Thread: best method of keeping baitfish alive?

Fish it dead make it look live

could have one of these on the pier for the bait :fishing:

[img width=640 height=480]http://i50.tinypic.com/vpw5lc.jpg[/img]

[img width=640 height=480]http://i46.tinypic.com/2upef47.jpg[/img]

Where is that tank? No room left on the Octi for spectators -- which could be a bonus come to think of it. oke:

Sorry it took so long for me to chime in on this thread. The cart is fantastic. I can catch 30-50 ly's in the morning and keep them alive and energetic for the whole day. If you don't want to go that route the bait buckets over the side are affective. The reason I decided to build the cart is because I did not want to have to pull the bucket up everytime I wanted a bait. In the picture of my cart the reason I have the blue bucket is because when the pier first opened the bait would not stay around the pier during the day. You had to get there first thing in the morning before daylight. I could use the blue bucket as extra capacity or to hold other species of bait.

A couple of keys to keeping them alive are:
1. Keeping the water cool. Freeze gatorade bottles the night before and add them as needed. Once the water starts getting hot it no longer has the ability to hold oxygen.
2. Use a round container. Ly's are a schooling fish and will run themselfs into corners and die.
3. Recirculation. This keeps the water the same temp throughout (draw from the bottom and spray at the top). make the spray create a cuircular current in the tank for the bait to swim against.
4. Aeration. Use the discharge from the recirc pump to "spray" the top of the water. This will infuse oxygen in the water. Careful not to be to agressive though as it will harm the bait.
5. Keep debris out. The scales that come off of the bait and anyother waste should be periodically removed from the tank.
6. Only keep one species of bait. There are a lot of baits that don't interact well together. Hardtails and pin fish are some of the worst to put with other baits.

A couple of pointers would be to touch the bait as little as possible when putting them in the tank. I made a small dehooker so I would not have to touch the bait at all when removing them from sabinki rigs. Also, should you develop a foam on the top of the water remove it quickly as it will deplete the oxygen level. The fastest way to achieve this is with WD-40. Spray a little at a time till it is all gone it will not hurt the bait.

Hope these tips help. As for containers to use, one of the options I looked at was one of those orange barrel shaped drink coolers with the spout at the bottom. They make a 10 and 20 gallon version which would be perfect. You could remove the spout to plumb the recirc pump and it is insulated to help regulate the temperature.

Good luck, can't wait to see what you come up with.

I just bought an Aqua-tech Power Head. From walmart today. It circulates the water and also has an intake tube attachment that infuses air from outside the container into the exhaust jet, so it circulates and aerates and circulates all in on pump. It is small so it fits in my 5 gallon bait bucket nicely. Puts out a nice current, box says rate is approximately 170 gph. The flow seems like it is gonna be perfect. I also bought a small power inverter because my car has a 12v outlet in the trunk so I can transport the bait and use the pump. The pump is submersible so I can still easily carry my DC aerator pump on the bucket as well going from the car to the pier. Now to test it. Hopefully this weather straightens up soon so I can.