Portable Bait Cooler For Cat Bait

Last year I commandeered an old cooler from the family, cut a few holes in it, stuck a bilge style water pump in it and thought I was done. However the lid wasn’t hinged on and it flew out of the boat a few times. I had to carry it everywhere (no wheels) and using a bilge style pump, made powering it a problem. I used a fish locator battery, which are very common in ice fishing locators, but they wouldn’t last while bank fishing. The only alternative I could find was to have a 12-volt car battery to lug around. In the boat, my trolling motor battery would work fine. The car battery does work well, but I was looking for a smaller, more lightweight system. Also, it’s been pointed out that the bilge style pumps will (slightly) heat your bait water over time (heat in summer is a problem).

While bait coolers aren’t anything new, here’s an easy, fairly affordable way to keep your flathead bait comfortable (and alive) while out chasing the biggun.

My wife was watching me carry my cooler full of water and bullheads around one day and the next thing I knew, she brought home this cooler. It’s an Igloo “wheelie” cooler (about $25 at Wal-Mart).

After looking at a number of air pumps, I selected the Frabil bubbler style pump (about $30 at Fleet Farm). I chose this pump because of the low power consumption, dual power sources (2 D size batteries or 12v…adaptor included), the check valve to prevent water entering the pump (more about this later) and it’s size. I didn’t really care for the air stone that came with it, they like to turn over and not bubble properly. Maybe a few washers or a nut on the hose would have taken care of this problem, but I had a round air stone that I replace the standard stone with.

Once I had all the parts together, I use regular bathroom tub silicone to attach the pump to the cooler. There’s many ways of attaching the pump to the cooler, I chose the silicone because the pumps do go bad and for warrenty reasons I didn’t want any holes in the pump casing. The silicon just peels off.

Assembly is straightforward. Find an out of the way place for your pump, staying clear of the handles because you still have to lift it into your boat. Then find the closest place to drill a hole through the cooler. Try to drill the hole above the water line.
Once the air line is run through silicon both sides of the air line to ensure a water tight seal and to keep the air line from becoming pinched. Attach the air stone, then silicon the pump on. When mounting the pump..TRY to mount it above the water line if possible. The keeps water out of the pump although Frabil pumps to have the backflow check valve that keeps water out of the pump. Let the silicon cure for about 12 hours and your pretty much set.

I try to take the left over bullheads out of the cooler and put them back in my larger bait tank at the end of the night…but some times I’m in a hurry and just leave them in until morning. On real hot days I’ll add a quarter bag of ice to the cooler before we leave for a night out. Adding too much ice will put your bait to sleep…although they will wake up again with warmer water, I try to avoid this. I seldom change water in the cooler, although if I were to keep 2 doz plus bullheads in the cooler for a long period of time, I would be changing water about every six hours and making sure the water wasn’t too warm.

As always, there is more than one way to skin a cat. Please feel free to share what works for you!

Happy Catten!

The mounted pump.

The airstone that turns over too easy.

The replacement airstone.

Another thing to do is drill a few hole in the outer lining and fill with the expanding foam. Once a cooler has a hole or leak in the outer lining it loses all of its insulating abilities. The vacuumed seal is broken. When it is sealed there is no air thus creating an insulation barrier. I have converted an old cooler into a live well but could not keep the water cool enough on hot days. then I learned from someone else that by adding the foam you add an insulation barrier back to the cooler. Without the vacuum seal or some added insulation the cooler is just two pieces of plastic with the same insulation value as a five gallon bucket with a lid. I learned the hard way two. I can keep fish alive for a while with almost the same set up but with two of the pumps that you have shown in your picture.

Once you add the expanding foam and it has dried, just trim off the part that dries sticking out of the cooler. I just trimmed with an utility knife and sanded briefly and it looks pretty good for a home made job.

Hope this helps with your hot water problem.

Thanks Mr Duck!

I do use two pumps when holding more than 24 bullies…and it’s nice to have a backup if one goes south on ya while out.

Fabril has been very good honoring there 1 year warrenty. I’ve sent in two and a few days later, I get a new one.

I’ll be getting some expanding foam today. From your experiance, should I make two holes on the long sides and one on each end? To fill the whole container.

Thanks again!

Way “Cool!”

I can vouch for the fact that Brian has the happiest bullies in the neighborhood! This is just the “Condo”. You should see his bullhead Hilton!

I too have been witness to the portable home that Briank’s bullies live happily in while on the water. It works really well and for all the time we spent one evening catten, there was not one happy bullhead – not unless you count the ones who became the cats snack.

Brian, I made just about the same thing out of a wheelie cooler for my inlaws pontoon they keep up in grand rapids that they take sun fishing. They use to keep their catch in a 5 gallon bucket, but the fish would not stay alive long during the summer.

Since this was going on a pontoon, I took a wheelie cooler, small bilge pump, bilge pump hose a valve and valve hardware to make my “portable livewell” for them, and marine goop, I love that stuff. I basically drilled two holes in the cooler, one in the top with a connector and hose for an over flow, one on the bottom of the cooler to fit the valve and valve nut/washers and goop.

