# Keeping minnows alive



## Star1pup

Here at Lake Tomahawk minnows are an important live bait, but as the air & water temperature rises, it's almost impossible to keep them alive for long. There is no place to seine my own so I must drive a distance to buy a couple dozen and hate to lose them. Any suggestions? I have thought about some sort of live box next to my dock. Right now I tie the inside of the minnow bucket to the dock and put it in the water with a medicine bottles of ice.


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## 7thcorpsFA

Star1pup said:


> Here at Lake Tomahawk minnows are an important live bait, but as the air & water temperature rises, it's almost impossible to keep them alive for long. There is no place to seine my own so I must drive a distance to buy a couple dozen and hate to lose them. Any suggestions? I have thought about some sort of live box next to my dock. Right now I tie the inside of the minnow bucket to the dock and put it in the water with a medicine bottles of ice.


Get a small portable air pump. They are a little bigger than a pack of cigs. and have an air stone just like an aquarium pump. they hang from your minnow bucket handle and use D cell batteries. I also put the bucket inside a cooler with just enough ice to keep it a little cooler than outside. To much ice will kill them. Put a thin layer in the bottom of the cooler,add a little at a time as needed. The pump is the key and they don't cost much. Minnows will last all day.


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## I Fish

I could never find a minnow bucket I was happy with, so I made my own. I used a small metal trash can, made out of stretched steel, or mesh, like you find at the office supply stores. I then used some foam pipe insulation around the top of it to make it float, and some plastic screen for a lid. It all fits inside a 5 gallon bucket. I just put it over the side of the boat while at anchor. I love it. It's bigger than anything commercially available, and the whole thing is mesh, so it gets better water flow. I used it a week ago on a 3 day trip. I had 3 dozen bass and 4 dozen crappie minnows in it. I know the people at the bait shop, so at the end of the day, I would put this into their bait tank over night, and just add a couple dozen to it the next morning. I only lost 1 minnow during all of that. If I were going to tie it to a dock, I'd put it under the dock to keep it in the shade.


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## Star1pup

Thanks guys. Good suggestions. I was hoping to find a way to keep the minnows contained under the dock for easy access. I wonder if a 3'x3' box with a screen would work? One problem is that if I drive to get minnows and then cannot get out on the boat right away I'll lose the moinnows before I get to fish. The bait shop also doesn't open until 7 or 8am and a trip up and back on the morning I fish wastes a lot of good fishing time.

I'll keep working on a solution and appreciate all the ideas you want to post.


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## barf

If you have a little cash ...I would recomend an earator that runs off your marine battery, because the d cells are great for 1 day ,but may not make it over night ....Ive had some that do and some that dont.....

if shore fishing I would highly recommend the d cell aerators.....20 bucks ,walmart

I use them in a 5 gal bucket to keep my gills alive for cat bait ,or sometimes it takes all day and I just end up with a few that I dont wish to clean ..so I let them go alive and well


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## Whiskerhunter

BIIIIIIG cooler, marine battery aerator (the kind that pumps water up and splashes, airstones really don't aerate much), and a little ice here and there. We have one of those floating thermometers to keep an eye on the water temp, and have the pump contained in a piece of 6" PVC pipe with holes drilled in it with mesh cloth over the holes to keep them little guys out of the inlet to the pump. Additionally, I am planning on adding a cannister filter like what you see for aquariums, as what will put a hurt on the minnows is all the ammonia and stuff from their waste. The rig is a bit bulky, but being as it all goes into the boat, portability isn't much of a factor with our rig.


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## Star1pup

Just to clarify my situation, I have no problem with minnows on the boat. I use an insulated minnow bucket with a quiet aerator that runs on 2 D cells, the boat battery or A/C. I'm trying to find a way to keep them alive between fishing trips.

I had thought of some sort of cage hung off the dock, but now am thinking of a cooler with an aerator in my workshop (which is cool). This would be an A/C aerator. I read a review on the one I have on Cabela's website and one guy said the aerator pump would burn out if left on all night, or I would use it. I might need some other sort of all night/all day aerator.

