Killing minnows

[dhaire]

Funny you mention that. That is exactly what I would like to do and we do add Slabsauce to our jigs. Guess I just became convinced I needed minnows.


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["G"]

Hello: Get some Slab Sauce and forget the minnows. Good Luck . O - R

Thats right

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[Shad]

Engel like every else. Well worth the cost.

[river scum]

rarely buy minnows these days. most times a jig presented one way or another is all you need. most guys dont have enough confidence in jigs to just stick to them.

[Lloakley930]

Where you buy your minnows sometimes matter. I recently bought minnows at the small lake near my house. They would foul the water even in an Engel and would have quite a few die overnight. 2 miles up the road, when I buy minnows here I would have maybe 1 die on me overnight. I think this is also something to consider.


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[vfourmax]

Engel here as well and I went with the larger 30 qt as it was only a few dollars more expensive and I knew that I would not be "overloading" that size with the number of minnows. Quality is fantastic and the full size netted bait liner makes retrieving bait for use a breeze. Major online outlets do run some good sale prices at times.

Sure you could save a couple of dollars cobbling up a home brewed version with a standard cooler but with the locking latches and quality of the Engel cooler construction, the full internal cooler bait net and even the air pump attachment points and air line hole with plug for use without the airline along with a pump that works not only off batteries but also includes an adapter for a cigarette power port to operate off of either your vehicle or boats battery source the price of the overall Engel package is quite attractive and reasonable in my opinion.

I feel that the purchase price was a very good value for what I actually received and I did buy it on an online sale event which dropped the price a fair amount from normal pricing.

Where you buy your minnows sometimes matter. I recently bought minnows at the small lake near my house. They would foul the water even in an Engel and would have quite a few die overnight. 2 miles up the road, when I buy minnows here I would have maybe 1 die on me overnight. I think this is also something to consider.

In my area bait stores that still sell minnows are very few and far between and in many cases in relation to where I may be going fishing would be extremely out of the way to visit to purchase bait.

I have decided that this year I am going to attempt to trap my minnows in local waters being less expensive and more convenient.

I do not know yet whether this will work for me but is going to be something I try and if it does work okay with the price of minnows by the dozen at the bait stores the trap will pay for itself in short order.

If the minnow haul is short on some outings then I have plenty of jigs and artificial baits and will just give me an excuse to use those along with that new garlic slab sauce so all will still be well!

[Benton B]

“G” is absolutely right, spot-on right. IF you can’t maintain excellent water quality, you can’t keep minnows or shad alive or even healthy in any livewell, bait tank, ice chest or 5 gallon plastic bucket a couple hours in the summer… spray some Slab Sauce on any fake baits, the more spray applications the better. Be generous applying the Sauce, it’s cheap and probably better than hooking-up sickly, red-nosed or a dead minnow or shad.

Oh those summer live bait blues are back again this year and will last the next 5 months till the water cools in the fall, anybody can keep minnows alive all day, 2 days or even a week or 2, no problems. There is no problem keeping minnows until the environmental water temperature hits the high 70’s F, there is no problems keeping minnows when the water temperature falls below the mid 70’s F in the fall, winter and spring. Keeping minnows in any kind of box is great provides the water temp is 70 F and below and no overstocking. Then anybody can keep plenty minnows in a goldfish bowl.

The best way to tell if or when your bait tank is overstocked… when 200 baits in your bait tank stay alive, energetic, active and healthy, add 1 more bait and eureka, your bait begins to get sloppy, lethargic, red-nose, sickly and then begins to die in your bait tank. All summer fishermen that fish with live bait minnows, shad know exactly what that looks like.

Have you ever wondered why/how those bait shops that sell minnows are so successful keeping and transporting minnows from the hatchery to the bait shop? Minnow hatcheries transport live minnows to bait shops by the thousands hundreds miles in haul tanks, many hauling hours. Then the bait dealer and keep those same minnows alive and healthy for a week or so until they are sold to fishermen. These people are the real experts at keeping minnows alive and healthy to the point of sales. Consider cutting-to-the-chase and talk with those bait dealers and find out how they keep and transport those minnows, they

Those summer minnow problems don’t begin until the fisherman takes possession of those minnows and puts them into his bait tank or livewell, know what I mean?

