Inexpensive Live Well Project

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gillhunter

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Many of us like to keep some fish from time to time, but don't have a live well in our boat. I saw this on the internet, so this was not my idea. I thought I would give it a try and it was really simple and cheap to do.
I bought a Bubble Box at Wally World for under $5.00. Batteries are suppose to last 30 hours. The pump is a little noisy, but I just ran it for a couple of minutes every 15 minutes or so. I let it run on the trip home from the lake, about 25 minutes. All the fish were alive when I got home.
Live Well 1.jpgLive Well 2.jpgLive Well 3.jpgLive Well 4.jpg
 
Glad it worked well! Seems you addressed 2 of the 3 biggest fish killers with O2 and cooler water. The challenge may come with bigger or different fish and toxic levels of ammonia. The remedy for that is fresh water. I know some have added a modular bilge to fill it up and pump out old water (basically manually reversing the bilge). Only a thought if you run into trouble down the road.

Oh and nice catch. Those are some of the best eating fish in my mind...
 
Thanks Dude. I only target Bluegill so the size of the cooler works for me. I change water with an old plastic coffee can every hour or so.

And they are good eating.
 
I have the exact setup, but with a white "marine" cooler. I freeze water in 20 oz plastic bottles, 7/8ths full so there is room for expansion, and add them to the cooler. Helps keep the water a little colder during those hotter parts of the day.
 

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