Is a livewell worth the trouble?

[jdsgrog]

To all of you fisherman out there, do you think having a livewell in a boat is worth the trouble? I'm thinking about building a boat in the near future, and I'm wondering if a livewell is worth having or not. I do mainly catch and release fishing and only keep what I plan to eat. I've never had a problem with liveliness of bait fish/minnows , even when keeping a bunch of them over the dock overnight or in a five gallon aerated bucket.

Space would not be an issue. It's more the cost of putting one in and also maintenance thereafter. BTW, space will be only for 20 gal or less. Also, do not do any tournament fishing.

 

[vegasphotoman]

Re: Is a livewell worth the trouble?

.why mess with a 4 day project ...you sound like youre not really sold on it anyways...so I say No to the livewell.

Unless your dying to work on the project!

more room for those days when you have the wife and kids or pals out....beach etc skiing.....more room for a cooler full of beer.......ALTHOUGH a livewell could double as an onboard cooler........since it would have a built in drain.........

 

[joey maneri]

Re: Is a livewell worth the trouble?

If you were to sell the boat it might be a good selling point. But it dosent sond like you would use it so you might want to save your money.

 

[EddiePetty]

Re: Is a livewell worth the trouble?

Being as you are still in the thinking stages.....

Think about building a livewell as a DRYwell for the present.
As time passes and you become more convience that you just can not live without a livewell: just drill out the pre-thought supply and drain holes and wire the pump.
Additionally, at resale time, and to enhance the value, again, you could easily and quickly convert the drywell into a livewell.

I currently have 14' Stumpnocker with a drywell on the stbd. and a livewell on the port. More often than not, the livewell remains plugged and used as a drywell.

FWIW....Ed in 'ol Virginny

 

[bkwapisz]

Re: Is a livewell worth the trouble?

On my runabout I bought a cooler and an aerator that suction cupped to the bottom from Walmart. Add in a few roach clips to hookup to the battery from Radio shack and I had an instant, removeable livewell. Total cost: ~$30. Still have it in the crawlspace and it can double as a cooler if I need it. Took it out for waterskiing, tubing, etc. Just a thought.

 

[HAV2FISH]

Re: Is a livewell worth the trouble?

I personally like the idea of having a live well even if im only using it for storage. You never know when your going to catch that once in a life time fish and you want to keep him alive as long as possible.

 

[fishrdan]

Re: Is a livewell worth the trouble?

I've fished for years without a livewell and haven't missed it, though I don't use live bait or hold live fish. Bait is frozen and fish go on ice. But, I'm sure others use their livewells every time they go out...

Your 5 gallon bucket/aerator will work better for keeping bait fresh than a square livewell since the bait can swim in a circle, no banging into or bunching up in a corner. Good quality deck mounted bait tanks are round or have 1/2 round ends for this reason.

If you are building (rebuilding?) a boat and have any doubts if you are going to need/want a livewell, put it in and plumb it. Everything is installed below deck and it's going to be a royal pain to do it later.

 

[Bass Tracker TX17]

Re: Is a livewell worth the trouble?

I have a live well. Filled it once in 15 years just to see it work. I catch and release too. However it's storage for my rope and other things and can be fillled in a couple of min if i had to. I would build it with one and use it for storage. A pump and drain is cheap money. find the right heavy plastic tote and build around it. i agree with HAV2FISH and fishrdan.

I also have used my well as a cooler. Plus you pull the plug and it drains on the way home.

 

[jdsgrog]

Re: Is a livewell worth the trouble?

I guess I should clarify more why I ask this question. I've heard so many mixed reviews about livewells and how they beat up fish. I understand the need for a live well for tournament fishing. You have to keep the fish alive at weigh in. But I'm a recreational/liesure fisherman. I go out at most 6-8 hours of fishing at a time. If I'm fishing on vacation, I go out for a few hours and come back to the cabin. I'm wondering what the benefit of a livewell is for someone like me. I've personally never used one.

As for baitfish, I use a simple minnow bucket that I put over the side of my boat. The five gallon aerated bucket I use only to store fish overnight when on vacation or if I get larger minnows for fish like pike and such.

Also, I don't do any offshore fishing at present. Everything is on freshwater lakes primarily in the midwest/upper midwest.

So I guess the better question is, what are the benefits/drawbacks of a livewell from your personal experience?

 

[jdsgrog]

Re: Is a livewell worth the trouble?

btw, thanks everyone for your input. greatly appreciated.

 

[oceansbreeze]

Re: Is a livewell worth the trouble?

I personally like the idea of having a live well even if im only using it for storage. You never know when your going to catch that once in a life time fish and you want to keep him alive as long as possible.

I caught mine this summer.... 42" Northern Pike. I would have had to fold him over to put hin in the livewell! lol

FWIW I use my livewell mostly for storage. My net fits in perfectly and 2 jackets if needed... have put a spare anchor in once too. I'm mostly catch and release by myself, it's when I take people out with a conservation license, who want to keep their catch alive in case they catch a bigger one (and throw back the smaller guy) it's kind of handy to have

 

[MRS]

Re: Is a livewell worth the trouble?

I have one on our boat always throw a bag of ice in it for the fish we want to keep and it drains easy and easy to clean.....

 

[Mark_VTfisherman]

Re: Is a livewell worth the trouble?

