured this out by having frozen bottles in my bucket and water awful cool. Could bait up and they wouldn't last 5 minutes after I put hooks in water. Took bottles out and let bucket slowly warm up and then they did fine.
The frozen water bottles work great along with an aerator while I am fishing. I am trying to find a way to keep them alive so I can buy a bunch of shiners at the beginning of my days off every other week and keep them alive all week, rather than having to run to buy new ones each day.
I love it during the cooler months because I can keep a ton of minnows in buckets for several weeks at a time and only lose a few each week.
I use an Engel cooler and put it in the frig overnight and don't have a lot of problems. By the time I get to the lake the water has warmed up some and I lose some but not a lot. Not a big problem. I leave the aerator on while in the frig also.
Just run you a test put a few in and see how they do. Can’t be any worse than them dying in the heat
Keep them in fridge all the time for up to couple weeks.keep spare bucket in fridge with water already in it and change minnows over to it every 3 days and they will do fine
The smaller dorm room size fridge turned up to a cooler temp but less than outside would cost very little to buy or operate . :twocents
Get a bucket and a snap on lid, may want a bungie over lid. Drill lots of 1/4" holes in the bucket to half to two thirds way down and the lid. Tie a weight to the side of the bucket and a rope on the handle. Let it sink to the bottom.
Add minnows and drop off the dock. Have a small bucket of lake water in the fridge, change out every 48 hours and scrub bucket, no soap. Pour fridge water in minnow bucket add some minnows. Put rest of minnows in the bucket back.
Academy sports has a gated lid that fit 5 gallon buckets.
if the water around your dock is deep say 8 'or more, use a weight on a line that will sink the bucket to the bottom were the water is cooler.Quote:
Originally Posted by bassadict69