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Live Well Usage

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live usage
3K views 7 replies 5 participants last post by  Roccus 
#1 ·
OK, trying to decide how to rig my new boat. I fish out of the Merrimack and the new boat is a 25 foot Whaler that has a below deck fish box that could easily be plumbed to make a live well. For the past few years I have been using a home-made live well made from a plastic barrel cut down with a bilge pump on a rope that I hang over the side. It works fine for the couple times a season I use it.'

My question is, how much use would I get out of the live well? I usually only grab mackerel for 2-3 weeks in the spring when they are around thick. Then the macks disappear and I fish chunks for the rest of the season except for maybe some ill-fated attempts to fish eels (haven't figure them out yet, but keep on trying).

Is the live bait around later in the season? Should I rig up the livewell and try and learn where to catch macks later into the season?
 
#5 ·
Bait species vary with the season.... First it's mackerel... if they are scarce polock or cunners will suffice, eels dont need to be kept in a live well, unless your running traps and purging them as you fish....

In by gone years the pogies showed after the mackerel, last year we had them for a few days before they left....

Late summer, the herring(sea herring) start showing over the mud bottom with schools of small whiting and mud hake, all these are seviceable baits.... stripers eat the whole time they are here... find a food sorce and keep it alive!


Tight lines
Roc
 
#7 ·
CandleZ, my ******* livewell actually works great and cost almost nothing to build. It's portable and easy to take off the boat. The only purchase item was the small bilge pump and the aerator head. As I mentioned above, the tank itself is a cut off 55 gallon round plastic drum with the cover fitted back on and a drain hose attached. The pump is tied off to a line and the pump discharge hose and power leads also wrapped to the line. To fill the well and circulate in clean water while anchored or drifting, we just hang the pump over the side and plug it in. The pump discharges in to the well through the aerator head. When we are running or back in the river, the pump goes right in to the well and circulates/aerates the water. It works great and cost very little and we made it in a couple hours!
 
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