Thread: Anyone use oxygen bottles for live/baitwell?

I see some of the pros with oxygen tanks on thier rigs. What are they using? What brands or is there a kit for this?

Ok maybe I can help a little here Missouri Bushwacker, I have a Lowes 175 Stinger boat. It has built in minnow buckets in both the front and rear live wells. Ok I live in Springfield, MO so I am about 90 miles out of Bucksaw Marina. I am a early morning person, I am a guy who was taught at a early age fishing heated docks get up early for the morning bite! So I have a 110 gallon minnow tank under the car port. I buy normally 10 to 20 dozen per time. I have to drive about 35 miles to get them.

Ok so there isn't any bait shops open when I hit the lakes of either Truman or Pomme de Terre. What I did was purchase a T-H Marine Pro-Air System Air Livewell Pump from Bass Pro. Here is what it does. The Pro-Air System air pump is capable of aerating both front and rear livewells at the same time. It comes complete with pump, 2 air stone mounts, 2 air stones, an attractive switch-panel with a pump control switch, and 20' of air line tubing. 12V DC application. Then I also purchased a good delay timer switch from Bass Pro.

What I am able to do is put minnows in my live well minnow buckets at 3 am to 4 am drive to Bucksaw with the system running and hit the water at anywhere from 6 am to 8 am depending on if I stop for breakfast. And I have alive minnows when I hit the lake. I just turn the pump on and it doesn't draw enough battery to hurt my boat battery. When I get to the lake I turn on the water aerating system and turn the air system on delay.

Now I don't dress any of my fish at the lake. I have a couple of Bass Pro fish cleaning tables here at the house and I can come home and sit on a stool and clean my fish! I don't like to clean dead fish! So when I leave the lake I turn the system off of delay and put it on full blast and I have live fish when I get home. Now if the temperatures are in the 90's I will stop in Lowry City and purchase a couple of bags of ice and put on the fish in the live wells.

No bottles no mess! I go to Wal-Mart or the local pet store and purchase the air stones for the system. They normally last about 3 months of heavy use.

We fished out of Bucksaw the Sunday of Camp! We stopped by the Camp Ground late and visited with some friends. Then we stopped at Smiths in Collins and had dinner. I pulled into the driveway here in Springfield about 9:15 pm. I got the fish out of the live well about 9:30 pm and started cleaning them. Didn't have any dead ones! Fact is they were very much alive! I have the holes in my hand to prove it! LOL!