Live Shad - Dead Shad

[Ozark littlefish]

Has anyone ben able to keep shad alive? I can net them well enough, but they die in no time.

 

[jtexas]

Re: Live Shad - Dead Shad

Striper guides do it with fancy oxygenated bait tanks like these. <br /><br />I've just acquired a cast net & learned how to use it & been doing some research...what I've found is<br />* don't let the water temp in your tank get much higher than 72 - add ice if you need to<br />* you have to continuously filter the water<br />* if you're using city water, add some salt - one cup per 10 gallons - and something to neutralize the chlorination. Not sure if you add salt to lake water, probably not.<br />* oxygen - I just bought a couple of these air pumps on ebay, I'll let you know how it works weekend after next. <br />* In a square tank they all pile up together in a corner and use up all the oxygen, is why the fancy bait tanks are round, and keep a gentle current flowing.<br /><br />Those expensive tanks have pure oxygen injectors - too pricy for me. I'm going to add a filtration pump, and try it in an igloo cooler.<br /><br />good luck!

 

[KCLOST]

Re: Live Shad - Dead Shad

If you add ice make sure it is something like a frozen sealed gallon jug of water... Adding pure ice that will melt with the water will add chlorine...<br /><br />and as mentioned by jtexas, they have to be in a round container...

 

[llfish]

Re: Live Shad - Dead Shad

Yes add salt to lake water. Change the water quite frequently at first. Two to three times first half hour.

 

[xxxxxx]

Re: Live Shad - Dead Shad

Check to make sure your hose does not get twisted from time to time as will cut of the supply of air ....expensive tanks or not.... no air no minnows!

 

[jtexas]

Re: Live Shad - Dead Shad

Here's some things I've learned in two trips with my homemade bait tank:

* a ten-pound bag of ice in 2 or 3 gallon-sized ziplock bags will lower the temp of 16 gallons of water by 10º in 15 or 20 minutes.

* the inside of your tank should be a light color or else you'll have a hard time finding the bait inside.

* an Emergency Blanket (a queen-sized sheet of space-age mylar, $1.99 in the camping dept. at walmarts) taped to a plastic tub with clear packing tape is effective insulation...maintained a fairly constant 75º for hours on a 95º day in direct sunlight.

* gizard shad are much hardier than threadfins.

* you can find shad inside marinas at midday.

* you get more shad when you let the net sink deeper.

* that "easy-cast" ring performs as promised...you can make perfect throws right out of the box...but you have to hold the net out and up above your head to throw it - it will tire you out - plus which forget about throwing it from the casting deck of a small boat. I cut the ring off mine & learned a traditional cast technique - took a couple hours but now I can throw it without killing my arm.

I still have a lot of shad mortality...need to find a better way to transfer 'em from the net to the tank...other than letting 'em fall on the deck and picking 'em up.

Any advice, let's hear it.

 

[tomatolord]

Re: Live Shad - Dead Shad

You would be suprised how few fish can be kept in a tank.

The problem becomes

1 oxygen
2 urine
3 water temp
4 stress

the 1st two are easy - just replace the water with lake water, not a bubbler but in one end out the other, it is very hard to remove the urine with filters etc



3 is hard, warm water stresses fish - but keeping them out of direct sunlight would help, Cold water puts the fish into a kind of stupor

4 - is hard but i would keep 1/2 of the tank covered so the fish have some place to hide

My guess is that 2 tanks would be best

1 with ice and and a bubbler
2 tank to move 2-3 fish into to get them ready for fishing. trying to do both with the same tank would be hard.

tomatolord

 

[walleyehed]

Re: Live Shad - Dead Shad

If anyone wants to know "why the salt"...it's a natural sedative and allows quick recovery of the slime-coat which is removed in handling and by use of the nets.
The salted water also holds "slightly" more disolved O2.

 

[jall65]

Re: Live Shad - Dead Shad

Here is what we do...
We use a small plastic drum like the 35 gallon size or so and cut the bottom off leaving about 14 to 20 inches deep. Like KCLOST said, use milk jugs with frozen water in it, and use 2 of those D-cell operated aerators... I think 8 bucks at wally world. the drum is better than a cooler because they can keep moving in circles instead of piling up in each other. if they keep moving they live lots longer..we discovered that if you can put some type if shade over it it helps too.

 

[VADER8674]

Re: Live Shad - Dead Shad

intriging info thanks alot

 

[rolmops]

Re: Live Shad - Dead Shad

I do not usually catch them.I just buy them in a bait store and keep them in a five gallon bucket.I do not use an airpump.
I used to buy 2 dozen in a rectangular cooler with airpump and 80% died within a few hours. Because they died so fast,I tried something different every time and in the end I came up with a system that leaves them alive all day.
I never put more than a dozen in a 5 gallon bucket.They need a minimal amount of "personal "space.I never use a bucket with corners,always round.Instead of an airpump I use oxygene pills.They come in little packages containing one oxygene and one water purifying pill.One package is good for about 4 hours. dependent on temperature I add ice,gradually because temperature shock can easily kill them.
If I keep them overnight,they go in a bait cage in about 20 feet of water so they can feed a bit.

 

[Macgyver0856]

Re: Live Shad - Dead Shad

i use a 2.5 gl. bait bucket that has a styrofoam liner . i use the air pump but have still had issues keeping minnows alive . the ice trick does work but i've found that if i put the bucket inside a cooler it works much better at keeping them alive and also some hydrogen peroxide will help with the water chemistry (oxygen and the urine problem)

 

[Scoop]

Re: Live Shad - Dead Shad

I used one of these on Rainy Lake. We had to keep bait alive for days because they only did bait/grocery/fuel deliveries twice a week (We were on a houseboat).

It was great. I tried one of the smaller ones, but they were loud and a pain.
AQUA-LIFE™ #1409 Bait station
http://www.frabill.com/portaerate.html

This is quiet, self contained an can be hooked up to a 12 volt supply. The batteries do last close to as long as they claim.

You'd think the light is crazy, but I even liked that.

 

[PierBridge]

Re: Live Shad - Dead Shad

No need to keep them alive they work better dead i keep them frozen year round.

 

[heycods]

Re: Live Shad - Dead Shad

Striper guides do it with fancy oxygenated bait tanks like these. <br /><br />I've just acquired a cast net & learned how to use it & been doing some research...what I've found is<br />* don't let the water temp in your tank get much higher than 72 - add ice if you need to<br />* you have to continuously filter the water<br />* if you're using city water, add some salt - one cup per 10 gallons - and something to neutralize the chlorination. Not sure if you add salt to lake water, probably not.<br />* oxygen - I just bought a couple of these air pumps on ebay, I'll let you know how it works weekend after next. <br />* In a square tank they all pile up together in a corner and use up all the oxygen, is why the fancy bait tanks are round, and keep a gentle current flowing.<br /><br />Those expensive tanks have pure oxygen injectors - too pricy for me. I'm going to add a filtration pump, and try it in an igloo cooler.<br /><br />good luck!

Ever think of using one of the Oxy. pumps that the sick folks have that take the oxy out of the air. My mother had one befour she died, Dont know the cost it was furnished by the hospice people.