I put about 4" of water from the spigot at house and put 2 frozen 1.5 liter drink bottles of water in the ice chest. About half my specks will be alive when I get home.
trypman1 LIKED above post
I use live well but I watch the fish in case they die. I also carry a cooler with 1 gal. each of water and ice. If I have fish to clean I bleed out in live well then put on "empty"on the way to ramp. The live well will be empty of bloody water so I put fish in cooler and pour in the water from jug. I keep gal. jugs of ice and water in fridge at home. If fins don't poke holes in jugs I just put back in freezer. The ice jugs will have ice in the middle (usually) and cold water around the ice. I would rather refreeze like this, they refreeze real well without distorting and remain flat on the bottom. Milk jugs are plentiful for me but they are thin and leak easier. I have seen many put hot lake water in the cooler, but I like to start off with cold water.
Trump is like the guy that comes on the playground and beats up on the guys that's been pushing you around for the last 30 or 40 years.
I keep my fish alive in live well by filling with the lake water in the morning and adding melted ice water as needed during the day. I also use an aquarium aerator. To just keep them fresh, I use one bag of ice in the live well and plenty of frozen water jugs. I like to keep a little water on them thru out the day. Drain off later.
In the Summer mine go straight into an ice slurry fresh off the hook and cleaned when I get home with ice cold water. I want them getting cold from the inside out. They feelay easier when ice cold.
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I had an oxygenator put in my live well years ago. I turn it on as soon as I get to the lake and fill up the live well. It's not necessary to add anything when water temps are low but when hot weather hits, I keep the recirculating pump working. After several fish, I continue to check until I see fish start struggling. Then I will take a floating fish basket and tie to the side of the boat and take a fillet knife and slash the gills to bleed them. Then I put them in the fish basket. Bleeding them really made a difference in how they tasted. (got that tip from an episode on In Fisherman) The fish will die quickly (more humanely) I then put them on top of ice in a cooler after draining the water.
This stiffens them up making them much easier to fillet at the end of the day. I had my floating fish basket open on one trip and and they were all floating on top of the water because they had already bled out.
Last edited by Bronson; 06-07-2016 at 04:31 PM.
When I keep fish, I usually take a cooler and buy 2 bags of ice at the store. I open one bag and pour it in the bottom of the cooler. I put the other bag in the cooler without opening it. I put the fish directly in the cooler when I catch them. The fish stay cold like that and when I'm done fishing, I open the second bag and spread the ice over the fish. That way, the fish have a layer of ice above and below. That works great as long as the layer if fish between the ice doesn't get too thick. I usually don't have that problem...lol I've noticed that the fish fillet easier if you let them get really cold first. I use a regular knife, not an electric one. I never got the hang of using the electric knife.
yikess LIKED above post