I freeze water in small plastic bottles to put in the bucket on the boat and would do the same in the cooler. Make sure to use rain or lake water as tap water will kill the minnows if the bottle leaks. I'll bet you can guess how I know this.
Bill


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## lonewolf

My wife wanted a gold fish pond. So know I use the 2 part metal buckets. I pull out the inside and sink it to the bottom of the pond. They will stay alive for 2 weeks easy.


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## Intimidator

Star1pup, I used a 55 gal aquarium in my basement with 2 Marineland bio-wheel 200 filtration systems, I could keep 4-5 doz (maybe more) minnows alive for months if needed Stayed cool and clean, they would eat small goldfish flakes.


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## buckeyeguy

Usually the coolers work good in the spring and fall if the minis are only going to be in there a few days. We have a small hard plastic kiddy pool that we use in the summer. Put it in the garage and fill it with as much pond/creek/lake water as you can get and fill it more with some faucet water. We get the plug in aerators and use the air stones that 7th is talking about. Since the place we get minnis has good prices we'll get 10-12 doz and transport them to the house in a cooler and pour them into the pool. Their life span is usually 2-3 weeks if you can get some fresh pond/lake water from time to time (fish food doesn't hurt either). Of course your going to have to pick out the singles as they die off so they don't kill the rest.


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## Ripley

a big cooler in your workshop with a filter to get out the waste....

do you have an air compressor?..... run a line off the air compressor an regulate it.... then run it through filters to get out any oil or condensation....like if you where going to be painting... 

somewhere on the site someone was talking about they use a refridgerator... i think on it's side.... if you could find the thread...


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## Star1pup

The plug in aerator seems to be working pretty well, but I really need to find a place to buy an aerator with a filter. Maybe firnd one on line.

I use lake water and also add a bottle of frozen lake water to make sure everything stays cool. I just bought minnows yesterday, but nw we have another lousy thunderstorm and it looks like 3 days of the same thing.  Hope the minnows last until Friday, which looks like the first chance to fish.


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## Snakecharmer

If you can find one of those old cement stationary wash tubs they work great.


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## mjgood

Put your bucket in the fridge and change water every day or two. Use clean cold water, city water might have chems so if you live in town use bottled or a friend who has a well. I can keep 3-4 dozen in a cheap bucket for several weeks by doing this. When you go out keep your bucket as cool as possible and add ice once and a while. Air and cool (42 degrees) is the keep. Oxygen loss occurs quicker the warmer and amonia rises fast with larger quantity of bait. I haven't tried this on shiners but works great on flatheads, suckers and gills. If you really want to keep some start a small fish tank. I used to keep 100 gold fish or flatheads in a 10 gallon aquarium but the temp needs to stay at or below 72 degrees. Don't need to change the water if you use a bio filter or some type of gravel bottom (don't clean). Add a few dozen at first then 25-50 then 100 or so. The gravel or bio acts as a septic tank and filters the ammonia from the urine. Feed lightly 2-3 times weekly. You will lose some in the beginning but after a few weeks or so you have great bait all the time. For 20-30 bucks you can keep all the bait you buy until it gets bit. Happy fishin...


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## Star1pup

Good suggestions. I now am using a Coleman cooler with a hole in the top side to stick my airhose. I use an AC aerator and put in some frozen bottles of lake water when I think it'll get too hot. I do need to find a filter of some sort so I don't need to clean the tank evey 2 days. I also need to find something to feed them. I have some floating pond fish food and think that might work for feed.


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## Star1pup

As an update, I have added a filter I bought at Wal-Mart. So far, so good, but we will see.


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## ress

I keep mine in a small cooler in the fridge in the garage, change the water(from the resevoir) once a week. I've kept 4doz for around a month. The lady I buy them from keeps them in a old chest freezer with out the lid on and can regulate the temp.


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