Reel Repair by Alan Tani

Will you have space for oxygen tanks next to your helium tank?

Quote from: JasonGotaProblem on October 11, 2025, 02:53:58 AMWill you have space for oxygen tanks next to your helium tank?

Let's hope the boat doesn't explode. 🤣

I used to carry a small oxygen tank when I fish with live shrimp ,same tank that someone so sick have to carry all the time . It had 2 small wheels for easy transport ,keep shrimp and shad live much longer than air pump

So one MAJOR trick I've learned, is when you have the opportunity, grab a handful of sand at the beach and throw it in your bucket. The shrimp feel more at home and their poo gets trapped in the dirt instead of fouling up the water. And they find lil tidbits in there to snack on.

New record is 25 days.

For a day trip, the best bait container is just a large cooler with only an inch of water.  The movement of a boat or vehicle will slosh the water enough to get good gas exchange.

For long-term storage, the move space and water exchange you give them the better.  With a good biological and particulate filtration system you can keep and grow them until they die of old age.  But, there's a learning curve, it's not cheap, and it's not economical.

I just set up this saltwater bait tub today – a 20-gal Brute trash can and a 110v aerator. The goal is to catch bait over the weekend to use throughout the week, so that I don't have to catch any after work. I filled it with 15 gallons of saltwater from the Indian River Lagoon and have another 10 gallons of lagoon water on standby for water changes. I froze a couple of water bottles to toss in to keep the temp down in the afternoons. Currently have about 2 dozen mojarra and a couple of finger mullet in it.





If anyone has any ideas for a cheap filter system, I'm all ears. I plan on doing 5-gal water changes once a day, which I have no problem doing, but I wasn't sure if there was an easy, SUPER cheap way to reduce the bioload. I tried this once before with an old fish tank and aquarium filter and the filter blew out within a few hours.

Brilliant. Add a bunch of beach sand at the bottom. The fish poo settles there instead of circulating and fouling up the water. Limits how much you actually need to filter the water.

That's a great idea, I'll look into it. Ideally, I'll be able to keep 4-5 dozen fish in there but that may be pushing it.

You could try a few inches of suitable gravel and and under gravel filter hooked up to the air pump. It might not work well at first but a couple weeks in you could probably forgo water changes every day

The round barrel is a plus . you should circulate the water , and let the interior water run in a circle also .  This keep the bait moving in a natural way and stop them from crashing into the side and brainning them selves .    A piece of tube in a 90 degree elbow will pull air in to the down tube and disperse in the water column  .

My uncle used a bilge  pump on his pontoon boat with the output flex hose
Clamped on the topside of a cooler.Sucks water from cooler back into cooler from above.Some mount the bilge pump in a dedicated cooler with a quick battery connector in lieu of battery clips.