Bait tank water from the lake.

[emmitt]

One of the biggest problems I have with summer time fishing is keeping the water in the bait tank cold enough. I only have access to water from the lake so it is not easy to cool down the water that is taken from the surface. I understand the ice solution but I am interested in pumping up the water in the lake from 20+ ft.  I prefer to keep the pump on the boat if possible to avoid having the 12v power cable and pump going down to 20+ ft. I believe others do or have tried this and I would like to know what type/kind of pump is needed to bring the water up from 20+ ft. Thanks for the help.

[mwardncsu]

The setup I've used is just a regular Rule bilge pump (or any brand) at the bottom - the bigger the better for those deep pulls. I'm getting ready to re-rig one with a 1100 gph - though I'm considering bumping it up to something bigger. For the depth, the wider the diameter hose the better, and if you can use smooth bore hose vs. the corrugated type like bilge hose, then you'll get less resistance for the flow.

Regardless, in this setup the pump is at the bottom - I use waterproof butt splices (the marine kind with heat-shrink built in) to add wire along the full length of the hose and then some off the end. I'll also then add some heat-shrink around the splice, and even coat it with liquid electrical tape for good measure.

The other option to keep the pump in the boat - or at least within length of its existing power cord, would be to use a pump has a hose fitting on each side - I'm sure you can get these in +12V. The issue is priming the pump. When you drop your hose down in the lake, it will fill with water to the point of the lake - you need to get water from the pump to that point in the hose in order to get it to pull.

Something else you could do is to have two separate pieces/sections - one is a short hose on the output side of your pump - and you can use a Rule bilge pump or the like - just make this long enough to get from the tank over the gunnel and into the water. Then, get a long hose - I'd go at least 25-30' as sometimes 20 is not quite enough At the "top" of the hose attach some type of adapter and then a section of PVC pipe that would be big enough to sit the pump down into, and drill a few holes in the pipe tie a rope handle it to hang this contraption off the side of the boat. You'll also need to put some weights of some form on the bottom of the hose to get it to go and hang down. Let the hose fill with water, which it will do by itself as it seeks "level" - then sit the pump into the pipe and fire it up. Water will self-replenish in the pipe as it continues to seek its own level. You may have to play with the size of tubing vs. rate of the pump though as it may be possible to pump out of the pipe faster than the water will flow through the hose/tubing to replenish itself.

The benefit of this is you can have one pump rigged up to plug in, and only drag the long hose contraption out on the boat when you need to get deep water. But, it may just be easier to have 2 pump setups - one that will get you 10-15' and one that will get you 25' or so deep (and keep in mind the extra hose needed to get out of the lake, over your gunnel and to the tank - probably another 5' or so....).

In either situation you really only have the head pressure from the pump out of the water up and over to the tank - the real restriction to flow is coming from the size of the pipe that the water can flow from, so a given pump at the bottom is trying to push through a lot of friction - a pump at the top is going to be pulling and may pull faster than it can be supplied.....

If you seal your crimps well, and then put a fuse on the line before your battery, I'd not have too much worry about the setup with the pump deep.....

[fishhook]

I use this system as well. Bought a cheap hose and a 900 gph pump. I put a lead weight on the bottom of the pump, and wired it with outdoor wire taped to hose. It all fits in a small green tote when rolled up. I pull from 30' most of the time in summer. Water comes in around 64 degrees. I pull out into deep water, drop the hose and plug it up. While it is a little slow, it allows me to get the boat ready to fish. I set up and check all my gear while I fill up. A good tank will hold the water cool most of the day.

Fishhook

[emmitt]

I appreciate the input, sounds like this is the easiest and simplest way to go.

[CorneliaGale]

You can get the 12 volt pumps at Harbor Freight they are about $35 to $40 dollars, seems like they pump 200 gallons or so a hour. They have hose connections on each side so you could add hose as needed to do the job. I was thinking of ice in the filter side to help keep the water temps down in the summer, on the old tank I built I used 16 oz. drink bottles frozen to help keep the temps down.