[vfourmax]

“G” is absolutely right, spot-on right. IF you can’t maintain excellent water quality, you can’t keep minnows or shad alive or even healthy in any livewell, bait tank, ice chest or 5 gallon plastic bucket a couple hours in the summer…

Oh those summer live bait blues are back again this year and will last the next 5 months till the water cools in the fall, anybody can keep minnows alive all day, 2 days or even a week or 2, no problems. There is no problem keeping minnows until the environmental water temperature hits the high 70’s F, there is no problems keeping minnows when the water temperature falls below the mid 70’s F in the fall, winter and spring. Keeping minnows in any kind of box is great provides the water temp is 70 F and below and no overstocking. Then anybody can keep plenty minnows in a goldfish bowl.


Have you ever wondered why/how those bait shops that sell minnows are so successful keeping and transporting minnows from the hatchery to the bait shop? Minnow hatcheries transport live minnows to bait shops by the thousands hundreds miles in haul tanks, many hauling hours. Then the bait dealer and keep those same minnows alive and healthy for a week or so until they are sold to fishermen. These people are the real experts at keeping minnows alive and healthy to the point of sales. Consider cutting-to-the-chase and talk with those bait dealers and find out how they keep and transport those minnows

Those summer minnow problems don’t begin until the fisherman takes possession of those minnows and puts them into his bait tank or livewell, know what I mean?

The minnow hatcheries and bait dealers have the benefit of being better able to controlling and keeping the environment the fish are kept at optimum levels concerning ph, temperature and oxygen levels of the water the fish are kept in reducing the amount of stress on the fishes system.

A quick google search revealed the following concerning fathead minnows,
"These fish prefer a temperature of 10 – 21 °C (50 – 70 °F) and a pH range of 7.0 – 7.5"

Most fisherman myself included never give the ph of the water the fish are stored in a thought and do not have a clue to what the bait keepers are maintaining.

In fooling around over the years with home aquariums that shock and stress are the quickest killers of fish and abrupt quick changes in the environment can over stress their systems to point of death quickly.

The longer the required length of survival the more that water quality, ph, ammonia levels and the proper build of of "good bacteria" in the water and the proper number of fish per gallon within the size of the tank is essential for a sustainable healthy fish population.

Anyone that has ever fooled with home aquariums realizes that the less you want to work and with less frequency to maintain the aquariums environment the larger and more elaborate and complex the filtering system that is required. Once the environment is healthy and a fish population is regulated as to the numbers the tank can support and remain at healthy levels then keeping the fish alive and healthy is not hard just more routine. This is what the bait producers do just on a large scale.

Again most fishermen are only looking to keep the bait alive in fairly small numbers for a few hours to a day or so and with even very minimal care 90% of the bait will survive even in summer temps if a few frozen bottles of water are used to help temp levels and the water is aerated to keep oxygen levels reasonable.

As fishermen on the boat we are limited in what we have generally available for bait fish health. Currently their are some water treatments, aerator-pump systems and in the summer using frozen bottles of ice to keep water temps tolerable.

I have seen and read about boat livewell systems starting to be used that inject pure oxygen in the water, separate "ice bins" with metal tubing coiled within that the live well water is pumped through the tubes packed in the ice to cool the water similar to the concept how your home refrigerator works for the cold water through the door.

I would not be surprised as live well systems evolve if the high end pro tournament type of system will include charcoal types of filters incorporated into recirculation pumps to further improve the water quality for livewell fish whom must be kept alive for a weigh in.

Long term, short term survival of minnows is going to be different using different equipment with differing capabilities and even having different goals for the intended application.

Focusing on short term on the boat bait well type storage again aerator and in hot temps frozen water bottles to maintain lower bait well temps have always worked for me for daylong type of trips. If I wanted to be more involved your local pet store will have ph and ammonia test strips and solutions to adjust both levels to within proper levels for optimum fish survival rates.

For myself the ice bottles and aerator has always been sufficient but if I was tournament fishing trying to cash multiple thousands of dollars in prize checks then my bait be the healthiest absolutely as lively as humanly possible would probably have me putting forth a little more effort where even the water temps would be constantly monitored with a thermostat and the water tested as needed to maintain that bait!


Again it is not rocket science and well documented information is available which is limited only in how much effort is put out to obtain the needed information and time invested in maintaining the fishes environment or how much in finances one may choose to invest to make that environment take less hands on time to maintain.

[Benton B]

The minnow hatcheries and bait dealers have the benefit of being better able to controlling and keeping the environment the fish are kept at optimum levels concerning ph, temperature and oxygen levels of the water the fish are kept in reducing the amount of stress on the fishes system.

