livewell dieoff

[Rockfish9]

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.....

[Fly Rod]

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

[niko]

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

[PRBuzz]

Originally Posted by niko

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!

[Rockfish9]

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...