Well my girl kicked my butt yesterday cat fishing. She caught a 61.13 LBS flathead on a 6 inch goldfish. So proud of her. She fought it and got it in all by herself.

As for the filter media my tank is outside and will completely freeze during the winter so I only need that medai to work for about 8 months a year. I will completely clean it out to close it down for the winter and restart it with fresh bacteria from my fish and turtle tank next spring. It is not like it is a pond that had to run year round.

Yes you can buy all those different things as bait at a bait shop and you can also catch them and transport them yourself.

Yes it is chicken cut up in chunks and powdered strawberry Jello is poured over it and covered and mixed for a couple of days. About a 6 inch Isreali carp is perfect for large flatheads.

We use Bluegill, Warmouth, Chubs, Shad, Goldfish and Isreali Carp. That extra heat from the pump and the summer heat is why I carry 4 , 2 liter bottles frozen with me in another cooler to fight the heat. Just drop one in every 3 hours or so. Keeps the water nice and cold. Caught my biggest on a 6 inch Goldfish last year. 72 LBS Flathead. Her biggest was a 38 Lbs Flathead and she caught it on Strawberry Chicken.

Fully understand your comments. But that tank is on the back of my Jeep not in a boat. I only carry a few pieces of bait at a time in a bait bucket with a bubbler down to the waters edge to keep the rest of the bait as cool as I can. That debris filter will keep all the scales and sand or anything else big that may clog the main filter out of it and the cap screws off easily to be emptied and I can do that when I go get new bait out of the tank or at least check to make sure it is OK while I am getting bait. Less than a 1 minute process to clean it out. Jeep is also hardwired with a second battery that charges while I drive to run the bait tank off of. If I was in a boat that would be a different story.

Right now it is not as big of a deal with temp but come mid summer If I was to get water from the lakes we fish it would be surface water and warmer than water at depth. I have another smaller cooler I carry in the jeep with 4 frozen plastic 2 liter water bottles and plan on throwing one in to keep the water colder. If I have been working to cool the water why pour water in that may be warmer than I already have and reverse the effect of the cooling I have been doing.

Not disagreeing with you at all just trying to make it as easy on my girlfriend and I as possible when we are fishing so we can relax and fish rather than carrying buckets of water up to the cooler on the Jeep. It is a 150 quart cooler so that is 37 gallons. Nothing you want to lug around full and then have to lug a battery to run the pump too. Even filled with only 25 gallons at 8.34 lbs per gallon that is 208 lbs of water alone.

Well I said I was going to figure out a filter system for my mobile bait tank. Here it is. 500 GPH pump goes up to the debris filter then into the main filter with filter media and activated carbon and zeolite and then out to the sprayer bar.

Well give me your opinions and thoughts.

OK I was ask to tell a little more about the components. Here it goes. The filter was made by me out of a square tidy cat litter container. The inlet is a a 3/4 inch bulkhead and the pvc takes the water down to the bottom of the tank but it is about an inch off the bottom. The basket keeps the filter media from clogging the inlet lines. The filter media is in fact kitchen scrubbers. 4 packs of the round ones totalling 24. Larger mesh in them will not allow them to clog easy but will still catch fish scales and such. They also provide a large surface area for bacteria to grow on for the bio filter. The next layer of filter media is again kitchen scrubber pads but much finer mesh for the smaller particles and still a huge surface area for bacteria to grow on. The outlet back into the tank is an inch and a quarter bulkhead.

Total cost of the filter to make $12.99 for the 35 lbs tidy cat litter bucket. $14 for all the filter material at the dollar store. The little mesh basket was a $1 also at the dolar store. 3/4 inch bulkhead $5.98 and the 1 1/4 bulkhead $9.98 both from tractor supply. Total for the filter was $43.95 plus a few bucks for the PVC.

The Tetra water pumps and pre-filters were from Menards and cost $54.95 each. They pump 325 GPH each for a total of 650 GPH. The tank is a 100 gallon Rubbermaid tank that cost 79.99 from tractor supply. I also put in 2 Tetra 60 gallon air pumps from Meijer’s at 19.99 each.

My next project was new mobile bait tank and it was an easy one to do. Got a 150 quart cooler from Walmart and a 500 GPH bilge pump from Basspro and hooked it up to a spray bar with PVC. Still trying to work out how I am going to do some filter material for it but I am sure I will figure something out pretty easily.

If anybody has any question please feel free to PM me. Happy to answer any questions.

Thanks guys. I am really looking forward to fishing this spring summer and fall. My girlfriend is hooked on fishing just about as bad as I am. Only problem is we are expecting 6 to 8 inches of snow tomorrow and Monday. Wish this stuff was over as were were on the lakes and river.