A 5 gallon bucket with a washdown pump hose in the bottom and overflow holes in the top should work in a pinch. Constant waterflow is key. Would be good to have a valve on the hose to control flow. I imagine just a rig could keep up to ~50 baits alive. Oh yeah, keep tuna blood out of the tank!

Freakwater

 

I will post my design when I get the boat home so I can take pictures. It's so simple even .........(insert favorite name here) could build one.

With out pictures I can't do it justice.

Bob :food:

 

How about 5 gallon buckets conversions?

Tried that one and it ended up being to small to keep enough chovies alive but it was good for sardines but because they are bigger you can't get fit enough in there.

I ended up fabing one out of a square 15 gal igloo cooler, it works sweet. The cooler already has a snap down lid that is not totally air tite. Hooked it up to the wash down pump just like FW suggested and then put a couple of exit spouts near the top of it when screens over them so the chovies don't escape.

I look forward to seeing the picts of one ODIN built. :cheers:

 

Here is one I seen on ebay, What do you guys think of this one? He says it is an open system.

So basically you would need a 60qt cooler for 15 gallons.

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I think typically a round tank keeps them from smashing their noses into the walls/corners so bad.

 

So are there any round 15-20 gallon ice chests out there? Bigger water coolers with a spicet at the bottom perhaps.

 

I would definately agree with round. The cooler that I found at Home Depot, is square with fairly rounded interior corners. I put a 90 degree PVC elbow on the inlet coming from the pump so the water circulates around on the inside.

Not sure where you might find one like it? I found this one 2 summers ago.

 

Use trash cans- various sizes available. 55-gallon drums are also good.

 

Ha! I got one. :idea:

I did a bunch of research last year after spending too much $$ on live choivies that soon died without a good supply of fresh salt water.

So what I gathered is that the fish need a close to round container or at least one with no sharp 90's. The to contain 20lbs of fish and keep e'm live, you need a faily large container. So I looked around and found a round 30 gallon trash container with a R2D2 type lid. Next thing was a swirl motion to the water and self leveling/bad water and scales exit point.

I took a hose bib- on that you would see on a house exterior and piped it through the bottom of the trash bin. On the inside I had a reducer that pumped the water through a 3/8" line that was wrapped around the bottom. Next to the water inlet, I then piped a 90 degree elbow ( screen protected the fish from running up the tube) upward with a 1" pipe that ran up the side of the tank. The allowed the water to exit and the top of the exit line was just below the water level inside the tank. Gravity does the rest to keep the level.

We tried it out and found that the fish scales were clogging the screen. Went back to the drawing board and put a false bottom in the tank that left about 1/8" around the sides for water to flow and scales to freely pass without a screen. Then the feeder line of water was fitted in a way that was flush with the false bottom making a totally smooth interior to the tank- which means no de-scaled fish.

Went back out and it works perfectly. Slight adjustments were made to the exit pipe for the water level and remember the hose bib? Well that works in a backwards way to limit the water pressure coming in from the raw water washdown.

So, only problem now is that the boat doesn't have a high speed raw water pickup- so running out 40 miles continuously will have an effect. That will be changed next year. The tank itself may be changed to something different, but it's tall, skinny and keeps the fish in. :dance:

 

I have seen bait tank aerators with a venturi to siphon water from a 1/4 inch line that goes overboard that plug into the running lights plugs. It only siphons a weak pee stream amount but that is plenty and then it was strapped onto the self bailing transom

My older brother had one in Eureka for keeping live anchovies and it worked really slick until he didnt clean it good enough after one trip and it was ruined before the next.

 

I bought a used plastic 20 gal barrel that I'm planning on using for a bait tank. Came with a nice lid that clamps on.

Cheerio'
Skipper

 

The Mexican charter boats all use a round kitchen garbage can with the wash down hose tied to the edge. Seems to work on their big tough baits. Not sure a Chovey would make it. I'll probably find out next year! :grin:

Adios Amigos! :cheers:

 

:grin: