Lively Bait Techniques

I have two livewells in my boat that have both recirculating and aerating settings. My problem is this– As it starts to get warmer it gets more and more difficult to keep bait alive during the day and especially overnight. If I leave the livewells on, it tends to drain my starting battery too much.

What are you doing to keep your bait alive?

PS – no smart aleck responses about fishing with only plastic from the bass guys.

Thats no fun!

You might want to think about getting a small fish tank for at home, and try to keep the water cold. Maybe a small garage fridge to keep containers of bait in.

As for using the livell, throw a bunch of ice in there. The colder the better….Might help them stay alive a bit longer. I use frozen bottles of water.

Good luck

I HAVE FOUND THAT HAVING TO MANY MINNOWS IN THE BUCKET DURING WARM WEATHER WILL KILL MORE MINNOWS YOU MIGHT TRY DEVIDING YOUR BAIT UP IN A COUPLE CONTAINERS

Depends on what livebait your trying to keep alive. For minnows try putting a timer on your livewell switch or adding a small 12volt bubbler to the well. You can wire it directly to your battery and they draw very little amps.

Leeches and crawlers are best kept in a cooler on very hot days or just add ice an empty livewell..And make sure your ice doesn’t come from your tap water.

Icing the wells with frozen bottles is good. Also, as the days get warmer, crawlers and leeches tend to become the better baits on most lakes and are certainly easier to keep alive in a cooler, rather than trying to keep minnows/shiners in a well.

Thanks guys!
I like the frozen bottles idea. A couple frozen 2 liter pop bottle should do the trick to keep the temp down a bit on warm spring days. I knew I could count on this site to give me some ideas.