Keeping Bait Alive

[StrikeMaster]

Can you guys share you tips on keeping you live bait ALIVE!?!?

[fishingking]

a small cooler and an aerator works good make sure your water is clean too

[crappie_attitude]

In addition to an aerator, change 2/3 of the water every 3 days using tap water and 10 drops of Start Right per gallon of water.  

[WarrenA]

I keep bait in a home made tank outside my garage and have done so for many years the main thing is to keep them cold 34 deg is perfect.Do not feed them as the minnow poop will spoil the water. I made a water filter out of pvc pipe and a submersible pumpand no longer try to aerate just let the water circulate and it will be fine. I generally seine minnows about the first of Nov. and keep them all ice season

[PerchBusterSD]

i just keep them in a 5 gallon bucket in the basement and change water every 2 days

[reelcharacter]

I just hook up the old fish tank the kids used to use. (my minnows sem to fare better than the pet store fish did).    Only need a recirculating filter, the kind with a foaminsert and charcoal filter. This aerates the tank as well.

This works well for keeping minnows from the bait store alive during the ice fishing season. I have also had good luck this way with "home caught" minnows netted from the local pond.

-Reelcharacter

[LoveIce]

old ice cheast out side plenty of air rocks and clean it 1 week

[grumpymoe]

i've tried various tips passed along on this subject, and i have found that the most important thing, is keeping the temperature down to just above freezing. it slows their metabolisms down, thus reducing oxygen requirements. i should probably pickup a pump to aerate, or move the water around, but all i do is manually dump water into the bucket and add fresh snow or ice every other day. they seem to do quite well and lose only the occasional minnow. grump