Fishi In The Livewell

For anybody that lives or fishes in a state that has hot summer temperatures, I have a few tips as to not only keep your fish alive for the tournament or day of fishing, but to keep the fish healthy after you release them. I once had a fish die on my live well during a tournament. Though I got penalized half the weight of the fish, I felt that I should have had a bigger punishment. I don't even eat bass so I didn't know what to do with it after weigh in. The only thing I could do is go home and do research so as this would not happen again in an effort to preserve our fisheries.

During those hot summer days, water in the live well can well exceed that of the water in the lake. Sometimes its not enough to just recirculate water to the live well. Fill live wells early. This usually will be colder water earlier in the day. Always bring extra ice. Ice in the live well is a great way to keep the water cool. Remember though, once you have cooled the water in the live well down, if you bring water in form the lake its most likely warmer than the live well water, thus will melt more ice. Do this a couple of time and next thing you know your out of ice and have no way of cooling down the live well water.

So if your not recirculating water to bring in fresh oxygen, then you must put some type of oxygen supplement into the water. There are a bunch of different brands out there, but I use catch and release formula. I have heard of people using hydrogen peroxide to but I would do my research on that first.

I keep a thermometers in the live well. Its a little cheapo that I pucked up at Wal-Mart for a few bucks. Most of the things I read say to try and keep the live well temp between 65 and 68 degrees.

Don't just take my word for things. Do your own research and you may just learn something new.