Keep Alive Bait Tanks?

[hooterville]

Been looking at the keep alive bait tank. Looking at either a 20 gal or 30 insulated tank for my 18' Tracker Grizzly aluminum boat.these tanks are under $350 or so .

I live in East Tn and will be fishing freshwater all the time. I know there are some higher priced tanks out there but there out of my price range.

[samIam]

Hooterville,If your gonna buy your bait from a bait shop you will be fine with that tank.If you plan on catching gizzard shad for bait,they WILL clog the little filter up fast with the slime,scales and stuff they barf up.If your buying them,well they have done did that in the tank at the bait mans.Its a good tank but the filtration tanks are the best.You can look around and almost allways fisn a used insulated filtered tank for areund $350.00.Theres really nothing to wear out but the bildge pump on them.I 'm not sure what your gonna be fishing for or with,I know the filtered tanks are high,and if your fishing in the hot months they are worth the money.Usually this site,,striperboard.com has a tank or two for sale..,just my 2 cents worth,,sam

[hooterville]

well i usually fish for Striper here in East tn on Boone Lake. I usually catch my own bait and do cooler for now. I have a older bait tank that was custom home made years ago that has the pump separate but attached to the tank with batting used for filter material. All the scales and slime i think is sucked to the bottom under a tray and i think is sucked into the compartment where the pump is and filtered putting cleaner water back throught the tank at the top.Pretty sure most of the tank is aluminum .It is insulated and a little heavy to lug in and out of boat.

So would my crude tank be considered filtered like the online one's?

[samIam]

I'd say yours is filtered.Heres a pic of a superbait tank II bait compartment on the left and filtration on the right


here it is with the scale catcher and filtration basket removed.



scale catcher and basket


Water comes UP from the bottom of the tank(you can see the plumbing whith the basket removed) then falls thru the two part filtration system,then the bildge pump is pumping it back into the tank,its a constant pumping and filtering.hope this helps..sam.

[samIam]

Hville,There is someone on the lakenorman striper swipers message board that has a 20 gallon creekbank used 6 times for $300.00,thats a good deal,it runs about $500.00 new.......sam

[hooterville]

here is a pic of my old crappy tank...........it's aluminum inside and outside is insulated. looks like it was fiberglassed to hold insulation together and painted white. the exterior is comming apart. anyone have a Idea one how to got about reinsulating it???????

[panfish]

If you only have a $350 budget, then I would wait and buy a used Creek Bank or Vest (Superbait Tank II). They come up pretty regularly on striper boards. You will live happily ever after.