On the back of the pontoon, there is a plate for mounting transducers and a bilge pump. So mounting the pump was easy. There were self taping screws that came with the pump, so just screwed them into the plate. Climb under the boat and zip tie wires for the pump and the pump hose and feed it into the driver console.

Very Important step: Put cooler in location that mother in law wants it. Not where you think it should go, this will cause you another trip to the hardware store to buy more hose because you cut it to short the first time.

Hook power up to a switch you installed on the dash. Put over flow hose over the side of the pontoon, hook up hose to valve, open valve and turn on pump. Wahlay functioning portable livewell that they can take on/off the pontoon with ease, and the fish are more than happy to swin around in 25 gallons of fresh water.

Total cost was around 30 bucks I think. Maybe a little more.

Now with your boat, could you use your cooler, unscrew the livewell feed (the plastic connector that connects the livewell hose to the plastic piece that spits the water into the livewell) hook up a piece of livewell hose and connector to that, hook up the hose to your cooler, open the valve and use your livwell pump to fill?

Or maybe even easier, get a livewell liner so you can just use your livewell and transplant your bullies from their Hilton to the livewell? http://www.frabill.com/accessories.html

Just wondering.

Jami

That’s what’s great about this site Jami…new and differant ideas!

I would have to run a hose across the deck and an over flow hose if I used the cooler and filled it with water from my live well pump. Anything on the deck while fishing in the dark is a hazzard. Also, there would have to be a number of modifications if I needed to fish in a buddies boat.

We haven’t gone catten yet, but if we would have…you would know my live well is generally filled with garbage! The liner idea is great…and If I didn’t go shore fishing it would be a viable option. The only reason I can think of that it might not work is that taking water from the lake/river can be around 80 degrees in the summer. I would have to keep ice on board (this might not be all bad ) To keep the temp down for 6 or so hours of fishing. Has your in-laws had any problems with keeping the gill alive in hot weather? With the liner there’s no foot print, cords or hoses to get in the way…great idea.

I would still need a cooler to take with shore fishing or in a friends boat…if they didn’t have a live well..but I may have to try this. It’s going to free up some room in my boat!

Hmmm…I just thought of one of our laws in the Great State of MN…I can’t transport “infested” waters. The Miss and Croix fit in that catagory….I’m going to have to check into that law again.

I guess I would have to see the layout of your boat, but I was thinking of my boat layout while writing this. I have a livewell in the back, and I would set the cooler in the spashwell, letting the overflow either dump into the splashwell or out the back. So you wouldn’t have but a couple of feet of livewell hose out at any time. Now I don’t know your layout, or other “options” you have in your boat, but my spash well is usually pretty empty, except for a random empty can.

As far as the liner goes, I was thinking that you could fill your live well from your garden hose, place the bullies in the livewell from home and add either ice or sippi water as needed.

I fished out of the pontoon a couple of times this summer in the 90 degree heat. In the morning I would fish sunfish, afternoon norherns and night sunnies again. The cooler kept the fish alive from morning till I cleaned in the evening. Granted the water in Grand Rapids probably wasn’t as warm as the river in the summer. But if you keep fresh water recriculating, I would think you would be fine??
I understand about the infested water, but if you are draining your livewell in your driveway or front yard I don’t think I’d be to concerned about it? Every year the dnr are down at the Hastings landing checking boats and trailers, and every year I seem to have fish in the livewell when they are there. I just explain to them that this is the only river I fish, and that I drain the well in my driveway, they’ve never made me drain it there?

If/when you shore fish, your current cooler would be the only option though.

I keep a minnow bucket bottom in the boat for garbage, its bungied between my feet at the console, with a plastic bag from cub or wally world in it. So once I get to the dock, I grab the bag, put the boat on the lift and put the bag in garbage. Things get pretty stinky in a hurry if left in the boat/sun to long.

I think you and I will have to meet at the new restraunt in Afton, and hit the river!

Jami

Ritt, I’m guessing the DNR at the Hastings landing are “summer help” and trained in teaching how not to spread infestations. It surprises me that they would allow anyone to transport water that is known to have zebra muscle, milfoil and the spiny water flea in it…

The handbook states in bold print…that transporting live fish including fish in livewells is prohibited. The infested waters piece is under invasive species.

This is why we are working towards changing the 7 inch bullhead rule. It’s not against the law to fish with an 8 inch bullhead…I would be breaking the law by transporting them from a river/lake to my house and from my house to the river.

Sometimes I wonder if the DNR has too many rules for their CO’s…much less the sportsman…

Yeah, my live well is in the center of the boat right next to the steering council.

Run a Muk…6 pm Friday night…no fishing thou…Off to the Great Red River of the North Saturday morning.

Sorry for the late reply and for the mispellings in my original post. I drilled five or six holes on the sides and at least that many in the bottom. The foam spreads out and spills out the holes. I do not think you could have too many holes if you used good reason and judgement. I drilled holes until I felt that the foam would get to all parts of the sides and bottom. The foam can usually has a small hose attachment to put in the tip. I would insert the hose in all directions and spray foam everywhere. The foam goes along ways and I had tons hanging out of the holes but I felt that the rest of the sides and bottom were filled to their limit. I did not have any holes drilled in the lid so that was left alone.

