Anyone forget to empty their Livewell?

[hostage]

A lot of people own Livewells, I don't but I was thinking...How many of you guys forgot to take the bait out of the livewell?

Regards,

Hostage

 

[Chris1956]

Re: Anyone forget to empty their Livewell?

I left a few smelt in the bilge over the winter, once. Does that count?

 

[greenbush future]

Re: Anyone forget to empty their Livewell?

Only make that mistake once, and yes I have dont it. Also dumped a bucket of large minows in my ex's brand new 4x4 and didnt find the rest of them till one spring day, when it got nice and warm out. Bleach is good for the live well oder. Cant help you on the interior of a truck.
LOL.

 

[CoffeeHound]

Re: Anyone forget to empty their Livewell?

The spare tire well of my SUV holds 3 gal. bucket full of minnows very well thank you --
Only took 2 days to remember to clean the well and spare here in Texas where we
don't have Spring Winter or Fall !! BTW --Sold the SUV shortly after that and it still stunk !!

 

[mommicked]

Re: Anyone forget to empty their Livewell?

Funny you should ask. Not long after I got my boat we caught several good size bass and I tried out my new livewell for the first time w them for a while. After I released the fish and trailored the boat I unscrewed the standpipe to drain the tank in my Jonboat console, the water drained out the back of the boat, all was well. A few days later I smelled something funny while messin w the boat. I opened the hatch on the livewell and it had a handfull of rotten Shad in a wet stinky mess on the bottom of the hot brown aluminum livewell. A Bass had yaked them up and I didn't see the shad when I released the Bass near dark, Stinky.

 

[jdlough]

Re: Anyone forget to empty their Livewell?

When I fish using cut bait, I often use my livewell to house under 18" fish that I catch, keeping them alive til I get back to the dock.

Last fall, I totally forgot I had a 15" catfish in there, and a couple of small eels. Two days later, I found the catfish still slowly swimming in circles, but no eels. By way of apology for for trapping that dude in a box for 2 days, I released him back into the river. I bet that was a very confused fish.

 

[River_Lizard]

Re: Anyone forget to empty their Livewell?

Had a cooler that was half full of Gizzard Shad that I just left in the cooler thinking I'd go back out the next day to fish again; well something came up so I wasn't able to go fishing for almost 2 weeks. It was mid-summer, temps were around 85-90 degrees during the day. I'm sure you can imagine what it smelled like in that cooler. I only noticed it when there was about 10,000 flies around the corner of my pontoon, walked over to it and as I was climbing the ladder to check and I realized what I had done. Oh that was really nasty to clean up too.

 

[coastalrichard]

Re: Anyone forget to empty their Livewell?

ssssshhhhh...Admiral thinks it's an on-board beer cooler (and I hate toting the beer cooler)

 

[GA_Boater]

Re: Anyone forget to empty their Livewell?

This thread stinks to high heaven!!!! LOL

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: Anyone forget to empty their Livewell?

a local fishing forum had this same discussion, entitled, "How do you get the stank out of your box?"

One solution if you can stand it is to let them all liquify and then wash them out the drain pipe, follow with bleach.

oh and best answer was "Summer's Eve"

 

[fishrdan]

Re: Anyone forget to empty their Livewell?

Livewell, NO.

I did leave some in my buddies cooler once. We got back from fishing and I forgot my fish in the cooler,,, sitting in the back of his truck. I remembered on the way home, and was going to call him when I got home, but forgot... Next weekend I saw him (didn't even think of the fish) and he tells me this story of noticing a strange smell, after being gone for a week of work. Then I put 2 & 2 together....

He said there was only a faint odor,,, until he lifted the cooler lid

 

[5150abf]

Re: Anyone forget to empty their Livewell?

Yup and I have a bait tank in the garage that apparently still had a few bluegill in it, opps, it will clean but it certainly has a unique smell.

