keeping bait alive in a tank or bucket

[baitstealer]

Hey guys I wanted to get into live bait for the spring. I thought I would start with herring and set up a tank in my house and transport them in an 8 gallon bucket or a big round 12 gallon igloo cooler. The bait tank would be a big polystyrene drum, maybe 50 gallons.
1. Does anyone have any experience at that who might be able to give me some tips as to how to keep them from dying?

2. Also for those guys who keep them alive for a day on the water, how do you do that? Care to share some tips?


I know we are only allowed 10 from the rivers and I don't want to waste them. Thank you very much.

[buckethead]

How to build a livebait well.

sPODSlOrOmg

[finchaser]

Hey guys I wanted to get into live bait for the spring. I thought I would start with herring and set up a tank in my house and transport them in an 8 gallon bucket or a big round 12 gallon igloo cooler. The bait tank would be a big polystyrene drum, maybe 50 gallons.
1. Does anyone have any experience at that who might be able to give me some tips as to how to keep them from dying?

2. Also for those guys who keep them alive for a day on the water, how do you do that? Care to share some tips?

I know we are only allowed 10 from the rivers and I don't want to waste them. Thank you very much.

Been doing it for 40 years
1)You need 1 gallon of water per bait with good aeration,(high volume 12 volt pump)and you can only possess 10 at any given time including the the 50 gallon tank. Surface area is more important than gallons.

2) Transportation tank should be insulated to keep water cold

3)Igloo cooler is no good container has to be round or they swim into the corner bruise there noise and die.

4)They will not live more than a couple hours in a drum ammonia gas will kill them or water will get to warm and kill them.

5)They need a pen in a lagoon where there is moving water.

6)Pen mesh can not be over 1/4 inch mesh and can not be any type of metal

Hope this helps you

[baitstealer]

Buckethead that was a great video, I found it very helpful, thanks!

Finchaser thanks for talking about the round cooler. I don't know if I mentioned it, but I was going to use a round 7 gal rubbermaid cooler. They used to sell them in HD, but now I think you can get them at wal-mart.
Here is what the one I will use to transport the herring looks like.
10475

As for your other instructions, they will help me a lot. I had no idea herring needed that much water. It seems like they need more gallons/fish than almost any other baitfish?
Thanks again for the helpful advice!

[finchaser]

Buckethead that was a great video, I found it very helpful, thanks!

Finchaser thanks for talking about the round cooler. I don't know if I mentioned it, but I was going to use a round 7 gal rubbermaid cooler. They used to sell them in HD, but now I think you can get them at wal-mart.
Here is what the one I will use to transport the herring looks like.
10475

As for your other instructions, they will help me a lot. I had no idea herring needed that much water. It seems like they need more gallons/fish than almost any other baitfish?
Thanks again for the helpful advice!

Bunker are the same for transporting in a non water transfer tank

1 per gallon makes up for allot of mistakes. Use to run 4 /35 gallon tanks with 25 in each and still lost some you have to take into consideration how long the first one is in the tank before you catch the other 9 in this day and age. in that cooler 4 to 5 make remeber these are 10 to 14' fish they are not the size of peanut bunker

[basshunter]

1 per gallon makes up for allot of mistakes.

You said it. For some reason herring seem to need the most water and aeration. If you even look at them the wrong way, they die.