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you could at least salt and freeze your minnows if they die. you at least have salted fish jerky to put on your hook when the minnows are scarce. works for me when there arent any minnows to be found and the perch are biting. sea salt works best but you can get by with just about any kind of salt. some people even use garlic salt for something a little different.
get a plastic 55 gal drum and collect rain water for your minnow tanks
Thumbs Up Good one!
I would have thought that all the beer we recycle into the lake would have more than made up for the loss to live wells!! RoflRoflQuote:
Originally Posted by jonboatfisher
Warm weather getting here stresses the minnows causing a much higher mortality. Keep good aeration and keep your water cool.
After you let them sit for a while google this type of salt that you can place inside to "toughin" them up. You might be adding to much and it will stuff up the gills
I fill up my livewell from the hose (city water) and 1 frozen milk jug and let the aerator run about 2hrs before I get the minnows the day before going. Then each time I go out(about 3 times a week) pump in some fresh water. in this warm weather, put in a frozen jug in the morning and then in the evening. Have kept minnows this way up to 4 weeks. Then sometimes it depends on the bait shop I get them from. My normal bait shop minnows will be just as lively as the day I get them. Then a couple other shops may last a week or so.
Check you state laws before hauling away lake water in your livewells. That is not legal everywhere.
I use to raise tropical fish. If you take regular tap water and put it in a container of some kind, I used old milk jugs, and let it set with the cap off for 2 days the chlorine comes out and you dont have to use any kind of water conditioner. So when you take the water out of your tank just replace it with the jugged water. It works fine. Once I get my minnows to the lake the first thing I do is pour out 1/4 of the water in the bucket and replace it with lake water. Do this about every ten minutes untill all water is replaced. This gets them use to the lake water and you will have livelier minnows on your hook. I keep all but about a dozen in the lake in a removable bucket and the others in a bucket in the boat. The more you keep in the boat in a bucket the more oxegen they will use up and they will die quicker. When I need more I just pull some out of the removable bucket. Most of the minnows stay alive this way. Have been out when it was over 100 deg and been able to keep my minnowqs alive this way.