My livewell

So I had been wanting to add a baitwell/livewell to my boat but didn't want something permanent. Basically something I could keep minnows alive in longer and keep the panfish alive until fishing was done. My wife picked me up a power bubbles aerator at cabelas which ran off 12 volt battery with just alligator clips. Since I had planned on buying a backup battery for the transom mount trolling motor after I got rid of the outboard I thought this would work good. I'll keep the tm battery strictly for that and use the extra battery for the livewell and lights and fish finder when I get around to buying those. This aerator came with the capability to run two wells or just one. I took an old cooler we had laying around that leaked and siliconed it up so it was water tight and mounted the aerator to the side and drilled a hole up towards the top to run the aeration line and siliconed it up. Over the weekend I got to test it out on my bluegills and sure enough they stayed alive right up until it was time to dispatch them. I had them in there about 5 hours and they were still just as feisty as when they went in. I'm going to use window screen to make a divider so I can keep minnows and panfish separated in the cooler, but so far I'm happy with how it worked. I figured on longer days I'd do a partial water change with the coffee can I keep as a bail bucket to keep ammonia levels down and the cooler helps keep the water temp from fluctuating too much. I just use a 5 gallon bucket at the ramp to fill it.

Nice work should work just fine

Nice!!

I recently made a baitwell out of a new 48 quart Igloo marine cooler. Ended up being very similar to yours. I use several Marine Metal products to keep my baitwell aerated. I use their Fish Saver 12V version that has a bilge pump for when on the boat. I replaced the alligator clips with a 12V socket and some extra length of wire so it plugs into my 12V outlet on my boat. If I have minnows left over, I use a 110V Power Bubbles II to keep the water aerated at home. The Power Bubbles II has 2 air lines and stones. WAY more than I need for my cooler. I only use one of the airlines and one stone. Provides plenty of aeration. Something you might want to consider is a digital thermometer. I got one off of Amazon for about $5. When at home I check it every morning and evening and add frozen water bottles as needed to keep the temp close to 50 degrees. It's also nice to be able to check while on the water to make sure I'm not cooking my minnows. In my experience minnows seems to stay alive much better when the water temp is below 55 degrees.

BigTerp said:

Nice!!

I recently made a baitwell out of a new 48 quart Igloo marine cooler. Ended up being very similar to yours. I use several Marine Metal products to keep my baitwell aerated. I use their Fish Saver 12V version that has a bilge pump for when on the boat. I replaced the alligator clips with a 12V socket and some extra length of wire so it plugs into my 12V outlet on my boat. If I have minnows left over, I use a 110V Power Bubbles II to keep the water aerated at home. The Power Bubbles II has 2 air lines and stones. WAY more than I need for my cooler. I only use one of the airlines and one stone. Provides plenty of aeration. Something you might want to consider is a digital thermometer. I got one off of Amazon for about $5. When at home I check it every morning and evening and add frozen water bottles as needed to keep the temp close to 50 degrees. It's also nice to be able to check while on the water to make sure I'm not cooking my minnows. In my experience minnows seems to stay alive much better when the water temp is below 55 degrees.

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Thanks for the digital temp gauge idea, I'm going to have to get one. This one had two lines and two stones too, but it also had a piece to combine the two hoses to run to one stone which pumps a lot of air into the cooler, but still leaves the option of someday adding a second one if I want to. I doubt I will though since the cooler takes up more floor space than I intended and puts a lot of added weight in the boat, although I swear that helped add some stability.