bait wells

[Deleted]

I have a few questions on keeping bait alive.I have a bass boat with 36gal live well is there anyway to filter and air rate the water to keep bait alive?I also see that you have to add salt what kind do I need and how much?any help would really be appreciated .Thank you

[mwardncsu]

Chief.....

If you can find one somewhere - get a Creekbank BaitSpa - it is a self-contained filter & pump - but they are no longer in production and you're not likely to find on around for sale unfortunately. Dannco makes something similar - a Dannco aerator with a pump and a filter inside some PVC.

www.danncollc.com/ez_clean.htm

Not sure if it is too tall for your livewell or not. Worse case get a good aerator on your existing livewell - I'd put the Dannco venturi on the output side of the pump. Then see if you can come up with something to filter the scales and slime out.

As to the salt - water softener salt is what I use - the type WITHOUT the Rust-out additive. Can't ever remember if its the blue or yellow bag, but I try to get one that is just NaCl (Sodium Chloride) - Don't use Iodized salts. Some use pool softener salt - and some a can of granulated salt from the grocery store (just make sure to avoid the iodized salte) as long as its NaCl its all the same - as pure as you can economically get. Rock salt or "pelletized". I use a big handful per 10 gal of TOTAL water capacity (point out as with the Creek Bank and Super Bait Tank IIs you have to pay attention to total water capacity as they calcuate it different - the SBT-II's 40 gal tank is about 40 gal on the bait side and 10ish on the filter side - the Creek Bank's 50 gal is total capacity on both sides).

On my 40 gal SBT-II, I fill up a quart sized ziplock back with salt - its about 5 good cups - I'll fill up several bags and store on the boat in a container of some form.

[wishforfish]

Hi Chief,
I use my integrated wells for bait on my Mako. I have a 23 in front and a 29 on the rear but up to this point have mostly relied on the front. One important point is whether or not your livewell has rounded corners or square corners as shad will "nose up" in the corners and eventually die. I use a bait spa and it works well but you will definately need filtration and aeration. In my 23 I usually throw a couple handfuls of salt (water softener type in the yellow bag as Mike said) and I also use Shad Keeper and if I have a lot of bait I throw in an amonia tab like is used in aquariams. I just crafted a filter that fits onto my recirculation intake on the rear well and I am going to experiment with that next trip up. Since there is a Pro-Air system in both my wells I am hoping I can run the filter on recirc and accomplish the same result as the bait spa but I will still encourage you to get one if you can find it.
Good luck and let us know how you do...
Kevin

[Deleted]

Thanks for all the information it will really be a help.