Now that the season is closing in on us, might as well share some new ideas. I fished last Saturday with high hopes, but all I brought home was 10 pickerel and a pound of nice fat shiners and half pound of fatheads. I initially had an indoor 20 gallon fish tank for them, but it seemed very crowded and temp was 70°F.. so I dug out an old igloo cooler (128qt I believe?), Added a large round bubble stone from petsmart and 30 gallon capacity air pump, a topfin powerhead 50 with the air supply tube, and "better bait" bait holding powder plus pH neutraliser just to be safe. I have had them since last Saturday and haven't lost a minnow yet. Seems like a reliable setup minus a filtration system, but that may come later. For now I will do 25% water changes once a week. It's outside and shaded so it's staying nice and cool also.
If you guys have any ideas on cheap filtration let's hear em. Right now I'm considering either making an external bio filter out of a five gallon bucket, or just buying a submersible filter from a pet store. But I'm also considering no filter at all and just maintaining partial water changes.
I'd also like to see anyone elses bait holding systems if y'all have em!!! Hopefully these minnows will be seeing a hook soon!
By the way, if you don't already have the "better bait" powder, get some. It's very much worth it. It literally brought a fellow fisherman's minnows back to life on Saturday. Half of his minnows were belly up at 9 am. Partial water change and 1/4 teaspoon of better bait and his minnows were nice and lively for the entire day including the ones that had been belly up. Without a bubbler.... imagine that. 16 dollar jar treats 400 gallons, so no more pouring out wasted minnows at the end of the day. Hence the reason for bait tanks at home!!!
