10-29 Roanoke

[198vx]

Got on the water today after lunch. WT 62-64. Fished from Hardy to Beaver Dam on main channel. Caught the usual Peanuts for bait but lucked out and also caught a couple of bigger shad. I think most call them Mongos, but I rarely see one. Gotta work on that. Bite was slow but managed to catch four. Only marked singles, no schools. All released.  The good news is I got a call to pick up SBT next Tuesday.  Trying to decide on 20 or 30 gal model.  The 20 would fit in front of console but I would have to remove seat behind console for the 30.  With my luck on catching bait I could probably make out with the 20.  I'm sure I will have several questions about the tank after I get it.

[Deleted]

Make the 30 work. The very fact you are getting an SBT means you need a 30.

[striperjohn]

A lot depends on how much you fish and when you fish. The 20 will hold 20 large gizzards pretty safely assuming your filtration and ammonia control is good. It will hold about 3 dozen big ales, and 4 dozen 4-5 inch ones. In really hot water of summer the 20 will hurt you, but in spring and fall you should be okay. I fished with a 20 gal tank (that was less capable then the SBT) for years in between seats of a fish/ski bass boat and did okay. You will be changing your water about 30% every other hour if you fish an all day 8-10 hour trip with a full tank.

[mwardncsu]

Nice catch! And nice report

There is a highly refined taxonomy for gizzard sizes:

<2.5" - too small to deserve a name or be on a hook
2.5"-4" - Peanuts
4"-6" - Big Nuts
6"-7" - Dollar Bills
7"-9" - Money Makers
9"-12" - Dem Beeg Geezards
12"+ -Mongos



On the tank - go as big as you can live with - you can make a 20 work but a 30 has 50% more capacity and removes other hassles from a day (or weekend) of fishing.

[CorneliaGale]

Bigger is always better in a bait tank, nice report.
Nice scale Mike.

[archenemy]

I have a 40 and 20 sbt II. I put 40 to 50 gizzards in the 40gal with no problem. The 20 will hold way more than 80 6-7 inch ales in the summer using the dannco and working down the ammonia. Im sure someone will call BS but I do it all summer and they are very lively at the end of the day. Size makes it easier to take less care of the bait but if you pay attention and learn what makes em healthy you won't need to suck up the extra space.

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[BentRod]

It will Arch. I've run 150 ales in my 35 and I know Mward dumped 200 ales one morning after we caught 15-20 fish so he had 250-300 in his 40.

[mwardncsu]

Fair point ArchEnemy - you can pack a lot of alewifes in a small SBT for a day's fishing - keeping them over a couple of days is where the larger tank will benefit - mainly from larger volume of water. I think it is realy with the bigger gizzards that the bigger tank become much more important - water volume but also just room for them to swim around each other - one 12" gizzard is the volume of about 40 decent ales

If you plan to fish mainly ales of "peanuts" and keep the bait from the morning you catch them till lunch or end of day - then the 20 will be fine and I can totally understand the space issue. If the only way a 30 gal works is to get rid of your seat and use the tank as a seat - well, if the boat is 95% a fishing boat then that may be OK - if its a mixed use boat and the wife needs to be happy, then maybe better go with the 20 and keep the seat

[archenemy]

I completely agree with you mward on the long term survival in the smaller tank and would always go bigger to be safe but not all of us have small ships like you


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[198vx]

Thanks for all the input. Still not made final decision. I always just catch (if I can) bait I will need for the day but could see the advantage of being able to keep it a couple of days at a time while staying at lake. The boat is 18' center console Sundance and is 95% fishing. When I get tank, I will post in different area on mounting suggestions. Oh, and my mistake mward. What I thought might be considered Mongos were actually Money Makers according to chart. Caught all on the peanuts/big nuts and dragged the bigger shad around all day without a bite.

[mwardncsu]

And we spend countless hours chasing the big bait. Sometimes I question my sanity.