A quick google search revealed the following concerning fathead minnows,
"These fish prefer a temperature of 10 – 21 °C (50 – 70 °F) and a pH range of 7.0 – 7.5"

Most fisherman myself included never give the ph of the water the fish are stored in a thought and do not have a clue to what the bait keepers are maintaining.

In fooling around over the years with home aquariums that shock and stress are the quickest killers of fish and abrupt quick changes in the environment can over stress their systems to point of death quickly.

The longer the required length of survival the more that water quality, ph, ammonia levels and the proper build of of "good bacteria" in the water and the proper number of fish per gallon within the size of the tank is essential for a sustainable healthy fish population.

Anyone that has ever fooled with home aquariums realizes that the less you want to work and with less frequency to maintain the aquariums environment the larger and more elaborate and complex the filtering system that is required. Once the environment is healthy and a fish population is regulated as to the numbers the tank can support and remain at healthy levels then keeping the fish alive and healthy is not hard just more routine. This is what the bait producers do just on a large scale.

Again most fishermen are only looking to keep the bait alive in fairly small numbers for a few hours to a day or so and with even very minimal care 90% of the bait will survive even in summer temps if a few frozen bottles of water are used to help temp levels and the water is aerated to keep oxygen levels reasonable.

As fishermen on the boat we are limited in what we have generally available for bait fish health. Currently their are some water treatments, aerator-pump systems and in the summer using frozen bottles of ice to keep water temps tolerable.

I have seen and read about boat livewell systems starting to be used that inject pure oxygen in the water, separate "ice bins" with metal tubing coiled within that the live well water is pumped through the tubes packed in the ice to cool the water similar to the concept how your home refrigerator works for the cold water through the door.

I would not be surprised as live well systems evolve if the high end pro tournament type of system will include charcoal types of filters incorporated into recirculation pumps to further improve the water quality for livewell fish whom must be kept alive for a weigh in.

Long term, short term survival of minnows is going to be different using different equipment with differing capabilities and even having different goals for the intended application.

Focusing on short term on the boat bait well type storage again aerator and in hot temps frozen water bottles to maintain lower bait well temps have always worked for me for daylong type of trips. If I wanted to be more involved your local pet store will have ph and ammonia test strips and solutions to adjust both levels to within proper levels for optimum fish survival rates.

For myself the ice bottles and aerator has always been sufficient but if I was tournament fishing trying to cash multiple thousands of dollars in prize checks then my bait be the healthiest absolutely as lively as humanly possible would probably have me putting forth a little more effort where even the water temps would be constantly monitored with a thermostat and the water tested as needed to maintain that bait!


Again it is not rocket science and well documented information is available which is limited only in how much effort is put out to obtain the needed information and time invested in maintaining the fishes environment or how much in finances one may choose to invest to make that environment take less hands on time to maintain.

Thanks for tuning in and expressing your opinions, especially about steady state home aquarium environments and fish care:
Regarding summer extreme high stress, unsteady state live fish transports in small bait tanks in hot summer environments, that difference is polar.

Sounds like you’re really pleased with your summer live bait quality using a few bottles of ice, mechanical aerator and for a hand-full of minnows stocking density. To each his own so to speak.

How often do you fish with/transport a hand full of live minnows in the summer?

“Rocket science” bait keeping is basically anything more advanced than ice induced hypothermic bait tank water in the summer, mechanical aerators and bait pumps. Some fishermen are really not happy with that summer bait quality/mortality and want something better especially if they want to bring extra live bait in their bait tank. Fishermen love to bring along extra bait to compensate for the dead and dying bait in the tank.

Dumping ice water bottles or plain ice (hypothermia) works well too to chill bait tank water has been popular for decades. My grandfather was a true believer in icing down the bait tank water every summer. He brought an ice chest with frozen water bottles just for the bait tank. Hypothermic baits experience profound stress when netted, handled, hooked up and tossed into hot, hypoxic summer environmental water. You know those chilled baits wilt quickly and game fish are not impressed in wilted bait fish and all bait fishermen know that.

But, there are other real good options to drastically improve summer live bait quality for those that want something/anything better than ice (hypothermia). Salt is an excellent bait tank water conditioner, it reduces the work of osmoregulation and it’s cheap and effective too, 50# bag cost about $5.00.

[bandchaser]

It's hard to kill a Berkley Crappie Nibble!!

And I hadn't seen a jig tube body float belly up yet either due to excessively hot weather or water!!

Lastly, not many crankbait lives are lost due to excessively hot weather or water. Now, structure is a whole other subject...

Carry on!

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