Trouble keeping bait alive in baitwell

[Sea.P.A.]

I've gone out freshwater striper/hybrid fishing the last 2 weekends and have had a lot of trouble keeping blueback herring alive for more than an hour or so. Rule of thumb around here is 5 gallons should keep 2 dozen alive for close to 1/2 a day. Last week was 3 dozen in my 15 gallon baitwell and decided to try 2 dozen today and I'm still killing all of them within 2 hours. I've tried the battery power oxygenator and keeping the water cool with ice. Looking for any assistance so I can make my trips a little more successful

[rudderhinge]

Ice has CL2. Are you running your pump all the time? Check the flow rate of the pump. Also check and make sure that the level in the well is staying where it over flows all the time. Temp is hard to control in the well. It takes lots of raw water flow. The trick is lots of flow all the time. Give us some more info and we can help.

[Sea.P.A.]

I've tried many combinations of low and high flow with the pump. Today was with lower flow with the pump going 100% of the time and oxygenator going as well (anyone use this thing? It does not appear to have helped) I started adding ice when the fist bait started dying. Air temperature was 65 at 6:00 am and probably close to 75 by 8:00 am when everything was dead. I was told that with bluebacks that the key is to keep water circulating but not too fast, my pump shoots water straight down with adjustable pressure and does not appear to circulate very well.

To keep water temp down, is it better to put frozen 12oz bottles than ice? My bait was already dying by the time I started putting ice in. Is it best to keep the pump on 100% of the time?

Water temp was 74-76 degrees and I've heard that bluebacks have trouble n livewells above 70.

I'm new to the Augusta Clark Hill Lake area and I'll ask some of the locals what they do but also wanted to see if anyone here has had success or corrected failures.

[palehorse]

If you have trouble with them dying *even* with running it all the time, ice as you started doing, will slow their metabolism, make them use less air.

Frozen 12 oz bottles will last longer imo, thicker the ice the longer it lasts.

[agereety]

I used to use something that I think were called oxygen tablets. I am not sure if they still sell the stuff, but they were in little/circular tins. You remove the lid, and they supposedly add oxygen to the water. I think they even make bigger versions, too.

[fishingfool]

I've never been able to keep hering alive in my baitwell. I had to install
a seprate round, insulated bait tank to keep mine alive. How's the
striper fishing on clark hill? It's been a little slow on hartwell. The fish
seem to be in the summer time transition. I think it's time to pull out
the lights

[palehorse]

Originally Posted by agereety

I used to use something that I think were called oxygen tablets. I am not sure if they still sell the stuff, but they were in little/circular tins. You remove the lid, and they supposedly add oxygen to the water. I think they even make bigger versions, too.

Here ya go:

http://www.tadspoles.com/catalog/Aqu...p-6856525.html

[MolarBoater]

Installed a Rule large capacity Oxygenator in Bay 190 livewell. It infuses the water with microbubbles and creates a directional circular current and has a valve which you can adjust and mount on the console. Haven't tested with bait yet. Use to use the large "Mr Bubbles" round oxygenator the ran on 2 "d" batteries which did well but wasn't water resistant and never lasted more than one season. Have used the tablets too. Also think the bait is suceptable to trauma bouncing around in the livewell if running in choppy water. Also, some suggest always having a light on in the livewell or add a window in the lid for light....next years' project. Let us know if you find the magic bullet.

[Sea.P.A.]

Clark Hill has been fair. I'm new to the area so I'm still trying to figure it out. I'm hearing reports of 10+ lbrs on a regular basis and saw a few 18+ lbrs at our last club tourney but I'm only finding the 3-4 lbrs. I'm blaming it on my bait problem. I'm going to try to find them again tomorrow morning. Might end up using cut bait if I can't keep'em alive.

[palehorse]

BTW I was just in Wal-Mart earlier today and I saw that they are carrying oxygen tablets.