BrianK asked me to do a post about setting up and maintaining a bullhead bait tank. Every year about this time, many of us start dusting off our fishing equipment and preparing for the next cat season. One of the standard questions on the cat forum every spring centers around how to catch and maintain bait for catfishing. Brian normally taps me on the shoulder every spring to host this post because I have been running my bait tank since the spring of 2005. I have been through the School of Hard Knocks on how to maintain a bait tank and he wants me to share my trials and tribulations with you and maybe save you some time and effort.
My bait tank is in a small shed in my boat carport. This keeps the equipment out of the weather and it can be locked up. I like to control access to the bait tank for safety reason. I am a little paranoid that one of the grandkids may fall in it and get hurt. This also keeps the critters from trying to steal the bullheads.
The bait tank is a 100 gallon stock tank from Fleet Farm and is large enough to easily maintain 75 to 100 bullheads at any given time. The tank is equipped with a large 110 gallon aquarium power filter to treat the water and remove harmful chemicals and fish waste and has a 110 volt aerator that runs two 10 inch airstones.
My bait tank is always a work in progress. The aquarium power filter is an AquaClear 110 Power Filter. It mounts on the side of the stock tank, is easy to reach to clean and operate and is relatively noise free. The power filter is run 24/7 from April to early October. This is the original power filter from 2005 so this will be its 4th season this spring. To be honest with you it is a simple setup and operation. It has 3 filters – a mechanical sponge type filter; a carbon filter; and a bacterial filter. The first couple years I changed out the filters about once a month but last year I only changed the sponge filter one time late in the season and ran the rest of the filters the entire season. I would rinse them out about once a month when doing a water change but that was it and my water was just fine the entire season and the bullheads were healthy and active.
I do at least a 50% water change about every 3 to 4 days. My tank is set up so that a water change can be done very easily in about 20 minutes. A sump pump is placed in the bottom of the tank attached to a hose that runs to my driveway. To change the water simply plug in the pump, draw down the water 50% to 75% and throw the backyard hose into the tank and refill it. While it is draining and refilling I clean the filters and add chemicals to condition the water. We have city water and need to treat the chemicals in the water which would be harmful to the bullheads. The water conditioner I use is called “AmQuel Plus+” and you can find it a PetCo or PetSmart. Add about an ounce to 1 ½ ounces each time the water is changed.
One thing I learned the hard way is to not add my bullheads to the bait tank for at least 36 hours after I catch them. One of the first times I stocked the tank I put a dozen nice 6 1/2 to 7 inch freshly caught bullheads in the tank. The next morning when I checked my tank they had crapped and regurgitated an incredible amount of slime and crud into the tank. It totally plugged the power filter and I had to take it out and clean it and all the filters. I ended up draining the tank and refilling it to get all the crud out. Now I keep the bullheads in a separate tank (a 32 gallon trash can) for at least 36 hours until they are crapped out. Once I instituted this quarantine procees I have had no problems with stocking fresh bait into the tank.
Questions are usually asked about feeding the bait. I don’t feed my bullheads because that just gets them to crapping up the tank. Bullheads can go a long time without eating but I usually purge my tank completely about every 5 to 6 weeks. When I see the numbers of bullheads getting low in the tank this is an opportunity to empty it and completely restock. Later in the summer when water starts to heat up (75 degrees and higher) the bullheads will start to get what we call “the grey crud”. They get some kind of mold and start to die off, I will start to lose about 3 to 4 bullheads a day to this mold. That is a good time to restock the tank but it seems that every year about the middle of August the bullheads start to get the “Grey Crud” – even the new ones you just restock. I don’t think the crud comes from the tank, I think they pick it up from their home waters and just pass it around once they get sick.
I have had little to no problems maintaining a stock of bullheads. They are a tough fish that is well suited to backyard bait tanks. They are easy to catch and transport. There are several good bullhead ponds close to my home and it is easy to catch bullheads to restock the tank. I primarily maintain bullheads in my tank – I’ve tried suckers but they are too expensive and they die too easy. I can usually maintain suckers early in the spring when the water is cool and later in the fall again when the water is cool.
I usually get a lot of questions about how much everything costs and where do you get the equipment. Here is a breakdown of what I use and the approximate costs:
100 Gallon Stock Tank – Fleet Farm – about $70
AquaClear 110 Aquarium Power Filter – Pet Smart – price varies from about $40 to $80 – ask them to do a price match from the on-line Pet Smart price and you will get it for around $40 otherwise the store price is about $80.
Double outlet Aquarium air pump – WalMart – about $10
Two 10” airstones and airline – WalMart – about $10
Optional Tank Sump Pump for water changes – Menards – about $40
I keep my bait tank in one of those Rubbermaid storage sheds. You don’t have to do that but the aquarium power filter is not designed for outdoor use so some type of bait tank cover may be needed.
I hope you find this information useful. If you have any questions ask.
