I always plan for the Unplanned. I bought some of the saltwater GULP products that are supposed to have good scent dispersal. I keep a good supply in the boat just in case I ever run out of bullheads. I figure as long as I am on the water I want to be able to fish and I would hate to have to quit because I've run out of bait. I haven't tried the GULP yet but it looks like a promising bait alternative.

hay what do you guy use to keep bait alive when your on the river? one time i saw a couple of guys from Iowa with a bilge pump on a timer to keep tank full. just looking for other ideas.
thanks

I usually keep bait in my livewell, but don't like to put river water in the livewell. One reson is that I would then have to drain that water and put bait into water from home per mn fishing regs. The other reason is that the dirty river water makes it difficult see when you pick out a bait. I have an areator mouted under my dash with a hose running into the livewell. Mine runs off of 12v but most of them run off 2 D batteries as well. Another popular option is to set up a cooler with an aerator that runs on 12v or batteries and 110v. Then you just plug it in when you get home and run off of 12v or bateries on the river.

right now i use a cooler with an aqua pro, but sometimes if i have a lot of bullies they are still sucking air at the top. i am thinking about a floating bait net to hang over the side. any thoughts?

Floating minnow buckets and baitwells do work good, but you still end up draging a cooler or bucket around between spots. I also have been known to take off with the bait bucket still hanging over the side. Once the water gets real warm chubs and suckers may not last the night floating in the river.

thanks for your ideas.

I run a small inverter and a 110v quality home aquarium air pump with dual outlets in a large cooler.

They make some really nice quiet 110v units.

This is the one I use:










When I get home, I can just plug it in to an extension cord and deal with it in the morning.


I've tried a few bilge pumps, but have found that with enough air, you don't need the recirculation.


I've had a couple dozen out in my cooler for over a week now.

Bilge pumps can heat up the water too. Not good if it is already warm.

what do you guys do when it gets hot out?

You definitely don't need recirculation if you start with clean water and you are only talking about 30 bullies in 5+ gallons of water for 1 night. I go with an airstone on a 110 volt pump, it works great and doesn't have any of the heating effects that a bilge pump will have. The D cell air pumps work well too but I just plug mine into the inverter. Very quiet (fanless inverter) and it draws only like 400 milli-amps from the 12 volt battery....on a 70 amp hour battery or whatever those big deep cycles are, that's plenty of hours without worrying.

The other advantage of using a cooler with clean water rather than a bait well with river water -- you don't have any real chance of having the water in the cooler heat up beyond reasonable temps in a single night. In fact, if you had ice in milk jugs or 2-liter bottles, you could probably keep those bullies alive for 3-4 days in that same cooler...

have any of you guys ever tried the oxygenator for your bait?
looks like a cool deal with no noise.

I have the small one... it works well

- as long as there are no additives in the water that contain salt of any kind -

If there is salt, (NaCl) the device will split the chlorine out and kill your bait.

If in a boat a 5gal bucket with a bunch of holes drilled in it hung over the side works very well. Just make sure the lids on tight when you throw the bucket back into the river.

From shore...regular minnow bucket can hold about 15.

Hey just FYI. I went crappie fishing sunday and last night and I couldn't keep the bullheads off the hook. figured if you needed a good spot to shore fish for them Pelican lake south of monticello would be a good spot. lots of shore right off the road. and I'm sure that if you asked around most of the pan-fisherman there will give you all the bullheads you want. I was just using a 1/32oz jig with a piece of nightcrawler. I hope I'm not giving anyone's secret spot, but with all the bullheads I saw caught and everyone throwing them back, I'm sure there's plenty in there.

Steve D said it also earlier in the thread, but when I am down at my bully spot, I ask other kids and fisherman to give their bullies to me. I have never had anyone refuse and I help get them off of their hooks sometimes.