How late into the year do Bullheads work? I was told of a place near my home that is loaded with Bullheads. I would like to try and get out after some big kitties before the ice rolls in.

Thanks in advance!

Blue,

The flatties usually head for wintering grounds in mid Oct. They are usually pretty agressive until the water cools down feeding heavily for a more lethargic winter rest.

Thanks Duck! Don’t wory about the miss spelllings… If the owner of the site was worried about spelling…they would have added a spell checker after looking at my post! The important thing is that you were willing to share an idea the helped someone….ME!

Blue, there’s a little rummbling that you may have better luck with suckers…or sunnies if you are a WI resident. Sorry can’t recall if you are a cheesey or not.

Be sure to post some more pics once you get it finished.

Post from ’05. Worth bringing to the top?

Thanks Brian. This is great stuff!

Definitely worth bringing to the top. I printed it out and I am going to replicate that. The only difference is I think I am going to put a gravel plate and a tube on the bottom, so when I get home I can just throw a jet pump on it. I don’t usually have large numbers left over and I don’t fish for ollies as much as most with bait tanks, so I don’t have dozens of bullheads normally at the end of the day. Hopefully the jet pump with the plate will filter most of their gunk and slime out.

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Hopefully the jet pump with the plate will filter most of their gunk and slime out.

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Good Luck with that!

If anyone has any intent of keeping bullheads… they better have an easy way to change out all the water over the 1st couple days at the least.

They burp up everything in their stomach for whatever reason and it is a mess. It gets worse as the summer goes on when they feed on moss(very hard on any filter or pump when they burp it up).

I’ll be honest, its easier in the long run to catch or buy your bullheads. If you buy your bullheads, they have usually already been incaptivity for at least a couple days and got the *burping* out of the way and should be less hassle.

My bait cooler goes through a few pumps a year(recirculating). Bubble pumps work fine for small quantities of bullheads, but the air stones will clog up regularly.

In all honestly, if you cant create a large water capacity bullhead storage system… anything more than keeping a dozen on hand in a aireated cooler is way more hassle than its worth.

The bullhead wine season starts in June!

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They burp up everything in their stomach for whatever reason and it is a mess.

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LOL, ain’t that the truth! I ended up with a Mister Twister in my bait cooler last year that one of those buggers puked up! I had to laugh at it.

I always quarantine my fresh caught bullheads in a temporary tank for about 3 days before they go into the main filtered 100 gallon bait tank. My temporary tank is a 35 gallon trash can with a 10″ airstone running in it. The temporary tank is placed in the shade and out of direct sunlight to keep it as cool as possible. This is plenty of water and air / water exchange to handle up to 30 – 40 bullheads on a temporary basis.

I change out the water in the temporary tank each day while they are in quarantine. It is about a 10 minute job tops. Just dip out 4 or 5 buckets of water out of the temporary tank and dump it into the street gutter until the tank is about 3/4 or more empty. Toss the garden hose in the tank and refill it. Put enough water conditioner in the water to remove the chlorine and chloramine from the city tap water. The water changes clean out the ammonia and toxic build-up so the fish stay healthy. Once the temporary tank’s water stays clean and the bullies have stop puking and pooping the crud then they go in the main tank.

If you were disciplined enough this system would be adequate to maintain a nice stock of bullheads on hand. If you could keep your 35 gallon tank in the shade and as cool as possible and you did a water exchange every 2 days at the least this system would keep bullheads going.

Later in the summer when the bait tank temps get up in the 80’s I will start to get some kind of fungus on the bullheads. They will start to die off from the fungus which grows all over them (kind of a grey colored yuck). I’ve tried to treat them for it with different aquarium medications but it doesn’t help. I start losing about 3 – 6 a day to the fungus. As others have found, it is easier to just restock with fresh bullies than to mess around trying to doctor bullies.

I’ve been using a cooler to keep my bait lively for quite a few years, and this is the best thing I’ve found to stick in the cooler to keep the ‘gills, goldies, bullheads and chubs lively:

This is what’s called a super fish saver, and I got mine at Cabela’s, but I’m sure you’d find them elsewhere as well. But the best thing to do is put on a SeaLink 12v plug, and then I also extended the wire quite a ways so I can plug it into the car/truck and have it in the trunk/back, and keep the inside of the vehicle slosh-free. I don’t believe I’ve ever had a fish die while this thing is on….it’s the only way to go.

Brian, how long have you been using them?

I went through 4 of those last year…I might have bought bad ones…but just seemed like i would get a month out of them and they would burn out.

They do work great though.

PS It’s about time we get a true NE cat guy in here!

Brian, they burn out real quick…when you don’t submerge them.

Was that in the instructions?

I use the even cheaper model that you can find at Wally World – just a submergible pump with an arm that sticks up and sprays back down into the cooler – it’s about $25.00. The only drawback is that it heats the water a bit, so in the summer you’ll want to add ice to counter that. As long as you keep it clean it keeps the water very oxygenated and the spraying helps remove ammonia.