Ice in livewell????

[TRIGGER]

Anyone know the rule of thumb for adding ice? I had too much ice in my livewell this weekend. I put the first two fish in back to back cast and went to put the third in 30 min later and my first two were dead...or so I thought. They were curled up and floating upside down and after pulling them back out and checking them closely weren't moving a fin or gills. I immediately knew the only thing that could of happened was the water was too cold so I pumped out 3/4 of the water and replaced it with Lake temperature water. By that time the third fish was also floating. I was sick to my stomach. An hour later the 4th fish went in and the first 3 were swimming around fine again. End of the night all 5 fish swam away with no issues. This couldn't have been good on them though. Looking for tips. I'm getting a thermometer to keep in the livewell so I can start having a baseline to go off of.

 

[WTM]

if you add ice and dont use some type de-chlorinator then you are surfocating your fish on top of shock killing them with too much ice. i use frozen water bottles, the big gator aide ones. i drink a lot of it anyway. fill and freeze and use that to cool your livewell. depending on the depth you pull them from it needs to be around 10-15 degrees cooler than surface water temp.

works for any kind of fish.

 

[TRIGGER]

I filled the livewell and added g-juice at 8:26 when I pulled into Richland. Put the first fish in at 11:04 and the second at 11:08. Never considered too much ice but I will keep a close eye on it now.

 

[WTM]

thats the cool thing about frozen water bottle, its a solid chunk of ice and it melts slow even with pumping in fresh water occassionally. but most important, it keeps foreign water contained. common ice may be around 8 ph and add it to river water and it will raise the PH and shock fish too, or lower. then you have ecoli, colorform and other type of bacteria in commercial ice that can do a number on wounded fish.

 

[bluball]

Dont know a whole lot about keeping bass alive,but we have learned how to keep crappie alive for tournaments.We ise a 110qt k2 cooler,power bubbles,oxygen,weighted clips,g-juice and frozen water bottles.We are in aluminun boats though,in a fiberglass boat it should be easier.What type boat do you have,just wondering.

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[TRIGGER]

Ranger z20. I used the weights on the fish that were floating. The appeared dead by floating and no movement but they didn't change colors and their eyes looked normal. It was a hope and a prayer that they would come back so I did everything I knew how to and sure enough they did. I do not have an oxegenator besides the recirculation function of the livewell. Been considering one and also have done some research on using peroxide to add oxygen.

 

[bluball]

Ranger z20. I used the weights on the fish that were floating. The appeared dead by floating and no movement but they didn't change colors and their eyes looked normal. It was a hope and a prayer that they would come back so I did everything I knew how to and sure enough they did. I do not have an oxegenator besides the recirculation function of the livewell. Been considering one and also have done some research on using peroxide to add oxygen.

Dang z20,wouldnt figure you would be haveing problems.Did you catch your fish real deep,sometimes we have to take a hydermic needle and deflate there bladders.If you have easy access to a oxygen tank,pure oxygen makes a huge difference.My partner owns a construction business and i have a hose where we can fill my small bottle from a big bottle.Heres a link from a crappie pro on how he does it too.

https://www.facebook.com/KevinRogersFis ... 626619476/

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[WTM]

i imagine you just stunned them from overcooled water. fishing shallow at night? dump a bass with a body temp of 80 degrees in real cool water and it will shock them. keep it around 10 deg cooler and they should be fine, maybe 5 degrees if they are in hot shallow water. peroxide only works for an hour in an emergency situation only, like the last hour before weigh in. they dont know what it actually does to a bass if more is used.

good luck

 

[TRIGGER]

i imagine you just stunned them from overcooled water. fishing shallow at night? dump a bass with a body temp of 80 degrees in real cool water and it will shock them. keep it around 10 deg cooler and they should be fine, maybe 5 degrees if they are in hot shallow water. peroxide only works for an hour in an emergency situation only, like the last hour before weigh in. they dont know what it actually does to a bass if more is used.

good luck

This is what I was looking for.... 10 degrees colder. I will use a thermometer from now on so I actually know what I'm doing instead of guessing.

