How keep crappie alive?

[Phishman]

My live well is not insulated that well but I can keep a good amount of crappie alive in the spring. However, when it starts getting into summer I can not keep crappie alive. I generally fish for crappie 10-20 feet down and I'm wanting to get into tournaments. I can catch the fish just can't keep them alive. I froze some bottles and through them in and it didn't work. I'm bringing crappie from the deep and as soon as I put them in the live well they lay over. I was wondering what you tournament guys do. Do you puncture the bladder and put ice jugs in there. I've been looking at the Kool well system. I need help!!!

[clfarms1]

i seldom have any die all summer from any depth Im always pumping in fresh water in the livewell, Ive got like a 21 gallon livewell, I cant get them to die, drainthe water out and they are still alive 30 minutes later.

[T.C.]

10-20 feet of water isn't the problem, thats a normal depth......40ft down is when you run into air bladder problems. Your fish are dying from low oxygen levels, probably caused by the heat. Buy a Engel cooler, fill it with lake water, drop a couple of frozen bottles of water in to lower the temp slightly and put a aerator in it and they should stay alive as long as you don't put too many in.

[NIMROD]

Here pumping in fresh water does'nt help in summer. Surface temps can hit high 90's and hold little oxygen. Try a big cooler filled lake water ,with ice and aierator or oxygen. Becareful not to over cool water as fish from warm dropped into real cold will be shocked and sometimes killed by fast temp change. Only put as few fish as possoiable as crowding causes problems. There also are chemicals on the market that can help calm the fish and keep them better shape.

[bee]

We don't have that problem here. We are not allowed to keep fish alive. Its release it or kill it. Only Bass in a tourney are allowed to be kept alive.

[Cray]

Got one of these mounted in my boat. Run 2 minnow buckets and live well. Fill live well add a 2 liter frozen bottle and turn on air. Keeps them pretty good until it gets extremely hot. Some of the guys use the pediatric regulator and small oxygen bottle. Get some clothespins,attach a 1/2 oz or 3/4 bass weight. Attach it to their fin and it will hold them upright most of the time.
http://www.basspro.com/Power-Bubbles...product/20898/

I just take a big cooler with several frozen 2 liter bottles and use the small water or juice bottles frozen to add to minnow bucket. You will be surprised how long they last.

[Rees Guide]

another thing to do is only keep you tourney fish in the livewell, when we fish Crappie Masters they have to be alive so we keep 9 in the livewell using our 7 best of the tourney and the rest go in a cooler. Live fish weigh better so no matter what tourney we are in we try to keep em alive.

[Fishorhunt]

My friend keeps 2 liter bottles of water frozen and in a cooler and tosses them into the live well.

[filletfetish]

When I'm tournament fishing, I use a Cube Igloo cooler for my good fish. I have one for bait and one for fish. I fill my cooler first thing in the morning, when the surface temp is at it's coolest. I use an air pump that uses alligator clips and run it from my cranking battery. The air pump has two outlets and easily keeps both fish and bait alive. In extreme heat, I will use frozen lake water bottles to keep it cooler, but you still don't want it to be too much difference from what the fish came from. I also use ice fishing depth finders (lead head on an alligator clip) to keep any fish upright, that can't seem to get off their side. Clip in on the anal fin for about 5 minutes and they seem to come out of it just fine. Don't be afraid of using the blue stuff to help calm the fish.

[bluedrifter]

I use a 30 gallon round bait tank with an oxygen infuser bilge pump and it works great. I also like to keep fresh water pumped in as much as possible. you can either have it over flow out or you can use a hose that will automaticly syphon water out after your tank fills up. once the water gets low in your tank you just fill it up and let it syphon back out again. the oxygen infusers are kind of expensive but you can make one easy from just an ordinary bilge pump. I could explain how to make one but it would be hard to understand with out seeing it. you might be able to google it. I don't like to add ice to the water because I think it only keeps the fish alive for weigh in but once released back in the 85 degree water the fish may die. if the fish are going to be kept then it doesn't make a difference.