Thread: what is the best minnow bucket

Here's what I use works great, can even keep some between trips for 7 to 10 days. Thumbs Up



Frabill Aqualife Bait Station

Great information, i use a 2 gallon mino-life with the bubbler made for it, as long as batteries work minnows live, adding ice or frozen water bottle helps.

Went to Gander Mountain today, saw they had the 5 gallon bucket liners for $7.99, so I picked one up along with the lid (same price), an aerator stone, and a cheap ($10) 2-D cell battery-powered pump (until I can get a 12v to run from a larger battery). I've found my larger cooler converted to minnow keeper is just too large for a smaller boat. Just thought I'd let those know who had a GM nearby that they could find the styrofoam bucket liners there.

Hey NeonMoon goto post # 34 this really works good for summer. I have some minnows out in the garage that I have had since Mon. and their still doing good & it;s Fri...I keep the water changed & put a frozen water bottle in them a couple times a day..

Originally Posted by Crappie 1

Hey NeonMoon goto post # 34 this really works good for summer. I have some minnows out in the garage that I have had since Mon. and their still doing good & it;s Fri...I keep the water changed & put a frozen water bottle in them a couple times a day..

The styrofoam liner I got was specifically made to fit a 5 gallon bucket. I actually had to wedge it down into the plastic outer bucket to get it to bottom-out. I doubt I could remove it without destroying it. There's not much taper to the 'foam liner, so not really worth the effort to add any spray foam. The 'foam liner came with a lid, which I cut-away enough to be able to easily dip a minnow out. The lid I bought was the Frabil plastic lid to fit the plastic bucket (so there's actually 2 lids).

I want to get some velcro to stick the aerator to the side of the bucket instead of just hanging it by the clip on the lid. I'll snap a pic when I get the aerator mounted. I'd had good luck as well keeping a few dozen minnows alive for several days in my Coleman cooler by adding ice. Never changed the water, but I added lake water after I arrived to the campground. Now I'm just looking forward to getting a chance to put it to use. I think I just heard the weatherman saying cooler temps are on the way!

the best I've found is a 5 gal igloo water cooler, put a bubbles air on the lid and this keeps bait alive summer and winter

Post # 23 is the one I made, it also works great...

I have tried a lot of different buckets over the years and one that we really like well is the 11 qt. "Cool Bubbles" bucket. It is insulated completely and has a splash proof top in case you leave the lid open while motoring between spots. They come with a pump that hangs on the side of the bucket and will run for 130 hrs. on 2 "D" batteries. I have gone a step farther and put a "Cool Bubbles" double pump 12 volt in my boat. I wrapped it in an old T-shirt and placed it inside a panel. You cannot hear it run at all. I ran a tubing line to the front and back seat areas of my stick steer boat. The 12 volt pump came with 2 one-way valves and I put these on the ends of my tubings. When I set my buckets, one front one back, in the boat all I have to do is plug up the tubing coming out of the bucket to the one-way valve on the other tubing coming from the pump. I have a push/pull switch that I installed by my other switches. It supplies both buckets with the same amount of air. I usually put 1/2 lb. of minnows to each bucket if we are spiderigging.
Another thing that I really like about this set up is that you can leave it running overnite and never have to take the buckets out of the boat. Next morning just change out some water and your ready to go. Here are some pics of my set-up.