Minnow and fish storage

[Jbones]

Hey guys I'm new to kayak fishing (only been doing it for about a month) I'm wondering what you keep your minnows and fish in? I'm thinking I'll just get one of the minnow buckets you tie off and put in the water, and a fish basket.. Any other suggestions? What do you use?

[STUMP HUNTER]

What ever you buy be sure it is something that you can put inside the boat when paddling because anything over the side will add a lot of drag. I found a minnow bucket that will fit into my hatch in front of my seat and my stringer I can put inside the boat when I'm ready to end the day. I'm making a livewell out of a dog food storage box. I have seen some nice ones that some have been built, check out some videos on youtube.

[ncnat]

I haven't used minnows from my kayak yet but if I do I will use a flow troll that I can drag while fishing then put in the boat while moving from one spot to another. For fish, I use a cooler the has an over flow installed. I fill the cooler up and let the water drop to the over flow and when I need to change the water I fill the cooler back up. Right now with the hot weather I forget about changing the water, I throw a big block of ice in the cooler.

[bfish]

soft sided cooler with block ice for the keeper fish. Bucket of minnows with a good lid works fine for me.

[Eaglehorse]

Soft sided cooler with 2 Artic Ice Alaskan Ice Packs + 2 trays of ice cubes for the keepers and aerated minnow bucket for the minnows. Since it's so hot I throw a couple of the ice cubes in every hour to keep the minnows cool.

[slabsrus]

I never use minnows so that is not an issue with me. As far as keeping fish goes, it depends on whether I am fishing for filets or tournament fishing. If I am just fishing for dinner I put the keepers in a five gallon bucket in my kayak. The bucket about half full of water with a towel over the top just to keep them from splashing water all over and from jumping out of the bucket. When tournament fishing I use a cooler with a fish tank aerator that runs on 2 D cell batteries. Depending on the temperature of the water and the weather, I might also carry a bag of ice in a small cooler and add some to the "live well" cooler throughout the tournament to keep the fish lively. It actually works very well. I have never had a fish die in several years of tournament fishing. Though I have had bass on two occasions actually jump and knock open the cooler lid and escape back into the lake. Now I carry a bungee cord to make sure the lid stays on. It's really a bummer when you have a good limit of fish to weigh in and all of a sudden one goes air born from the livewell cooler and lands back in the lake.

[Jbones]

seems like a cooler is the way to go. Picked up one of the plastic minnow buckets with the holes at the top so I can put in in the water when I'm stopped or drifting. and set it inside the yak when on the move. Thanks everyone for weighing in!

[canebreaker]

Beside the drag weight of the flow troll is the surface temp of the water. The wire basket for your catch hanging to deep could find some hang ups for you. If the throat is lined with floats, your getting into surface temps again.
I have a couple of the small soft side coolers with the plastic liners with broken zippers. One for drinks and ice, one for minnows and one for my catch.