Pumping 02 in the livewell

[sspharmdoc]

Anyone have experience in running 02 into their livewells? We catch hardtails and then have a long run - even though we pump water thru- still have a high mortality rate. Was thinking about rigging up an O2 bottle to hyperoxygenate the water.
Any commercially available products out there?

[JonnyD]

Don't hyperoxygenate the water. You dont need to. The problem with using the O2 to pump up your baits is that they get used to it while they are in the well. Then when you put them out they are used to having all that O2 and so they get very lethargic and basically look like crap. What kind of livewell system do you have and how big is your pump? Pumping too much water is just as bad as not enough. Is your well round/oval or does it have square corners for the bait to run into? And, if your well doesn't pressurize to the lid and your baits are sloshing around then they are beating themselves to death. Also, how are you handling your bait upon capture. Do you catch them and dehook them while holding the bait? If they touch the deck or show any bleeding, we toss'em. Sorry this is long, but live bait is really all about how well you can treat the bait.

[ReelCommotion]

I have tournament fished in King Mackeral tournaments for a while.... here's a few things we do that seems to keep our bait alive longer.

-Only put 1 bait per gallon in the live well.
-Have a good pump 500 gallon per hour for a 50 gallon well.
-Also, have used a KeepAlive oxygen infuser.

We dont always use the oxygen infuser mostly for tournaments. We got it a couple years ago.. Not sure probably could google it. Hope this helps.

Capt. Scott

[sspharmdoc]

Ok- we started using 35 gal oval livewell, we would put a dozen or so in... usually only had 4 to 6 survivors- the temps were in the mid 90's and we would have to run 60 or so miles after catching bait. Yes- I'm sure quite a bit of sloshing occured.
Yes,we tried to be diligent and not handle and or put wounded bait in the box.
Next we strapped a 55 gallon barrel on the deck and had water being constantly pumped in- with additional aerator. Results were better but I can't help but think the addition of some pure O2 will help. (The sloshing was greatly decreased with the barrel.)
My next 2 additons will probably be an O2 bottle- and maybe a fabric material on the outside of the barrel that can hold water and evaporate to cool the barrel?
Cant help but think the lower water temp will be a big help.
Anyone use a cooled livewell?-- I know temp shock occurs if water temp is too different, but we are pumping surface water on the bait that normally lives quite a bit deeper.

[Robja]

We don't use O2 either. Like reel commotion we avg about 1 bait per gal in the tank. On real hot days when the water temp is in the 80's we might add some ice to the water if the baits start looking stressed. For Kingmackerel fishing most of the time we are fishing close to the beach so we can run back up to the beach to freshen up the bait if we need to. If we are offshore we will jig bait with sabaki rigs.

[Captain Michael Buffington]

Don't hyperoxygenate the water. You dont need to. The problem with using the O2 to pump up your baits is that they get used to it while they are in the well. Then when you put them out they are used to having all that O2 and so they get very lethargic and basically look like crap. What kind of livewell system do you have and how big is your pump? Pumping too much water is just as bad as not enough. Is your well round/oval or does it have square corners for the bait to run into? And, if your well doesn't pressurize to the lid and your baits are sloshing around then they are beating themselves to death. Also, how are you handling your bait upon capture. Do you catch them and dehook them while holding the bait? If they touch the deck or show any bleeding, we toss'em. Sorry this is long, but live bait is really all about how well you can treat the bait.

Rodger dodger Jonnyd
Mike

[ReelCommotion]

Sometimes if the water temp is really warm, we will bring frozen gatorade bottels and put in the well. We don't put ice in the well since ours in fresh water ice.

[sspharmdoc]

Ok.., was really, really careful with bait. Absoutely NO Handleing- NO injured fish in livewell and any "sickly" fish were promptly removed. Temps were lower than later in summer.
We had much better survival rate. Of course- We didn't catch a single fish on live bait! ARG! Well, that's why it's fishing. We only put 30 baits in well. They survived for 2 days. We spent a lot of time trolling for billfish- got none in our spread.----- billfishing sucks most times!