With the kingi season just around the corner I'm looking to change the chilly bin on my yak into a live bait tank. I've had a 6 or so livies in it before but they seem to turn into floaters after an hour or so. Am thinking about just attaching a small self priming salt water pump on it to keep the water going.

Can any one point me in the right direction to find one? Small being the ideal as I'm hoping to run it of the same battery as my FF. From what I've heard it needs to be self priming.

cheers James

Quote: Originally posted by Hairy Little Dwarf on 04 October 2005

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But there's absolutely no geek status to be achieved in dragging a laundry basket around behind your Yak.

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no your right but i reacon theres more status in having a livie sitting there ready to go instaed of hoping the live tank fitted to the deck is getting good water and not causing any top heavyness, its all about the practical not  looking the part, still can't knock it till i try it.

the other good thing about the basket is you can keep your fish alive until they need to be killed and you can let the smaller ones go.

And you can use it as a laundry basket during the week! Brilliant!

Actually I had an idea when I was partly mad and considering setting my scrambler up for fishing .. my livie tank was going to consist of something low and flat - and with a foot water pump. One of those squishy rubber ones that they use for galley salt water systems.

You don't need to have a pump going full time - just enough to refresh the water every now and then. I was going to mount the galley pump in the foot slot and pump with that.

But then I saw sense and, after having rod holders fitted, flagged the dumb idea away and stuck with fishing from the boat. You can take beer in a chilly bin on a boat.

I have never studied live bait tanks but next to shock the biggest killer of fish in a live bait tank would be lack of oxygen I would have thought. While pumping fresh sea water through would certainly get rid of excrement etc,  keep the temperature at the same level as the sea outside, and provide oxygen and is probably the answer on bigger boats  perhaps using a small aquarium air pump might also provide a reasonabe solution. You are after all only trying to keep the fish alive for a few hours not a few months. There is certainly enough of those that run on 12 v.  If you use a decent chilly bin with a lid and a decent vent through that to let the air out you should keep the water at approx the right temp and exclude the light which spooks and shocks fish. Just a thought I havnt given it a lot of contemplation, there may be other aspects I havnt considered.

Krill - there are two killers in a livie tank. Jo would probably be able to tell you the technical terms, but when you put fish in there at first they are highly stressed and exude a lot of slime. I understand this is highly poisonous to the fish and you have to turn the water over quite quickly initially. They begin to die quickly when the water is full of slime and discoloured with it.

After that, you only need to refresh the water every 8 - 10 minutes to replenish oxygen levels. Fish that are starting to exhibit lack of oxygen will come back pretty well if you splash some more water in.

Bender and ohsif Thanks for your comments, not having done any reading on Live Bait Tanks I knew there would be something I was unaware of. I would imagine Bender's comment is the more relevant and important, I was aware of the surface area factor in relation to air, that is why good aquariums use aeration stones and these are also placed at the bottom of the tank as they massively increase the surface area. Imagine you couldnt use that type of setup here as the stones would quickly get slimed up and it wouldnt be long before you had a bacterial growth that killed the fish in the tank or represent a threat to the fish you are trying to catch as well. Really need to do some reading on it at some point. 

JB sounds to me like you need a really small submersible pump. Some of these are very small and also pretty cheap. There are also 12v ones available. Try aquarium shops I imagine

Just did a quick search and turned up the following article on LIVE BAITING TECHNIQUES: http://www.marinews.com/fishing/fishing/Fish%20General%20Articles/fga_livebaiting.html">http://www.marinews.com/fishing/fishing/Fish%20General%20Articles/fga_livebaiting.html

and: http://www.biasboating.com.au/bait_tanks.html">http://www.biasboating.com.au/bait_tanks.html Saw the Rule pumps shown on this site in Burnsco, Smart Marine, or Sailors Corner a while back. With careful plumbing and a bit of thought you could probably set it up as a bilge pump as well which would help get rid of any water than inadvertently gets or is splashed in.

Another method I've seen mentioned on the Yank forums, is to use compressed oxygen from a small bottle for live bait tank aeration.

It not only keeps the baitfish alive it also also turbo charges them up and they will last twice the distance on the hook.

DogFish

HLD, You have the right idea with the timer switch, the idea would be to have the pump on as little as possible with minimum battery drain. Will do a little research on Live Bait tanks, give it a bit of thought, and see what I can come up with. Will probaly want to make one for my own use shortly anyway. Probably need a little circuit board made to lay it all out on etc which complicates things a little but it should be possible to come up with something in the long run once I know exactly what is required . Anyone got any good sources of Live Bait Tank info sites etc they can refer me to. One of the mags did something recently on Live Bait Tanks I believe. There is probably some darn good info out there somewhere. Like they say it most often been done better by someone before. The secret is in thinking laterally and coming up with as good or better solution cheaper. Thanks. 

Dogfish, the oxy idea is not a bad one and worth giving a bit more thought too. Trouble in NZ is its never cheap  

Small electric bilge pumps are often used in sea touring kayaks as are foot operated manual ones. Might be worth having a ring around the NZ kayak manufacturers and suppliers to see what's available.

Otherwise just phone Steven Tapp at Limitless Ventures on (09) 435-5908 and buy one off him. He's already put in the hard yards investigating what pump is best for this purpose.

DogFish

Dogfish, Thanks for the help. will most certainly look around to see whats here. Steven Tapp is probably worth talking to as well.

Had a good look on the net last night and found heaps of info which I will need to go through and digest. As always there was some really excellent American stuff and some crap. Did some further research on Oxygen and see they have also done a lot of work on that as well. Years ago I used to keep fish as a hobby and know for a fact that it will work and they are on the right path. If you want to keep fish in good condition and lively oxygen is all critical. Seawater at the height of summer often only holds sufficient oxygen and its the reason a lot of fish are inactive during the day often semi comatose and asleep. I used to be sent catalogues from various manufacturers and the range of equipment available was truly amazing. Using technology such as that its no wonder they have already caught marlin and all sorts of other fish from kayaks. No wonder all the top guys competing in Bass and other fishing competitions are all using oxygen equipment. (anything that will give you an edge). While their style of professional fishing may not be the kiwi way and most of us here are in it for sheer enjoyment you have to admire their sheer professionalism. Guys like Kevin VanDam with earnings of more than $1.5 mil are certainly true professionals. These days I look at how I can improve my own fishing and increase my success rate and I am slowly taking up one or two of their ideas.  Hooking a decent kingi with a live bait certainly has a certain attraction and if it will help me do it easier I intend to take it up. Its certainly far more attractive than coming home occasionally after catching nothing.

I found that my livies under the floor and in the dark stayed alive for days rather than hours, dark might be the idea, with my tuna tubes livies from small kings back then 65cm kohies slimies and piper and kahawai stayed alive for ever until of course the water runs out, and being in a tube did not mater weather they had there heads down or in the smaller baits swam around inside the tube. again as this was very heavy duty pipe with a towel over the top they were kept in the dark, bit like my tackle buying when i have to tell the missus, just keep her in the dark ay.

Quote: Originally posted by Krill on 06 October 2005

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BA, Your right there, apart from oxygen which they need to stay alive they need lack of stress caused by light and the right temperature. As such they sleep both at night and day if they are replete and can find a suitable dark safe place out of danger. As we all know they are always most active early morn and at dusk. Factors that accentuate certain conditions will relax them more and increase longevity

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