Cooler and spraybar vs Portable bucket and aerator

I've got a 16 foot aluminum boat, and would like to carry live bait with me. I don't really have the skill or money to put in a through-hull system, so I was looking at some of the portable systems and the home made cooler type systems. I'll mostly be using shrimp, small fantail mullet, and greenbacks for inshore fishing (Tampa Bay and the flats).

From what I've read, aerators are for shrimp and really small bait, and probably wouldn't do well for greenbacks. I'd like to hear from anyone with any experience with the Engel Live Bait Cooler or anything similar for keeping white bait. I like the added option of being able to lug it around with me when I'm shore fishing.

My alternative is to build a cooler with a spray bar like the Super Saver 12V Kit, but that would be much heavier.

What do you guys use?

Thanks,
Brian

I had a boat with a small homemade tank for live bait.
It had a Pump to Aerate the Water.
The problem was the Pump caused too much heat in the water and killed the Bait.

If you don't want to punch a hole in the boat, use a portable tank similar to a Cooler. Or build a tank and siphon the bad water out or use a small bilge pump to pump out the bad water.

I tried using 'lake water' in my system but it didn't help. I quit!
Just use the Obscene Rubber devices or local purchase bait.

this the one i have and use a medium size cooler. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Tsunami-500-Recirq-Livewell-Aerator-Kit/11071184 i like the cooler over the bucket because the bait doesn't get crowded. we kept mud minnows in the box for a week one time. we froze coke bottles with water in them and put them in the cooler during the hot part of the day. been looking for some kind of timer to make it cycle and not run all the time but shrimp are more senitive to things like that.

When it comes to bait I would go with something round Some types of bait do not handle corners very well
you can get a large 5 gallon round cooler and use a spray bar mount in vertically in the tank.
be sure to do water changes to keep the bait fresh also keep the water cool it helps with the O2 don't add straight ice but frozen water bottles will do the trick

I saw one of those Bait Stampede's in a large Freezer made into a Bait Colony.
It was funny. :LOL2:

I thought a round bucket etc would be best too. I also thought taking lake water for the Baits would be good.
For Some reason the Lake water in our Resavior killed the Bait. I told the Water Dept about it. They just shrugged. :roll:

[url=https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=332459#p332459 said:

thudpucker » Yesterday, 17:44[/url]"]
For Some reason the Lake water in our Resavior killed the Bait. I told the Water Dept about it. They just shrugged. :roll:

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Are you sure it was the water and not the water temp that killed them? When doing a "water swap" if the temperature difference between the water they are in vs. the water you switch them to is more than a few degrees different from each other it can put some bait in shock and they die as a result of it. That's one of the reasons I don't like to resort to using ice in my bait bucket. It may save the bait as long as they stay in the bucket but they go belly up as soon as you put them on a hook and throw them in lake water that is several degrees warmer.

It may be more than you want to put out but I had an 18" X 11" X 11" built by:

https://www.customlivewells.com/Pages/productlines.aspx. It's all welded PVC with inside courners 45'ed for better circulation. It's small because my build is only a 12' V hull; But after endless searching I wasn't happy with the Cooler builds. I will use a 3 way valve from Sure Flow and a 500 gal. external pump mounted in the transom for fresh water supply; however you could mount internal airiator or bubbler if you choose, point is..He can make what ever you want if you want to pay for it.

=For Some reason the Lake water in our Resavior killed the Bait. I told the Water Dept about it. They just shrugged. :roll:
Are you sure it was the water and not the water temp that killed them?

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Great observation J.
It was pretty warm, the lake was Bath water on the surface.
The Minnows had been in my boat tank all night, in the barn, shady n' cool.

I had sworn of live bait after that experience.
Now however, I have a throw-net, maybe I'll try it again and see it they survive the change from the lake to my tank.

[url=https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=332510#p332510 said:

JMichael » 20 Oct 2013, 09:54[/url]"][ That's one of the reasons I don't like to resort to using ice in my bait bucket..

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during the hot months and when we have a lot of bait we have trapped when it is hard to control the water temp in the bait cooler, we use a minnow trap with the ends crushed closed to hold the minnows off the side of the boat while fishing or baiting the sailline. we then fill a bucket with the bay water and put the minnow trap with minnow in it when we move to another spot. we are wanting to make a bigger mesh bait holder that will fit in a medium size cooler so they are not so crowded. when we are done for the day, we hang the mesh holder off the bulk head in the water to keep them.

I just got one of these, haven't used it yet.

https://shop.sportsmansguide.com/ne...69&cpncode=32-275896611-2&pm2d=CSE-SPG-15-PLA

I used to have pretty good luck with blue back herring in a 104 qt cooler. Ice in the water, bait saver (the blue stuff), little rock salt and a corner aerater. Don't have the water level so low that the aerater beats the crap out of the surface of the water. You'll fight foam if you do...they used to sell some "de-foam" that I would also put in the water.