bait tank at home?

getting bullheads has been such a hassle lately. wondering if it would be worth it to set up a tank at home? financially it would make sense and the convenience would be fantastic… if we can keep them alive.

how hard is it to maintain the tank? if you have a 100 gallon tank, how many can you realistically keep on hand?

two other things i stumbled across- after you catch them, keep them out of your tank for 36 hours so they don’t pollute it with poop? so you need another tank to hold them in? and someone else mentioned that they don’t feed them for them same reason… poop. i’d prefer to have a larger quantity on hand since its a 2 hour round trip just to catch them. doesn’t seem right not to feed them.

need some advice… thanks

Take a look at this thread:

Bait tanks

As for feeding them, they’ll get by just fine for a long time without eating. It really just messes up the tank. Let us know if you build one, and we like pictures!

1gal of water per fish is what I’ve heard. So 100gal tank, don’t put more than 100.

User ‘PHIGS’ has a post up on here somewhere where he has documented his bait tank. It worked pretty well for him last year I believe so you might try his setup..

Couple things Lisa,

How many are you going through in a week?
How much is your time worth driving?
How much do you want to invest in $$ for a bait tank?

With two bait shops close by that handles bullheads in the size your looking for, it might be less expensive to buy them as needed. That’s a question you have to answer.

I have a 250 gallon chest freezer with a two air stone commercial pump and a “pond pump” that sprays water into the tank. (pump totals about $150.)

I’ll hold 300 for a time although I use about 40 to 60 per weekend.

Some folks don’t post about their bait tanks because it’s an invite to the DNR to check quantity and sizes.

i love this forum

thanks for the link and the info!

Briank- these are the exact questions i keep asking myself! we can easily go through 36+ on a weekend. we’ll go out from noon til 2am. set up for walleyes with smaller ones, until i can’t stand it anymore and we start fishing for flatheads with the larger ones.(then you have to account for my casting abilities, guaranteed to lose a few there) the two bait shops around here are great, no complaints! the hassle comes more from the hours we keep, and getting the right sizes.

my rough estimate for set up cost was around $200? but i’m a little intimidated by the hassle of monitoring the water/ water changes, worried about them getting sick and dying off right away and i’m not sure realistically how much time it will take to maintain. that’s where you guys come in… to answer all those questions for me… haha, but seriously… what about not putting them in your tank for 36 hours? should a person really have two tanks then? such a dilemma

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what about not putting them in your tank for 36 hours? should a person really have two tanks then?

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Depends on your tank system.

Yes, two tanks if you have a set up like PHIGS with the filtering system. My filtering system consists of a drain valve. LOL!

Normally when I was catching my own, the water was too dirty for closer to 4 days…depending on how many were in the tank. I would just drain and refill it twice per day.

I use regular Lakeland tap water without any additives and they are happy bullheads. YOUR WATER MAY VARY! Keep a few in your bait cooler for a few days using your tap water to see how they do.

That’s another beni for boughten bullies…they come “pre purged”. The water stays clean because the PP’ed already. (Puked and Pooped)

Some people enjoy the upkeep of their own tanks, I found it to be a hassle and had other things I would rather do. To each his/her own, though.

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Some people enjoy the upkeep of their own tanks, I found it to be a hassle and had other things I would rather do. To each his/her own, though.

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Hassle for me too, although I don’t get out for flatheads as much as some more hardcore flat chasers. I keep leftovers in a cooler with a simple air stone and pump in the shaded garage. That usually is enough to keep them alive until the next trip if I am attentive to changing the water.

However, once one bites the dust or develops an infection, it doesn’t take long for them to all go no matter what I do.

i am leaning that way myself. i forgot to mention that i have to be gone for several days at a time for work also, so i wouldn’t be able to check it daily. if i would just plan a little better i wouldn’t have any issues… lol, at least as far as bait is concerned

pug- every time i see your signature, it makes me hungry for cake.

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pug- every time i see your signature, it makes me hungry for cake.

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…and I’m certainly not trying to steer anyone away from a bait tank.

If you are still interested in moving forward with one, I would suggest you and your partner check out a couple set ups prior to diving in.

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With two bait shops close by that handles bullheads in the size your looking for,

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Unfortunately, one of the two shops didn’t have bullheads suitable for flathead catching on Saturday evening. The positive to that was I got to come over to meet Kari and get to see how good things are at the resort again.

For that reason I like to keep at least a few dozen bullheads in my tank, in case I go last minute, I don’t need to worry where I’m going to be able to pick some up, or if I want to try an area not near any bait shops that carry them. I better get on the ball and get the tank fired up just in case.

That was our issue Saturday night too. Sounds like we were
fishing by you also!

Lisa, don’t be afraid of keeping a tank.

I have a 50 gallon “sheep” sized stock tank from Mills Fleet Farm. I want to say it cost me about 60 bucks when I bought it. I screwed in a valve that they make specifically for these tanks into the hole in the bottom, and ran a hose into my floor drain in my basement. Draining is as easy as opening the valve and going outside to play with my kid for 6-8 minutes on the swingset. If we go too long on the swingset, no worries, as the bottom 2 inches of water in the tank don’t drain. Filling is as easy as turning on the faucet above the tank and letting it run for 4 minutes. I don’t do this unsupervised, as you can imagine the mess if I overflowed it.

I never used to have a filter at all, but now I have an aquarium filter. It’s not the most expensive one on the market, say about a $40 unit. The pump was 10 bucks and air stones $10. Tubing probably added another 10 bucks. So your total cost should be over $100 but probably well under $200 — most likely under $150.

Even keeping as many as 50 bullies in there, I can go at least 5 days without a water change. If I only have 2 dozen or so, I can go over a week easily. I add some of that water starter that the aquarium folks use. It costs about 4 bucks for a bottle and that bottle easily lasts a month worth of water changes.

You can also go with something more like a rubbermaid tote, but then you’re going to need a way to get the water out of it — bucket, sump pump, etc. Also, if you do the rubbermaid tote route, be sure to build a wooden frame around it, or those totes will tend to burst at a corner eventually due to the flexing because of the heavy water on the sides.

Here it is — nothing fancy by any means, but it gets the job done — the filter’s not on there but you get the idea. The valve is at the bottom front with the yellow handle. Before last season, I also decomissioned the file server you see behind there and moved that wash tub out, so that the tank could be moved back against that wall and out of the way providing better access to the furnace, etc.

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That was our issue Saturday night too. Sounds like we were
fishing by you also!

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I thoght I heard the voice of a Catwoman

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That was our issue Saturday night too. Sounds like we were
fishing by you also!

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I thoght I heard the voice of a Catwoman

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Hope I didn’t say anything inappropriate

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Hope I didn’t say anything inappropriate

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That would be pretty tough to do on this site. Not saying the moderators will delete it, just saying we are a salty and tolerant crew. Just check out the Shout Box at the bottom of the homepage. On second though, don’t look at the shout box.

How have I never noticed that thing before?! Why am I reading it? My eyes!!!!!!!!!

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Lisa, don’t be afraid of keeping a tank.

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thanks for the info! still pondering but i will let you know what we decide!

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How have I never noticed that thing before?! Why am I reading it? My eyes!!!!!!!!!

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Only a select few people “Shout”. I think the reasons are obvious.

salty and tolerant is a very good thing… glad you pointed out the shout box… i was in desperate need of something to keep me on this site even longer. ha!

Here’s a couple “small” but portable bait tanks I’ve been using.

The inverter is hooked up to the “bubbler battery” that most people call the trolling motor battery. That powers the Frabill air pump. I have a spare or back up bubbler mounted on the cooler for the “just in case” times.

The Frabill Bait Station works well and is pre plumbed and insulated. Add two D size batteries and go fish.

This is the setup I scrounged last year. I added a proper aerator bar in the outflow from the blue filter tank. I was able to keep around 80 bullies and 20 suckers in there for several months last year and they did quite well. A few drops of teatree oil in the water each time you add new bullies helps keep the disease under control and is pretty cheap if you get the oil instead of the diluted stuff they sell for koi ponds. The timer for the pump makes maintenance easy. I only changed the water about once a month last year and it stayed nice and clear. I never had to isolate the bullies for a few days to keep them from fouling the water.

What’s in your filter SG and the timer controls the filter?

I used 2 bags of gravel and 1 bag of sand from Lowes. The sand is in between layers of gravel to add extra filtration. The timer kicks the pump on every half hour to run for 30 minuets. The timer was about $12 and the gravel and sand were about $3 per bag if I remember correctly. I over sized the filter for low maintenance and high stocking rate.

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I added a proper aerator bar in the outflow from the blue filter tank.

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So that’s the only aeration you have?

Any reason you don’t have your filter running all the time.

The reason I’m asking so many questions is I’m considering some type of filter. The FW is getting tired of changing the water each day.
I have to accommodate 300 bullies. Now with 100 of the larger size allowed, it’s almost like having 400 bullies in there. One 10 incher needs more dissolved oxygen than 2 five inchers…it seems.

Yup that’s the only aeration I have. I just cycle the pump in 30 min periods to save wear on the pump. Not sure if it is rated for continuous duty so it has a chance to cool down in between. I haven’t noticed the pump heating up, but this way it should last a long time. If they seem stressed I have an aquarium air pump I can add. You can get the bulkhead fittings for the tank and filter at any farm store for $6-12 depending on the size.

Thanks again…and Fleet Farm is my friend.

I have a 3″ shut off valve for a drain and it’s a bugger to open and close…this is good I think. After 5 or 7 years, I broke an ear off last night.

My pond pump should work well, if I get a larger filter barrel.

If you ever need a pump I might have a spare available for trade. 1/3 hp and fan cooled motor. The hard plastic pipe used isn’t really necessary, I just had them around as leftovers from another project. Just about any 3/4″ hose would work. I like the added valve for power flushing with the pump when changing the water.

Thanks SG.