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Old 06-09-12, 07:12 PM   #1
MO_CPA
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Default Livewells...and bass

Hi everyone

When I watch bass fishing on TV or visit one of the pro tournaments around SW MO, seems like the bass are live and kickn' after spending sometimes six plus hours in a livewell and a little while in line for weigh in. My question...I can't seem to keep a bass alive that well even if I am careful handling, put immediately into the livewell, and insure good aereation. What am I doing wrong?
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Old 06-09-12, 08:38 PM   #2
carolina-rig-01
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It could be a lot of things. It might be a good idea to clean your livewells to make sure there isn't something in there that is killing the fish. If you are running the aerators on auto you might want to try running them on manual, especially as the water warms up. Also keeping the water cool is important in warmer water. You don't want it so cold that it kills the fish but cool enough that they will calm down and not be under stress while in there. I keep a pool thermometer in each of my livewells so I can keep an eye on the water temps in the livewells. To cool the water off you can go about it a few different ways. Frozen water bottles are popular because they don't cool the water off as fast as just throwing crushed ice in the livewell, this way you won't accidently get the water too cold too fast. I use frozen water bottles but I fill them with tap water and add one treatment of Catch and Release ( http://sure-life.com/index.php?page=...mart&Itemid=55 ) to the tap water before freezing. Then when I put it on the livewell I pull the cap off of the bottle and let the livewell treatment leach out into the livewell water as it thawed. The Catch and Release takes all the chemicals out of the tap water so it works out pretty good. If you are carefull when you take your measurements, using hydrogen peroxide is one of the best livewell additives you can use. Don't fill your livewells around boat ramps or at a tournament take off, the water there has a lot of oil/gas in it and is not good on the fish. Fill your livewells up and get them cooled off before you catch your first fish, then you can add your additive when your first fish is put in there. One more thing you might consider is adding vents to your livewells. I have been thinking about adding these to my boat but so far I haven't needed to. I know of several people who added them and they all comment on how amazed they were at how cool the livewells stay because the vents let all the heat out, as well as all the gas that builds up in the livewell from the fish. I have yet to hear a single person say a negative thing about these vents. http://livewellvent.com/

Here is a video about the hydrogen peroxide method, how to measure, and why it works so well. I will tell you that since I started using this stuff in my livewells I haven't lost a fish yet. I use it in addition to the Catch and Release and have been really happy with the results. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-zfX...feature=relmfu

Here is another great video that covers a lot of the stuff I talked about in this post. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ou9ri...eature=related

Hope this helps.
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Old 06-09-12, 08:44 PM   #3
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#1 - additives, like Please Release Me
#2 - recirculate the water
#3 - aeriation - oxygenators* work extremely well, air stones also.
#4 - replace water in the wells, more fish increase frequency of water changes.
#5 - hot weatherr - add ice, enought to cool but keep within 5 degrees +/- of lake temp.

Keeping fish alive in the well requires more than filling it and forgetting about it. The more fish in there the more critical things like the water change becomes important. Fish continure with their metabolic process most importantly producing urine which contains amonia - a killer in high concentrations. Water changes - just like in an aquarioum - keeps the amonia at acceptable levels. Again, more fish or bigger fish more frequent changes. Be careful in warm weather that you do not drastically change the temp in the livewell when changing water, and new water from deeper water is usually better than shallow.

*A note on the 12v Oxygenator - I have them in each livewell and they make a big difference in FRESH water. DO NOT use them in brackish (tidal) water or in combination with any of the livewell chemicals that may contain SALT. Any salt in a well with an Oxygenator will create chlorine gas and kill any fish in the livewell in a very short time.

There are also livewell vents that may help in keeping the temp down in a livewell. I do not have them on my boat. Warm water will hold less oxygen than cool, another reason for ice in warm weather. Note on ice - do not use tap water to make ice then dump that ice in the well, it contains chlorine which is not good for the fish. I usually freeze water in those bottled water bottles and put the bottle in the live well - one or two will do the trick for an hour or two. A thermometer is handy to monitor the temp in the well also.

Most livewells are fine for keeping bass alive for most of the day with a little care. Most important is to keep the oxygen level up, the amonia level down and the temperature from getting too hot.
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Old 06-09-12, 10:59 PM   #4
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Wow guys. That is a ton of useful info. I have always kept my aeration up either running the livewells on manual or using the recirculate function. I have heard about the water treatments but never head of Carolina rig's suggestion to put the treatment in tap water in a water bottle and freeze for those hot Missouri days. I will without a doubt use this method....and soon.

Thanks guys..you're always so willing to share your info!
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Old 06-09-12, 11:17 PM   #5
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Another thing, if you have your livewell plugged so that the water in your livewell won't splash out in rough water. Otherwise all your hard work is going down the drain so to speak LOL. Also I have two seperate livewells in my Triton so when I freeze my water bottles I make sure I have at least two for each livewell that has the additive in it, but there isn't really any need to put it in every bottle of water that you freeze as long as you have at least two treatments for each livewell. The reason for wanting two of them for each livewell is because it's a good idea to pump half of the water out and replace it with fresh water halfway through the day, and you will want to re-treat the water when you do this. The beauty of adding the additive to the frozen water bottle is that it removes all the chlorine from the tap water so it's not going to hurt the fish. If you add regular ice then you will obviously need to use the additive in addition so it removes the chlorine from the ice.
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