Bait Aeration Coolers

[BornToFish]

I fish for two weeks in NW Ontario each August. I've noticed over the last several seasons that the minnows we buy don't last very long. For example, we buy minnows from the fishing lodge after dinner. We motor out to the place we want to fish, only to find that about 1/3 of the minnows are already dead. This is somewhat disheartening in that the dead minnows didn't even last the fifteen minute boat ride.

I've noticed several sporting good stores advertising bait aeration coolers. The container appears to be insulated, so as to keep the water cool longer. There is also a bait aerator, that bubbles air into the water.

Does anyone have practical experience with these for minnows during warm weather? Do they work? Are they worth the price? I just wonder how much good they do if they are bubbling warm/hot air into cool water.

Many thanks for your perspective.

[bthomas3333]

We fly in 40 dz minnows which normally last us about 3 days before we run out then do a refill of 30 dz on our check flights. We bring in 2 FraBill 5GL buckets to keep the minnows day to day. Couple of tips. One would be take a good number of the minnows and get them into the fishing buckets asap. Then keep them in the lake in the shade as much as possible. Never leave them sitting in the sun for more than a few minutes.

The minnows that go in the buckets need to be aerated and cool. We fly in two frozen water bottles to get us started then during the week we refreeze water bottles. We fill them with lake water-non potable water and stick them in the freezer. When the first set of bottles are thawed we switch to frozen ones. We also change the water in the buckets twice a day. The final piece of advice would be to avoid overfilling the buckets with too many minnows. One year we stuck 20 dz in one 5 GL bucket to find 2/3 dead overnight despite good temp and air. We use two sets of D batteries per bucket for a week.

Your problem in Aug is probably water temp. The camp is probably giving you minnows from a cool tank and you are sticking them in warmer water. Nothing will kill them faster than going from 65 to 80 degree water.

Temp / Sun / Clean water / Don't overfill

Anyway my two cents.

B

[Pooch]

We take in a bunch of minnows and use a large coleman cooler with two aeration pumps and an aquarium filter. (camp has electric) Change out a several gallons of water every day with clean tap (non chlorinated) water and keep a small thermometer in the tank. Try to keep the water in the high sixties to low seventies. We use half gallon milk jugs frozen then remove the cap and allow them to thaw in the cooler maybe one a day. Keep the cooler lid closed for temps and to keep them from jumping out.

In the boat we use a insulated, aeration bucket (D cells). We really try to never let minnows get warm or temperature shocked as they are so fragile.

We also have good luck sinking a SECURED LID five gallon bucket off the end of the dock in deeper cooler water. Lots of good recommendations from past posts on this subject.

I have an older version of this in the boat. Works really well, but I also will throw in a few ice cubes during the day if it is really hot and sunny.

Minnows can sometimes take warmer water as long as they are acclimated to it and it has oxygen. I've had our main cooler get into the mid to high seventies before and the minnows were fine as long as they had clean and aerated water. If the water starts to get even a slight bit cloudy, start changing it out without temperature shocking the minnows.

Those little plastic yellow and white floating minnow buckets are minnow killers unless well tended. I see guys towing them all around the lake in hot weather and the water temps are high then add in the sun and the temps inside those little minnow buckets has to be soaring. They are usually fishing with a bunch of dead soggy minnows by mid morning. If you use one of them try shoving it deeper into the lake to get cooler water into them.

Sometime shove your hand as deep as you can into the mid lake water and that's about as warm as you want you minnows to be. Don't get you minnows really cooled down then hook and throw them into the top foot of water that is hot while you wash your hands.

Surely you've figured out from this wordy post that I've killed a lot of minnows over the years. Now with the price of live bait is a good time to take better care of them.

All the above goes for leeches and more or less to crawlers, too.

Pooch

[SinOrSwim]

We flew in for years and always had trouble with minnows. Tried keeping them in the oxygenated bags in coolers, worked okay but not great. Best thing we found was a mesh minnow bucket and we put a rock in it and sunk it to the bottom of the lake off the dock. Lift out to take minnows out each morning.

Last year I took an old cooler I had and drilled a couple holes and bought a fish tank aerator. Bought the bigger one with two connections so it has two tubes with two aeration stones. Fill it with water, put in some dechlorinating drops for fish tanks and put them in there. Kept all but a few alive for the two trips. One was a 3 day trip and one was a 5 day trip. We had about 30 doz big minnows in there and never changed the water. Worked great. Scooped some out in the morning into a zip lock bag and took down to the dock, put in our bucket. We would lose a couple but not many.

If you have access to ice you could buy one of those 5 gallon buckets with the battery powered aerator, fill with lake water and put some ice in there to cool the water off. Then, put the minnows in and slowly add some more ice to cool the water off even more. Keep the water cold, see if that works

[bluefin85]

I use salted minnows the last 3 years work great.

[Walleye_Guru]

Ice... ice and more ice... but not too much.

On plus 80 degree days, I'll send guests out with nothing but a cooler and some ice and of course the minnows.. The minnows will last all day long with those two very simple things - ice and a small cooler.

When guiding, its not uncommon for me to grab 1/4 to 1/2 gallon minnows in a 5ga bucket. I add some ice (not too much because you can shock and kill them) and have no problem. In fact, the 5ga buckets are not insulated and with the proper ice, they'll last a very long time.

Also, we trap all of our own minnows. When leaving the lake in July, some times i'll have 2 - 3 gallons of minnows. If I keep them on ice, i have no problem getting them back to the tanks.

Ice is key in Ontario for conserving minnow. Aerators help, but ice is by far the most protective method.

Finally - minnow buckets work really well (think the standard Frabill minnow bucket), but make sure they lock. Otherwise the otters will clean you out... I speak from experience!