I am in the process of designing a portable live well to assist in keeping my bat and catches alive. I have been researching this for about 4 months now and everything I find is for use on a boat. I fish from shore here in PA along the Susquehanna river for basically anything that swims I tend to target bass, walleye, and Flathead Catfish which are my favorite to fish for but of course by the time I catch the 8-10 inch sunnies, blues, and rock bass or the 12 inch bullhead catfish for bait and get to where I fish for the flatheads they are all dead. I have caught some hungry channel cats with the dead fish but I tend to not target them cause I do not like to eat them as much still fun to catch but I fish for food, and for the past 6 years there has been a kill order out on flathead catfish where if you catch them from the susky you have to kill them or get nailed with a huge fine. anywho i digress, with the system I am trying to design to keep the fish alive I basically need to know what works I have found from experience that the d cell battery operated aerators from Bass pro are junk and do not work could not even keep 12 minnows alive for an hour til we got to where we were going.

I found a couple different coolers to use for the project but the igloo sportsman 100 found at walmart http://www.walmart.com/ip/Igloo-Spor...ooler/14550422 looks like it will be the best choise with the hatch on top to put the bait in without opening the entire lid. most systems I see require a 12v battery of some kind I do not know if it will work or not but I was thinking a deep cell rechargable battery setup with 1 or 2 solar panels mounted on top of the cooler to help keep the battery charged, any idea if this will actually work? i found this battery at walmart but do not know if it will be strong enough for the application I am needing it for http://www.walmart.com/ip/Spypoint-1...r-Kit/17687574 any suggestions or a recirculation style pump that will actually help keep the fish alive would be great I have been researching them but you know how the manufacture sites are with their wild claims and half truths you never know what actually works I was seriously considering the Oxygenator over at keepfishalive.com their claims seemed to be seriously backed by science but I read a few other sites which actually tested the units and the final of it stated that they do not work as well as claimed so now back to trying to find a system that will work for what I need.

my wife tells me all the time I have a tendency to ramble and wander in my thoughts and I do apologize for that and I thank any who are willing to help with there thoughts on this project