We were fishing a couple years ago and caught a carp, I catfish so I was going to cut it up and use it for bait so I threw it in the front well, I fish every other week and the next trip we kept smelling something and couldn't figure it out until I opened the front well, it was nasty, a carp can get really nasty in 2 weeks.

 

[TerryMSU]

Re: Anyone forget to empty their Livewell?

Yup and I have a bait tank in the garage that apparently still had a few bluegill in it, opps, it will clean but it certainly has a unique smell.

We were fishing a couple years ago and caught a carp, I catfish so I was going to cut it up and use it for bait so I threw it in the front well, I fish every other week and the next trip we kept smelling something and couldn't figure it out until I opened the front well, it was nasty, a carp can get really nasty in 2 weeks.

I thought that catfish liked the stinky baits. Should have been ideal for them by then.

TerryMSU

 

[5150abf]

Re: Anyone forget to empty their Livewell?

I have tried chicken liver and stink bait and all I get is a bunch of little guys, best bait I have found so far is a 3'' blue gill and the carp was no longer hooking consitency, it was nasty.

 

[lonesouth]

Re: Anyone forget to empty their Livewell?

My grandparents had a shiner and worm farm when my dad was growing up. One saturday, they had just packed about 200 worms in boxes to deliver to the local bait stores, and put the boxes in the trunk of the 56 chevy. My dad saw a couple buddies on the way to deliver and got caught up shooting the breeze. He came back to the car about 4 hours later, after sitting in the central florida sun/heat of summer. The worms had worked their way through every nook, cranny, gap, seat cushion and empty space behind the dash. He said it finally quit smelling near the end of the summer.

 

[R Socey]

Re: Anyone forget to empty their Livewell?

I had a baitwell custom made ( bad disign ), it was oval with a rectangular frame. Well we went white perch fishing, and tore them up!
I used the baitwell as a makeshift cooler. I was just tossing the perch in the baitwell often 2, at a time, and my brother also. Well I cleaned out the oval but did not realize that many perch had fallen in between the oval, and the frame. Of coarse this was during hot weather. I didn't use the boat for a week. When I pulled the cover off, I saw more maggots than I have ever seen in one place at one time. They were crawling all over - big ones. We did what any real fisherman would do - we went fishing. It was gross, and it stunk with a rancid stench that periodically made us gag, but it was way better then going to work!

 

[woodsailboat]

Re: Anyone forget to empty their Livewell?

Last year me and my dad were fishing and caught a few small salt cats and pin fish, well 2 weeks later we decided to go for another fishing trip and we got the whole boat ready (big cuddy cabin) and we didnt smell a thing. We got to the boat ramp, put the boat in, and start heading out when my dad asks me to start preping the well for the shrimp, I opened the hatch and the water was pitch black with about 1/2 dozen fish carcases at the bottom of the well and I had to roll up my sleeve and stick my hand down in to unplug the drain. There was a whole rotting bait fish sticking head first in the plug.

 

[Fireman431]

Re: Anyone forget to empty their Livewell?

1) Was fishing for Sheepshead offshore at the jettys and they love fiddler crabs. Managed to catch approx a gallon of them at a local island. Later we accidentially knocked the bucket over and those little criters scampered everywhere. Thought we got them all, but some went down the scupper holes and stayed there. Two days later in the garage and we figured out where the smell was coming from. Thank god for bleach.

2) Livewell has it's own overflow tube. At the end of the day, we toss out whatever livies are left and drain the livewell by pullin gout the tube. One we missed headed down the drain and stopped. A few days later I found raccoons standing on the trailer fenders sniffing at the drain port. I couldn't figure out why. Then I caught a whiff..... A stong garden hose and my old buddy bleach....

 

[rickryder]

Re: Anyone forget to empty their Livewell?

a local fishing forum had this same discussion, entitled, "how do you get the stank out of your box?"

one solution if you can stand it is to let them all liquify and then wash them out the drain pipe, follow with bleach.

Oh and best answer was "summer's eve"

lmao