Transporting Bait

Iowa thread.. no legalities here. Just want to get that out early.

So, I’ve got my outdoor bait tanks set up and ready already, earliest ever! Every year I buy fatheads and crappie minnows and use the tanks to hold them throughout the season. First 10 trips I buy a couple doz (really 75 ish when you ask for 2 doz) and then dump the leftovers in the tanks. This year I’m wanting to use one tank for river shiners and the other for fatheads. The problem is, how do I get the shiners home without them dying? When fishing with them on the river I just hang a minnow bucket full in the water, otherwise they are dead in 5 minutes. The plan will be to find a school, net up a few pounds and then quickly get home to the tanks. Then take a couple doz with me each trip for fishing. A couple doz will last the 15 minutes or so in a 5 gal bucket no problem.

Battery bubbler(s)? Have a SUV so I can’t do the stock tank in the back of the truck trick. Its about a 15 minute ride from the ramp to my house.

I was never a believer that bait species made any difference until I got outfished 50:1 by guys using river shiners. They gave me some and it was night and day difference. Problem is, where I walleye fish most of the time I cannot net the shiners.. or at least not in a timely manner.

Some of you catfishermen have to have a way to travel with live bait!

(sorry, thread is supposed to be TRANSPORTING not transferring… brain fart!)

Check around welding supply shops for a small bottle of oxygen with a simple valve. Add a length of vinyl tubing to the valve and oxygenate your water for transport.

River shiners are much like shad, they need current so they stay swimming at all times.

Shad tanks are oblong and the pump keeps the water circulating.

There’s a reason we don’t see river shiners in bait shops.

Get a clear 5gallon bucket and setup a moving background on it, just fool them instead

Never tried to keep river shiners alive or shad, but on 5 day weekends when i want two dozen 6-10″ chubs and suckers to stay alive, i use a large 5-day cooler and one of these setup on a timer to run 30 seconds every 5 minutes.

If you need flow, then an oblong or rounded tank and this aerator will circulate and create current in your tank.

http://www.cabelas.com/product/Super-Fish-Saver-Kit/699706.uts?productVariantId=1189262&WT.tsrc=CSE&WT.mc_id=GoogleProductAds&WT.z_mc_id1=03361000&rid=40&channel=GoogleBaseUSA&mr:trackingCode=5CFF87CC-958E-DF11-A0C8-002219318F67&mr:referralID=NA&mr:device=c&mr:adType=pla&mr:ad=41499696671&mr:keyword&mr:match&mr:filter=57964833311&gclid=CJj4mIqGkr0CFS9p7Aod2xgAZQ&gclsrc=aw.ds

A small Step that makes a huge diff….Styrofoam cooler. I use to seine alot of creek shiners but if they were in plastic until I got them home it was too late. Took a 5 gal .styrofoam cooler placed inside a tupperware container. Sealed the lids and everything was good.

Have you ever tried an Oxygenator?

Quote:

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River shiners are much like shad, they need current so they stay swimming at all times.

Shad tanks are oblong and the pump keeps the water circulating.

There’s a reason we don’t see river shiners in bait shops.

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Right. That’s how my top tank is set up. It pumps from the bottom tank, through a filter, and then shoots sideways into the top tank to create a current (where I typically put large fatheads), then that dumps through 3 overflows into the bottom container which is just oxygenated and no current (where the crappie minnows go).

I’ll be pulling 500GPH through a 75 gallon oblong tank, that should be enough current right? It looks like a toilet flushing with the pump on high

The transfer in water temp has more to do with how long shinners live for. I use on of my live wells as a bait well, when I get bait from the store I fill up the live well and put the bag in there so that the water temp is slowly brought to the same as the lake water. Doing this I can fish all day with them and they stay alive. I’m guessing when you take them out of your tank at home you need to do something similar to slowly bring the water temps to the same.