Herring in styroform cooler w/ air pump?

[sccamper]

Going camping next wekend and the guys want to striper fish. I dont have a bait tank and dont want to buy one since I never use one. Can I use a large styrofoam cooler with an aquaium air pump and stone to keep live herring overnight?

[jigsbydirk]

if you can find a tank that is oval shaped they will last longer. for some reason baitfish need to be able to swim in a circle and if you put them in a regular cooler that is the square shape they will die faster than if you can find an oblong shaped container. hope this helps, have fun fishing

[Carl Palmer]

Going camping next wekend and the guys want to striper fish. I dont have a bait tank and dont want to buy one since I never use one. Can I use a large styrofoam cooler with an aquaium air pump and stone to keep live herring overnight?

You might try a large plastic garbage can (if it is CLEAN) herring will drive straight into corners, pretty well stop moving and sufficate. Anytime you want to keep herring alive you must keep them in a round, oblong or some container that doesn't have the abrupt corner, you will need probably at least corners with a radius of 4 inches. If you are holding them overnight in this area, add some sea salt to the water and if you can get ice made of non-clorinated water (well water) put enough in to keep the water cool maybe 68-78 degrees. It also helps if you do not crowd the fish in the container either by having too many or not a large enough container. Sufficient air is necessary and you need to make sure the aquarium pump will produce enough, if you have more then one pump or you can find one for a larger aquarium, I would suggest using it and possibly multiple stones. Hope this helps. My .02

[sccamper]

What about an old 55 gal drum, cut down in size. Does it have to have a lid? Can I put frozen 2liter(or smaller)bottles in the bottom to keep it cool? We plan on getting the bait late in afternoon and fish throughout the night and awhile the next day. Will this just be a waste of good bait without the right tank? I dont have room in my boat to keep a tank for minners and probally wont need to use a tank for herrin again for many months or a year, hate to spend money on something I use every couple years.

[Carl Palmer]

What about an old 55 gal drum, cut down in size. Does it have to have a lid? Can I put frozen 2liter(or smaller)bottles in the bottom to keep it cool? We plan on getting the bait late in afternoon and fish throughout the night and awhile the next day. Will this just be a waste of good bait without the right tank? I dont have room in my boat to keep a tank for minners and probally wont need to use a tank for herrin again for many months or a year, hate to spend money on something I use every couple years.

If you can get by Wal-Mart or K-Mart or somewhere you might want to look at some of thoese plastic tubs with the rope handles they sell to see if that would work. You will be able to use it for more then this one time for things such as gathering leaves, shrimping & oysters. The tubs are about the same size or a little bigger then a #33 washtub and probably about the same diameter as a 55 g. drum so this is just a suggestion. Then again depending on how often you will be doing this type of fishing, you might want to consider investing in a decent tank. If you keep it clean and stored out of the sun it should last you for years. I have one that is made from nylon that I've had for probably 40 years and is still in good shape. I had one by Baitkeeper made out of a white plastic that the sun absolutly destroyed after just afew months. I had it so it would give me a little more room for bait plus at the time I liked the pump. Nylon will make a much better tank for you. I have never tried an insulated type altho a lot of people out there have.

[NIMROD]

We use a 55 gallon plastic barrel( clean perferably one used for food not chemicals) cut in half to make size tub you want. Drill a pair of holes in each side and pull a rope through. With a knot on ends of rope ,they won't pull out and make great handles. We have a 12volt bilege pump and a 110v air pump to aireate with. As everyone noted clean ice helps when it's hot. A little salt helps even with freshwater bait fish.:D

[ToadRunner]

Has anyone ever used a 5 gallon bucket or a 5 gal. round water cooler with one of those $7 walmart baitsaver aerators? I am hoping to keep 2 dozen herring alive for about six hours. Will this work?

[stumpjumper]

Has anyone ever used a 5 gallon bucket or a 5 gal. round water cooler with one of those $7 walmart baitsaver aerators? I am hoping to keep 2 dozen herring alive for about six hours. Will this work?

The 5 gallon bucket wont work I know this from 1st hand even with small areator (sp). I have a friend that uses a 10gal. kooler round for his bait tank and he only puts about 1 to 1.5 doz,. in them at a time and they last only a couple of hours. But I wouldn't waste my money on bait and put them in a 5 gallon bucket.

my 2 cents worth.