Yes shallow water. An inflated air blades is not what I'm dealing with at night. I wouldn't even chill the water if I knew I would only catch largemouth(as I did Saturday night). The smallmouth are what seem to suffer at night without chilled water.

 

[TRIGGER]

Ranger z20. I used the weights on the fish that were floating. The appeared dead by floating and no movement but they didn't change colors and their eyes looked normal. It was a hope and a prayer that they would come back so I did everything I knew how to and sure enough they did. I do not have an oxegenator besides the recirculation function of the livewell. Been considering one and also have done some research on using peroxide to add oxygen.

Dang z20,wouldnt figure you would be haveing problems.Did you catch your fish real deep,sometimes we have to take a hydermic needle and deflate there bladders.If you have easy access to a oxygen tank,pure oxygen makes a huge difference.My partner owns a construction business and i have a hose where we can fill my small bottle from a big bottle.Heres a link from a crappie pro on how he does it too.

https://www.facebook.com/KevinRogersFis ... 626619476/

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I have looked into this type of system but being a smoker I don't think I want to mix pure oxygen and a bad smoking habit in the same boat.

 

[chunkandwind]

I installed the New Pro Products livewell vents and that along with G-Juice is all I use now. I do have
oxygenators also and haven't had a dead fish in a long time. I also use weighted clips to keep them upright
if they come from deep water. I've seen guys kill fish trying to fizz them and have done it but the clips work
just as well for me.

 

[bluball]

I installed the New Pro Products livewell vents and that along with G-Juice is all I use now. I do have
oxygenators also and haven't had a dead fish in a long time. I also use weighted clips to keep them upright
if they come from deep water. I've seen guys kill fish trying to fizz them and have done it but the clips work
just as well for me.

Vents are supposed to help alot,buddy has some and they seemed to help.Will never forget the first crappie i fizzed at pickwick.Buddy starts screaming you killed it you killed it,it was still alive when we weighed in[emoji16]

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[bluball]

Oh with weights on crappie you want to put them on the two little fins towards the front.We use to put them on the bigger fin behind the 2 small fins and the fish would set level.It seems like if you get them yo set in the livewell nose down they do better.

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[WTM]

Oh with weights on crappie you want to put them on the two little fins towards the front.We use to put them on the bigger fin behind the 2 small fins and the fish would set level.It seems like if you get them yo set in the livewell nose down they do better.

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yep nose down and it relaxes them. have you seen a striper tube? same principle.

 

[bluball]

Oh with weights on crappie you want to put them on the two little fins towards the front.We use to put them on the bigger fin behind the 2 small fins and the fish would set level.It seems like if you get them yo set in the livewell nose down they do better.

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yep nose down and it relaxes them. have you seen a striper tube? same principle.

I have now,thats pretty cool,never heard of them,thanks

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[Kirk]

I fill up empty 2 liter Soda bottles and freeze them. I have some of those insulated grocery store tote bags that are used for frozen foods that I store them in while they are in the boat. I usually take 6 frozen 2 liter bottles on each tournament.

I also have the VT-2 livewell vents and add G Juice.

As a general rule of thumb in my boat, one frozen 2 liter bottle will keep the water cool for about two hours. Since the ice is contained in the bottle you don't have to worry about the chlorine issues. Never had a fish to die in the well.

 

[Winchester]

Ideally you only want to drop the water temp 8-10 degrees in your livewell vs surface temp. Frozen bottles best way to go but dumping loose ice in wont hurt either, chlorine doesn't seem to be an issue after water has been frozen. At some point you will either need to drain and refresh some of the water or use an additive to take care of the ammonia/waste the fish will produce throughout the day. Running the recirc continuously during Hot weather is a must as well.

 

[SilverFox]

I use a floating pool thermometer and go with 10 degrees also.

 

[TRIGGER]

I use a floating pool thermometer and go with 10 degrees also.

Just picked one up today. It has a big turtle on the top of it to make it float. Lol it's all they had and I figured why not it will be funny when someone else gets in the livewell.

 

[WTM]

i use a stream thermometer, the kind to measure a trout stream, to calibrate my xducer temp. metal protected housing and a clip that you could attach a bobber. about 10 bucks.