Keeping Fish Alive

Run your livewell on Auto, recirculate does just that. It doesn’t pump fresh water into the livewell. Just be careful if your fishing all day without running the big motor to recharge the battery, you may end up dead in the water.
The switch by the console on your boat may be stuck if your livewell is draining in the “Auto” setting. It could be stuck on empty instead!
Just a few things to check next time on the water.

You also don’t need the divider, it limits the fish’s mobility within your livewell!

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best way to keep them alive

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Best way is to let them swim.

Summer temps and very warm surface temps are very lethal for livewelled fish.
Jack.

I agree with Jack. CPR those fish. Unless you are fishing a tourney you shouldn’t have to use you livewell this time of the year. If you want the fish to eat then put them right on ice in a cooler in these warm summer temps. They’ll taste better when you put them right on ice in a cooler than sitting in the livewell all day under stress.

It all depends on what kind of fish you are putting in your livewell. Bass can handle warmer water temps than saugers and walleyes so you would thinkt hey would survivie in a livewell longer. If you are fishing a tourney in the hot summer months then run your livewell continuously.

I have had great succes with the Oxygenator.

Does the Ranger have a manual mode. I run my Warrior in Manual when it gets hot. It runs constantly at this point when I run to a new spot I put it on recirculation. as soon as I get to a new spot I put it back in manual. Even on the most frequent auto setting it still shuts off, you want to run it continuous. You should be able to keep 4-5 fish alive if you run it constantly. If you get more than that in your well, even on manual you will be unable to keep them all alive for and extended period. You are better off bleeding them and putting them on ice if you intend on eating them. Not sure if you can use the pills to help keep fish alive in tourney. I know they make some pills that help condition the water, never used them though. Split the fish up and put some in the bait well can help also…..Whatsa

I use a boat plug and plug the drain hole and fill it to the top, switch it over to recirc and put a frozen bottle of water in it to keep it cool but don’t make it too cool or they will get shocked they say 4 degres colder than the surface is about right.

Pluging your livewell and iceing it is NOT the thing to do!
As our BASS Tournament Director found out,the fish suffer a great deal more from putting ice in your livewell than continualy running the pump.
Fish will build up a leathal amount of ammonia in a very short period of time,so keep those livewells exchanging water contiually!

One of the more important things Iv’e found is to have your outlet spray run parallel to the bottom, pushing water from end to end. That way water is creating current to push water over the fishes gills. You can do it with PVC or a hose with holes drilled in it. Hitting their gills straight on is more important than an umbrella spray type.

Scott Steil gave a tutorial on keeping walleyes alive at the GTG this weekend. He gave out many tips, one of which was to plug off the overflow drain on the livewell at let it fill completely to the top. When the livewell is entirely full it does not slosh around as much when running at speed so the fish do not get beat up as much.

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Pluging your livewell and iceing it is NOT the thing to do!
As our BASS Tournament Director found out,the fish suffer a great deal more from putting ice in your livewell than continualy running the pump.
Fish will build up a leathal amount of ammonia in a very short period of time,so keep those livewells exchanging water contiually!

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I have had great luck keeping walleyes healthy by recirculating my water and adding jugs of ice. Cooler water holds alot more oxygen.