keeping bait alive.

[flip1906]

HI,

I may be kidding myself just wondering if there is a feasable way of keeping salt water live bait alive eg mullet, herring and garfish for a period of 18hrs at home. I have a airator for using over short sessions. Just curious if possible to catch bait night before session and keep alive by way of 240v pumps etc at home.

Flip

[frankgrimes]

Hey mate - I've done it before(Kept them(mullet) alive for 2 days), with good aerator, and also by changing ~1/3 water few times...you can also get additives to remove/reduce ammonia

Mick

[RAT-KING]

Yeah the key is the more water u have the better if u have the containers I would fill both up, then half way put the livies and aerator in the second tub, of course make sure u keep the water clean and remove the sick or dead livies,
Alternatively I catch my livies and get a container with a lid and drill hundreds of holes in it, way it down and put it in an area where if the tide goes out it wont be dry (or move with tidal movement)
good luck

[sleepygreg]

mullet and gars should be ok, but herring are a pain in the butt....they shed scales too easily and seem to go belly up before any of the others. Plenty of water, and keep it clean....talk to your local aquarium about the ammonia issue.

Greg

[nidrac]

mate it all depends on how much effort you want to put in... me and my old man had a setup a few years ago when I was still at home with an old iron bathtub in the backyard, had the bottom ¾ of it buried (to stop as much temperature change as possible) and had an aquarium pump (one with only a basic filter) in it which was attached to a piece of garden hose around the top of the tub with holes drilled in it to spray/aerate the water… we used to be able to keep about 10-15 decent size mullet alive in here for about a week also prawns and gars but we used to change the water in it once every few 4-5days.. herring used to be a problem as greg said they shed their scales and kill everything.. also the fish that do die need to be removed straight away otherwise it’ll kill the rest of them within a few hours.. it wasn’t the most effective thing but handy for the late afternoon/night fishing trips in the Hinchinbrook, no need to worry about trying to find bait in the dark with the crocs…

Nidrac

[Pete62]

My 2 bobs worth. I regularly keep mullet alive for 2 days. The trick is to change the water every hour for the first 3 hours, after that all the gunk is out of em and provided the airator keep ticking over they will happily wait for you to sick a hook in their shoulder.

Pete.

[flip1906]

Really appreciatte the advice guys will put it into to practice combined with some trial and error. Thanks again.
Phil

[ronnien]

we used to use a kids round swimming pool with pumps, had a few 20ltr buckets which we changed every few days with fresh saltwater. never ran out of mullet!

ron.

[Swindells]

When you guys say herring, is that sprat?

[Crisp Bee]

I had a problem keeping them alive, so I bought a cheap aquarium from an ad in the paper. It came with Gravel, filter stand, lights ,heater for $100.
I went down to the boat ramp at breaky creek for water, and filled up a heap of drums, containers, eskies and carefully sloshed home. I let the filter run a couple of hours, and still couldnt see through the tank , it was sooo cloudy. Eventually it cleared (about a week), I could not wait, so I took out the bait net and went back for a few throws and caught some poddy mullet, herring, and put them in the tank. the mullet survived for weeks. I have had a 250mm long bream in there as well for a week or more, which i caught with the bait net. Prawns don't seem to last too long, some last a week(very few). Herring usually die over night. It is quite interesting. i buy frozen green marine food from the pet shop, and smash up the odd prawn as food.

[Swindells]

I usually keep my boat moored when i'm fishing in bundy, we have access to a private creek (no public boat ramps) and i keep liveys in a bait bucket beside the boat, it's a 15ltr bucket.... if i keep 10 small mullet in there they all die overnight even though they have a constant supply of fresh water. if i keep 2 or 3 in there they all live. haven't thought too deeply into that but draw your conclusions where you will.

cheers,

Swindells

[flip1906]

thanks again guys just a quick one clearly herring and such is pot luck how about hardie heads thinking for squire bait thats all.
Phil