Any tips on keeping bb hering alive longer in the tank will be welcomed. I have got a 14 gal baitwell that is round and has plenty of flow but my bb are dead within an hour. Does ice help in the water?
Water treatment (rock salt) would be a start. Water temp is critical. Keep it cool. Some guys freeze empty liter bottles of water to help with this. And finally and MOST important, is do not over crowd the tank. I would guess 14 gal tank would be good for no more than 2 (or 3 maybe) dozen BB. I would look at a larger tank, pref. 30 gal, although you can do prety well with a 20. ONe final thought, if your pump is pumping to hard, it will beat up the BB pretty quick.
I am sure some of the other guys will have some help for you to consider
Good luck
chris scout 202 john150
While hanging a screendoor for a fishing buddy of mine this weekend , he told me he used to be into striper fishing .To keep his bait alive he would drop a pump into the lake about 20 feet down and get cold water ,not the hot surface without much oxygen. I might have to try this myself.
We used an old igloo cooler rigged with an aerator this weekend as a bait tank on Hartwell. Use a floating thermometer to keep an eye on temps. We filled a couple of 20 oz coke bottles with water and froze them the night before. Drop these in to slowly bring temps back down as needed. Don’t use ice as that will add chlorine to the water. Salt helps too.
The surface temp of the lake was nearly 90 degrees so when we dropped our bait we would feed out 20-25 feet of line before dropping the bait so it would fall through the hot water quickly.
Using this method we were able to keep 3 dozen bb herring alive all day (from 5 am to 3 am the next morning). Oh yeah…we covered the cooler with a wet towel to keep it from heating up in the sun.
Hope this helps…
Steve T
Asheville, NC
well that stuff work you also need to add bait saver too
jo smith
also use “foam off” its made by the same people that make the bait treatment, the foam seems to kill the herring after your aerator has been running for awhile with bait in the tank.
“Stay here Texas fans as the Armadillo Band plays a tribute to Gun Racks and Open Containers!!”
There is a lot of good advice but I failed to see something. The ability of your airator to add air. Is it working correct? Are you in fact instrusing air.
My first year with my bait tank, I lost my bb within the hour and could not figure out why. Pump was running, had my bait saver and salt and the water temp was cool.
Low and behold I accidently shut my air valve off and was not infusing air with my pump.
Look for a good stream of bubbles on the discharge of your pump.
Randy
OT ,Well NTSteve ,did you catch any ? Me and the son-in-law went to hartwell last Friday .We got there about 8 and tied up under the bridge waiting for dark. It was just a need to get on the water because we just stayed untill 12;00.I wanted to try out that green light to see if it is as good as they say…well it is !
I have the short light , it looks like it would not work at all …then throw that net…wow.
Oh I know you want to know what we caught…just a bunch of bait .We left at just the right time , because the thunderstorms came in fast. Can’t wait to go again.