Minnow bucket or aerated Frabill setup?

I fish out of a small pond-prowler (10 foot Bass Raider 10e), and would like to fish with live minnows. It's been about 40 years since I've fished with live minnows. Not sure if the frequency of my fishing with live bait is worth the purchase price of a nice Frabill aerated setup, and if it would take up too much room on my little boat, or if I should just get a minnow bucket and hang it over the side of the boat once I'm anchored.

Do those who use Minnow buckets use an aerator when not at your fishing spot (moving quickly across the lake / river) to keep them alive, or can they survive for extended periods with the water that is in there when I pick them up from the tackle shop?

Thanks for taking the time to read.

All the best,
Glenn

Warm water usually means the death to minnows. Kept cool and aerated they will stay lively for a long time. Never had much luck with the flow troll style minnow containers myself.

I use a Frabill 19 BUT with your small rig an insulated bucket with aerator would probably work well. See link…

Robot or human?


Attachment 459966

Perfect! I'm going to get one of those on order. Thanks!
All the best,
Glenn

I ended up getting the one with the seperate pump, instead of the all-in-one (still made by Frabill). There were a lot of complaints about the battery compartment in the all-in-one being hard to open, so I got the Frabill quiet pump seperate from the normal Frabill bait bucket. Ordered a little dip net for it too. Thanks again!
All the best,
Glenn

To keep the water cool feeeze a small bottle of water to put in it with the minners if there is room.

Good deal....and even with that the hot weather that's coming it will work on you trying to keep minners alive.

Get a 13qt Magellan bait box and add a aerator. It's cheaper than the Frabill and Engel and works just as good. In the warmer months add a frozen water bottle to keep the water temp down which is required for frisky minnows.

I have the Magellan one. It works very well. Have had it several years. Comes with 2 snap on rod holders. They work pretty well also.

if space is a issue you can do as I do and use a Cool Bubbles 1.3 gallon unit. Aerator is external, Styrofoam insulation lasts years, bait shops usually will fill it with their water. To make sure your shiners last All Day - Bait Buddies is the answer. Few know about them, even less use them, but during the summer one pair of Bait Buddies keeps 50 #4 Shiners frisky and fresh.

BAIT-BUDDIES™ Oxygen And Water Conditioning Tablets For Use In Minnow Buckets With Live Baits

if space is a issue you can do as I do and use a Cool Bubbles 1.3 gallon unit. Aerator is external, Styrofoam insulation lasts years, bait shops usually will fill it with their water. To make sure your shiners last All Day - Bait Buddies is the answer. Few know about them, even less use them, but during the summer one pair of Bait Buddies keeps 50 #4 Shiners frisky and fresh.

BAIT-BUDDIES™ Oxygen And Water Conditioning Tablets For Use In Minnow Buckets With Live Baits

Used it for the first time yesterday (tough bite) and it kept them lively all afternoon. Used the frozen pack idea (didn’t do a water bottle because I have a ton of those blue ice packs in the freezer already), and that water was super cold all day. The 1.3 gallon bucket fit nicely under my boat seat, so it stayed relatively “in the shade” all day too. Very happy with this little setup.
All the best,
Glenn

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rojoguio

if space is a issue you can do as I do and use a Cool Bubbles 1.3 gallon unit. Aerator is external, Styrofoam insulation lasts years, bait shops usually will fill it with their water. To make sure your shiners last All Day - Bait Buddies is the answer. Few know about them, even less use them, but during the summer one pair of Bait Buddies keeps 50 #4 Shiners frisky and fresh.

BAIT-BUDDIES™ Oxygen And Water Conditioning Tablets For Use In Minnow Buckets With Live Baits

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The bait shop that I got my minnows from offered them to me at checkout. He said “when summer really gets here, I recommend these…”. So I know where to get them locally as well. Thanks!
All the best,
Glenn

Awesome. I bought another 1.3 Cool Bubbles today as my other is so old the ribs on the bucket are cracking up. Another tip if you're interested. Buy the Quiet Bubbles Air Pump. It's the one with a larger capacity air volume. I bought the larger air stones the cylindrical ones from Academy. With the larger air volume and stone the Ammonia is further reduced by the extra bubbles carrying it to the surface and out of solution. This mod really helps.

I'd like to find a bucket that sits between my legs while in the kayak.
I've tried the Frabill 4800 and a 6-pack cooler. Both are small but a bit too wide.

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Originally Posted by canebreaker

I'd like to find a bucket that sits between my legs while in the kayak.
I've tried the Frabill 4800 and a 6-pack cooler. Both are small but a bit too wide.

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The CB-211 Cool Bubbles is 1.3 Gallon with insulation, the bucket is 2 Gallon total.

Cool Bubbles(R) | Marine Metal Products

just wondering this , in my back when days, it seemed to me cool minnows went into instant shock when they hit 90 degree water , most went down and within a quick second came back up dead as door nails .....how do yawl keep that from being an issue is my question ?

Bud mornings I'm going fishing using shiners the first thing I do after a cup of coffee is to catch up the shiners into the insulated bucket. The bucket is then set outside allowing the water to start warming up. Using the proper air supply (better air pumps & diffusers) Bait Buddies tablets, properly treated water all support a healthy shiner. On Ross Barnett I go to Tommy's and buy shiners first, return to my camper and proceed to treat the water before I make my coffee. I set the bucket under my camper till ready to go. A shiner out of a 55-60 degree bucket right into 90 degree surface water better be heading to 9-10ft deep ASAP. Certainly fishing the shiner as shallow as 4ft greatly increases their mortality.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rojoguio

Bud mornings I'm going fishing using shiners the first thing I do after a cup of coffee is to catch up the shiners into the insulated bucket. The bucket is then set outside allowing the water to start warming up. Using the proper air supply (better air pumps & diffusers) Bait Buddies tablets, properly treated water all support a healthy shiner. On Ross Barnett I go to Tommy's and buy shiners first, return to my camper and proceed to treat the water before I make my coffee. I set the bucket under my camper till ready to go. A shiner out of a 55-60 degree bucket right into 90 degree surface water better be heading to 9-10ft deep ASAP. Certainly fishing the shiner as shallow as 4ft greatly increases their mortality.

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"if" some don't make it ....cut the (fresh) dead ones up and put a fresh chunk on your jig , thank me later ....:Rofl

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ketchn

"if" some don't make it ....cut the (fresh) dead ones up and put a fresh chunk on your jig , thank me later ....:Rofl

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Ha! I can honestly say I have never even tried that. So I will thank you now, Thank you! I pull a few dead shiners out of my tank every other day, I will put a few days worth in a pint ziploc to give it a whirl! I can build up a supply in the freezer since I never have them die in the bucket but a few dies due to the handling stress when returned to the tank.