Keep minnows alive longer

[Uncle Dave]

...bye placing a frozen bottle of water in the bucket with them. I do this in the summer on my night trips and is a low cost method that works. Its not noisy either. Make sure you have an insulated bucket.

[FishTrap]

Ice is better out of the container....as it melts it adds oxygen to the water.

[Big Willie]

We put two or three gatorade bottles frozen with h2o and run a airator in a 5 galon bucket it works great, it provides shade from the sun also.

[pab1981]

Does it really work better to cool them down a whole lot when you're going to be putting them in hot lake water? I've been trying to slowly blend lake water with the water I bring them in to temper them for being put in the lake. Can't really say which is the best approach, maybe someone else will weigh in.

[FishTrap]

pab, when it's hot out, I'd try & keep them cool. I know surface water temps can get pretty warm. We got to where we'll clean fish before dark if we're staying on the water to catfish, otherwise they'll go bad in the basket. Toss the fillets in a baggie and put 'em in the cooler.

If you don't have an insulated minnow bucket, you might put your bucket inside a 5 gallon plastic bucket, maybe wrap it with some reflectex, or something to try & add a little insulation value to it, then add some ice.

[Chuck Haley]

We use a 95 quart cooler with 2 insulated minnow buckets in it and a bag of ice between them. You can leave the lids off the minnow buckets and keep the lid to the cooler closed when not retrieving minnows. It keeps the air cool in the cooler and you still have the option of adding ice to the minnow water if you need it. It's the best way I have found to prolong their life. For what it's worth.

[toothpick]

My friends and I have been using this insulated 6 gallon bucket from Academy Sports & Outdoors for the past few years. The insulated liner is removable.
We also have found the Power Bubbles 12 volt DC Air Pump to be the best. The cost of the bucket is $9.99 and the pump is $34.99. I also add a little of the blue Better Bait granules like the bait store uses. $4.99 for 10 oz. 10 oz. will last a long time. With the price of minnows, these have proven to be a good investment.

[FishTrap]

Nice buckets! I didn't find them on their website though. Their store locator wouldn't work either.....anyone else have a line on them?

[must buy my fish]

I've seen these buckets at wall mart

[TreednNC]

Does it really work better to cool them down a whole lot when you're going to be putting them in hot lake water? I've been trying to slowly blend lake water with the water I bring them in to temper them for being put in the lake. Can't really say which is the best approach, maybe someone else will weigh in.

pab, when it's hot out, I'd try & keep them cool. I know surface water temps can get pretty warm. We got to where we'll clean fish before dark if we're staying on the water to catfish, otherwise they'll go bad in the basket. Toss the fillets in a baggie and put 'em in the cooler.

If you don't have an insulated minnow bucket, you might put your bucket inside a 5 gallon plastic bucket, maybe wrap it with some reflectex, or something to try & add a little insulation value to it, then add some ice.

No, it doesnt work better to keep them cool. Sure theyll live longer in the bucket like that, but it will shock the ever loving crap out of them when you put them in 86* lake water. I used to use ice, now I just slowly blend warmer lake water, and use AIR AIR AIR, with much better results as far as keeping them alive in the water when fished.