Saving money on bait

For anyone trying to keep their bait alive longer this should help!

that’s a nice simple design. i do the same thing minus the filter. I will replace the water with fresh lake water every 4-5 days. I also rotate frozen bottles of water twice a day to keep the water cold. Cooler stays in my garage year round. Currently have a batch of crappie minnows i got about 3-4 weeks ago in there. Would say i lose maybe 3 week. Definitely worth it to save on bait costs

Nice, way to get the word out. A lot of old timers like stopping to chat at baitshops before fishing. Not me…..a 10 minute stop for bait is 10 less minutes I have a dry line.

I trap my own and use an aquarium with filter and pump. As basic as it gets. The glass keeps the scum from making the cooler brown for the most part. Clean or change batting in filter once a week or it’s a stankshow.

Hit the jackpot on minnows on a small pond on my neighborhood golf course in late March. Lost maybe 10% since then so it’s a time saver more than anything. Just hook boat up and next stop is the lake. Loaded up on crawlers after last rain and I’m good to go for a while.

Honestly I don’t know why more people don’t do this? It’s a fun hobby to see what kind of minnows are in your nearby puddles.

You may want to keep the pump higher than the water line! My filled with water and froze!

This is the one I made. Works real nice.

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Paul in Iowa wrote:

so what are you feeding the minnows?

You never want to feed minnows. If you feed minnows, they’re going to have to poop. If they poop they’re going to wreck the water. Keep the water clean and cool and they will last a long long time.

DWSDave31 wrote:

For anyone trying to keep their bait alive longer this should help!

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BTW, you don’t need a 50 or a hundred gallon tank for 4 dozen minnows. I can keep around 60 dozen minnows in the 80 gallon tank I currently have.

Good job on your video though!

Do you guys use those minnows all summer long? I can’t imagine they live very long when you move them from a tank holding 50 degree water to a hot lake that’s almost 80 degrees. A switch from minnows to worms/leeches and/or artificial lures should be warranted.

gim wrote:

Do you guys use those minnows all summer long? I can’t imagine they live very long when you move them from a tank holding 50 degree water to a hot lake that’s almost 80 degrees. A switch from minnows to worms/leeches and/or artificial lures should be warranted.

. My minnows stay in the cooler with the same water from my big tank so they don’t ever go in the lake water unless there already going to die because of hook mortality lol!

A bucket, refrigerator, and cold dechlorinated water changes is all you need. A lot of our minnow keeping problems could be resolved this way. No filter, no food, no aeration, no light. Best part? 99.9% of us already own a suitable bucket and a fridge! A $20 bottle of Seachem Prime (dechlorinator) will last a long time (add with every weekly 50% cold water change). 3 gallons is enough for at least 12 dozen fatheads. A plumbed 18” utility tub with a continuous cold-water trickle overflow would be even better and can hold thousands of minnows in about 25 gallons of water. Throw in an airstone and you’re golden. Might need an inline chlorine/chloramine filter for that one though but your minnows will keep just like the good bait stores do.

Fish keeping (of any kind) has absolutely nothing to do with keeping fish. You’re actually keeping water. The benefit of keeping quality water is that your fish don’t die because of it. In our case, we need to keep that water dechlorinated, ammonia free, and COLD!

The biggest bait-minnow killer is temperature shock. Ever notice how minnows tend to stay alive longer and better in the winter? It’s because the bait water temp doesn’t fluctuate as quickly nor as drastically since it’s already cold outside. Take that same bait bucket to a lake on an 85 degree day and you’ll be hard pressed to even sustain suitable oxygen levels. That’s why most bait containers are white. White reflects more sunlight and doesn’t absorb nearly as much solar radiation as other colors, keeping the bait cooler thus allowing the water to retain more oxygen.

However, keep in mind that taking a minnow from 40 degree water and casting it into 75 degree water will most likely kill it due to temperature shock. So, we need to keep our minnows as cold as the specific season will allow without causing temperate shock once we actually get to use the damn minnow.

Gino could you put together a parts list of what you used? I have been playing with the idea of doing something similar for a portable livewell!

mikek wrote:

You may want to keep the pump higher than the water line! My filled with water and froze!

Good point! I checked the line and it had condensation in it!

DWSDave31 wrote:

Gino could you put together a parts list of what you used? I have been playing with the idea of doing something similar for a portable livewell!

. Dave, if you do a search in the ido site here for diy bait cooler i did a post on it and pretty much explains how I made it, with the info on the pump I used. Good luck it’s sweet! I’m not sure how to make a link for the post or I would have lol

I think I can figure it out lol Thanks!

For anyone looking for the details on Gino’s set up I found his post from last year and will link it for anyone looking!

lol ok apparently using the “Link” function doesn’t work lol Type up in the top right search area on the main page (Gino DIY Bait Cooler)