To all of you fisherman out there, do you think having a livewell in a boat is worth the trouble? I'm thinking about building a boat in the near future, and I'm wondering if a livewell is worth having or not. I do mainly catch and release fishing and only keep what I plan to eat. I've never had a problem with liveliness of bait fish/minnows , even when keeping a bunch of them over the dock overnight or in a five gallon aerated bucket. Space would not be an issue. It's more the cost of putting one in and also maintenance thereafter. BTW, space will be only for 20 gal or less. Also, do not do any tournament fishing.

Livewell: unless you keep the water cool, fish will be stressed and die anyway. I keep a mid-sized cooler, and put ice in it. Also, in my dry locker I keep a package of small "kitchen" trash bags to put fish in- keeps the cooler from obtaining a distinctive aroma

Livewell is nice and cleans well and is entertaining for kids...but if you are releasing fish, unless you are keeping the Oxygen up and the temp down, you are probably killing a lot of fish you cull later.

I vote for the cooler- easily removable, makes a nice seat, and it's fun to watch not-so-avid boat guests freak out when you grab your lunch and a drink out of the same ice the fish are in and start chowing down. Ha Ha! Plus you can carry the fish off the boat and bring to cabin or wherever.

I have used one of those 'bait' aerators and they work fine in a cooler- for a little while. But the "motor" heats up the water eventually and trust me- salmon in warm water is worse than if you had just left them suffocating in cool, non-aerated lake water.

So I find it more humane and provisional of much better tasting fish to simply decide to kill a certain fish and ice it. Good catch-and-release dictates letting the larger, more productive spawners live and keeping smaller legal fish for the table. Also, smaller fish are healthier for you with less Mercury or pcb's per pound of edible fish.

My 2c

 

[dingbat]

Re: Is a livewell worth the trouble?

At only 20 gallons I'd call that more of a bait tank than a live well. My bait tank is 40 gallons and my live well is 120 gallons.

I use my bait tank maybe 5-6 times a year. My bait well is a circulating tank and does not have an aerator. The bait is keep alive by the constant flow of water through the system. Works great for keeping Spot alive when live lining. Can keep 40-50 alive for the day. (For the FW guys, a Spot is a sunfish like fish. Best size for live lining is 6-8" long.)

I've never used my live well. I turn on the pump long enough to put an inch or two of water in the bottom then throw in 40 lbs of ice to make an ice slurry. If a fish goes in there it's coming home with us for dinner

 

[redfury]

Re: Is a livewell worth the trouble?

I think a proper baitwell is nicer to have than a live well. The one thing that I hate having to do is pull the bait out of the lake and into the boat every time I want to up anchor and fly to a different spot. Something inevitably gets wet bringing it in, or tangled up in the rope. Same thing goes for a livewell for fish, but if you are catch and release and only keep what you are going to eat that day, then a cooler with ice is the better option.

My thing with bait is that suckers and shiners die easily due to stress, so a proper baitwell would help in that department.

 

[ddrieck]

Re: Is a livewell worth the trouble?

Another thing to think about is the fact that most states forbide chatching a fish putting it in the live well and then releasing it later if you catcha bigger fish. This is the case in Wyoming and I have seen Game and Fish give out tickets for doing just that. The only time it is legel is when you are a signed up contestebt in a fishing tournament.

 

[Seon]

Re: Is a livewell worth the trouble?

We've had problems with fur bags (sea lions) swimming around in the Sacramento Delta rivers. I'm sure some of you read about one of fisherman so frustrated that he shot one in the eye with a shot gun. Needless to say, he was arrested and he's facing charges.
Normally we'd hang the Stripers or Sturgeon over the side but with the fur bags, chances are that they'd swim and steal your catch off the stringers. I've been putting my Stripers in a live well on my recently acquired center console but I may have a problem if I caught a 46"-66" keeper Sturgeon :redface:

 

[Chuck7]

Re: Is a livewell worth the trouble?

I bought the three suction cup aerator at Walmart..I took off the 3 suction cups and put about a 1/2 inch of shoe goo on the bottom of the aerator.I stuck the wet shoe goo down in the corner of my coooler.It's been stuck for 10 years.Shoe Goo is waterproof and sold at walmart for about 5.00. I live in hot hot Florida and have no problem keeping fish alive in my cooler..

 

[4JawChuck]

Re: Is a livewell worth the trouble?

I use my livewell all the time, its full when I fish alone as ballast even when theres no fish in it. My boat has a large livewell meant for musky so it would hold even a large 60" fish if needed. To be honest once you have a built in one you would use it all the time and your fish would be healthier when you get back to the dock, I can't remember all the times we forgot the fish on the stringer and moved draggin em on plane...not good.

I prefer to have everything built in so there is nothing on the floor of the boat to trip on like another cooler or fuel tank etc. I think everyone can agree having less things to trip on is a good thing, a built in livewell is just another step in that direction.

Build it, you will enjoy having it.

 

[mikastorm]

Re: Is a livewell worth the trouble?

I agree. If I hope to catch some gills or walleye to eat and the bite is slow.
I can let that one fish go. Sometimes its just not worth cleaning one.

Dragging the bait bucket around does suck. Is nice to not have to heave them over the gunwale.

Storage is good till ya need to use it. (hopefully for the big one)