livewell dieoff
 

everything i put in there yesterday died pretty quick. it runs - keeps on pumping in new water. no indication of contamination.

How many did you stuff in there? Was there enough room to swim and breath? I can keep about 20 macs or so going most of the day. In D Bay lots of grass and kept clogging the inlet so although there was water flowing it wasn't full steam.

a dozen macks, no problem before. later on i put 4 fish in w/ fresh water and they croaked too

Sounds like some residual cleaning solution or antifreeze....

Paul doesn't clean his boat! I'll still go with reduced water flow rate due to partial blockage. Macs have a fine line of survival.

I have heard fresh water from a garden hose used to clean a live well will affect the bait. The Clorine in tap water acts like poison and kills the bacteria needed to circulate the oxegen in the water. Try washing the live well with salt water only and never adding fresh water.

Maybe your baits believed that "world coming to and end" crap and had a mass suicide

The amount of chlorine dissolved in tap water will evaporate out in about 24 hours. I used to keep Discus and I would leave an open jugs for 24 hours to age to make water changes. I read it somewhere, and at $40-$75 a fish I had to feel safe and never had a problem.
I would look for some other type of contaminate. I hope you didn't happen to get straight bleach in it? Thats a biatch to get out and I wouldn't feel safe for weeks after bleach. You could scrub it using vinegar safely if in doubt, give it a good rinse and 24 hours before use.
Is the water at a different temperature? If the temperature changes too rapidly it can harm the bait also, it would take quite a swing in temperature to kill Mackerel though:confused:
Was there a major change in salinity?

I wondering how my macs in the pen will do with all the tannic acid in the water.

Not knowing if you were fishing in a river or not ( fresh/brackish water being pumped in) I'd agree it is a water flow problem....too much turn over can also kill bait fish... almost as quickly as not enough turn.... a complete turn over once every 7 minutes is ideal... faster than that and the bait can become disoriented and stop swimming, which in the case of mackerel means they die.. I'm sure water temp as not an issue, but in warmer times, i float a jug ( or two) of frozen water ( the cap to the jug is siliconed on) and using the recirculating pump can keep Mac's caught at sunset alive until morning.....

How many gallons per hour pump do you have.

I can have macks live 4 days in my live well. They die from skin peel off, you can see the meat.

30-40 in a 55 gal. barrel not much die off

in retrospect i remember turning on the washdown and having no pressure. same pump.

Same problem I had all day, I could clear the baitwell to keep the macs alive but not the washdown. All that bubblegrass at the east end of the canal sucked right into your pump!

because I bring the mac's up into brackish water, I need two systems, after the bait is caught ( and purged of chum) I switch from my raw water system to my secondary system before entering the river, this is also a great back up system in case of problems with weed chocked waters of pump failure..35-60 GAL KEEP ALIVE RECIRCULATING KIT [Model 256] - $89.95 : LiveBaitLarry.com, Live Bait and Fishing Products


the two pictures show the two systems, the obvious, the incoming water from the 1100 gph mag drive pump below deck the other the 800gph shur flow bait saver... I've used alot of differantr systems dating back to the 70's when live bait was all I fished.. this one is the best and has worked flawlessly for years...

sometimes if the current is too strong in the livewell the pogies go bad,not sure about macks though

did you use it for the porta potty again?

Interesting article in the fisherman magazine that just came out about how aerators are a no no for mackerel. They say to just run the washdown pumps or toss in a 5 gal bucket of fresh water every now and then.

that's interesting mark - i'll have to check it out

I've been running areators for mackerel for over 40 years.. and never have had an issue... unless the water is too warm..run the external pump in the river where i fish and your bait will be dead in 5 minutes..

I had a livewell die off once, it involved 10 hard earned pogies, youngest son and a bottle of Magic Wand bubbles..... you can guess the rest

Yeah i was reading the fisherman magazine and found it very interesting as i run 2 keep alive systems along with a salt water washdown for pogies and was wondering if I should shut down the keep alive systems that are pumping air into the water for macks. Lots of times keep alive systems are installed backwards,postisitve to negative etc,they sound and look ok but do not pump any air at all into the livewell. We lost 25 pogies 2 years ago with this comical error :)

How many gallons of water does your tank hold?

How many gallons does your pump, pump an hour?

How long is your line going to the live well?

Have you reduced the size of your hose to the live well?

Four fish or a dozen fish should not be dieing.

My buds scout has a small livewell and we kept a dozen and a half frisky all morning...

used it yesterday and it worked but looses pressure while under way, same w/ the washdown

Paul when u go 50 mph in that speed boat of yours the washdown can't pick up seawater :) You have to drive like a turtle kind of like me :)

I've found the complete opposite with the aerator. I need to use it or the macs die. I run it for short periods though.

I have a brass through wall to the pump uptake with a "V" or"U" shape facing forwards such that it works as a ramjet when moving (fast) so the livewell still uptakes. At least that was until I installed a screen mesh over it preventing weed pull up. I'll have to see how the new configuration works?

Andrew I thought it was very odd in the article as well that an aerator would kill off macks due to bubbles landing on the gil plate. We did not use our keep alive systems yesterday for that reason but based on what your saying will give it a try the next time out. Saw your boat on the way into Marshfield Harbor yesterday,she looks great. Mark

oh yeah - my 115 is a real speed demon - it's like the boating eqivilent of a honda civic. on the plus side i've only burnt half a tank of fuel so far this year
i'm going to that a try buzz

If losing pressure when increasing speed after an X number of kts. you will need a scoop on the bottom of the intake tube on the pump. The scoop wll force the water up and into the live well when going forward. Also the scoop has to be placed approx. a 1/4 - 1/2 inch below the bottom of boat and alignment is crucial. The scoop usually is made of brass with a threaded neck and you may need to jerry rig it to pump. Harder to explain then to do. the scoop has narrow slots, do not need to worry about weeds.