CW, Presenting fishery science and published scientific facts here is not “calling out” anyone, don’t be confused.
Sure, it all adds up, it’s based of current fishery facts, not fishing product literature designed by salesmen to sell products and daily hatchery live fish trans[port practices, it’s perfectly logical and keeps fish alive and healthy for hours during transports.
It’s all only a click away with a simple Google search. The bew fishery science is not the old old fishermen’s myths about keeping fish alive in boat livewells and bait tanks that we have heard and been told by Popi, Dad, our fishing buddies and the local boat salesmen for years to date. And a bass presented DOA in the Ranger boat livewell with the oxygenator humming perfectly at the 4 PM weigh-in last July.
And you don’t have to be a college educated fishery biologist to grasp the vital importance of insuring minimal safe water quality in any livewell or bait tank every time when you are transporting live tournament bass or live bait fish any time of the year, especially in the summer like right now.
It is vitally import to know and understand what a Livewell really is and the minimal safe water quality requirements for any livewell – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livewell
“A livewell is a box used to transport live aquatic animals; shrimp, baitfish and mature fish, saltwater or freshwater species. A livewell should be made of materials that are non- toxic to aquatic animals. The shape may be square, rectangular, oval or round. The box may be insulated, portable, have a drain and lid. Maintaining minimal safe water quality standards in livewell water is essential and necessary to insure a safe habitat for all the captive animals during transport. When transporting baitfish, shrimp or mature fish, maintaining dissolved oxygen saturation (DO Sat) is the single most important water quality parameter that must be controlled. Livewell oxygen–injection systems and LOX systems insure O2 enriched livewell water. Pure 100% compressed welding oxygen is injected into the water with a precision dose adjustable high-pressure oxygen regulator, oxygen tube and diffuser. Commercial and sport fishing oxygen-injection systems are designed to insure 100% DO Saturation or greater whether the bait or fish load is 1 lb or >1000 lbs. Minimal safe EPA water quality standards for steady state environments (rivers, lakes, ponds, etc.) is 5 ppm DO.
Dissolved oxygen is the single most important factor for keeping bass alive, and an understanding of factors that affect oxygen levels will better enable anglers to keep their fish [aquatic animals] alive. At a moderate water temperature of 70˚F, 100 percent oxygen saturation is 8.8 mg/l of oxygen, whereas at the higher temperature of 80˚F, 100 percent saturation is 7.9 mg/l. Both of these 100 percent saturation oxygen levels are suitable for keeping bass alive. Without injecting oxygen into the livewell, it is very difficult to supply enough oxygen to keep alive heavier tournament limits. Oxygen injection has long been used by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) hatcheries to maintain the health of fish being stocked into reservoirs. Fisheries staff regularly transport or hold fish in ratios equal to or greater than one pound of fish to a gallon of water. However, boat manufactures do not offer oxygen injection system options… Proper installation and operation of an oxygen injection system will ensure oxygen levels remain above the preferred level of 7 mg/l even when livewells contain heavy limits.”
If any livewell [or live bait tank], ice chest or a plastic 5 gallon bait bucket cannot maintain continuous minimal safe water quality for live fish or live bait — it is called a “death well.” Bass and live bait will die or become red-nose and sickly during transport.
A “death well” is common on boats every summer. Death wells often cannot maintain nor insure minimal safe water quality required to keep heavy limits of bass alive during transport in the summer. The proof is mortality at the weigh-in, gills flared and no gill movement and the dreaded “dead fish punishment.”
You have totally missed the point. It makes absolutely no difference what the box (livewell) is made of, the brand, shape, color or price. What makes the difference is the fisherman transporting the live fish that is operating the well, your ability to maintain minimal safe livewell water quality continuously inside that box loaded with fish for the duration of the transport, 5 hrs, 8 hrs, 24 hrs all day…
Maintaining minimal safe livewell water quality is relatively simple provided you know how to do that. The shiner bait dealers know about the vital importance of water quality because he deals with it every day and his livelihood is dependent on his ability keeping his shiners alive and in excellent health.
He sells live shiners to fishermen every day, puts the live fish in a small plastic bag with a quart of water, fills the gas space inside the bag with a quart of oxygen, seals the bag and the customer transports that bag of live shiners 2 -3 hours or more to his fishing spot miles away and none of those shiners die or even get sickly in that little bag with 1 quart of water in it that the bait dealer provided.
How in the world can a lonely shiner bait dealer make that work so good and keep all those shiners alive and healthy so well for the fisherman every summer? … the shiner dealer is an expert when it comes to water quality in that little plastic bag full of shiners because none of those shiners die or get red-nose or sickly for a 2 -3 hour transport in that little bag of water.
That can be hard if not impossible to understand. How and why that shiner dealer can keep all those shiners alive and healthy for hours for the fisherman in that little bag with a quart of water requires some creative thinking and understanding beyond what the average fisherman understands about the importance of water wuality and the minimal importance of brand of boat livewell or brand and cost of a bait tank.
Creativity – An Overview/Thinking outside the box https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Creativity_-_An_Overview/Thinking_outside_the_box
Are you familiar with the 9 Dots Puzzle? Check it out too – http://www.brainstorming.co.uk/puzzles/ninedotsnj.html
This is a great exercise for developing creative thinking capabilities. It is also a great “bar game.”
J
ust for clarity so there is no misunderstanding… most bass boats have 2 livewells. One 1 ($150) oxygenator in each bass boat livewell are 2 ($150) oxygenators. Two oxygenators for 1 bass boat with 2 livewells actually cost $300… right? Not $200.
I was short $100 on that estimate, that’s all. Thanks for the heads up on the total cost for 2 bass boat oxygenators.
Pretty interesting topic for the fishermen interested in the fishery science and factual approach to live fish transports don’t you think?
And all this live fish transport information is only 1 click away on Google for folks that are interested transporting live bass and live bait fish successfully all day in hot July-August weather.
