bait live well

[oldcamper]

Has anybody made a home made live well for a boat? I have an older boat and would like some pictures and tips if there are any out there?

[Button Nubbs]

cooler and an areator?

[big J]

15 gallon plastic barrel drill o hole in the bottom put a elbow on it so the water swirls when filled drill a hole close to the top for a thru hull and put a drain hose on it. get a pump and pump water continously through it. costs about 30 bucks to build and works pretty good. we keep chovies in mine for our tuna runs  without much deadloss.

[magnus100]

Agree with big j above . You can even go as large as a heavy duty rubermaid trash can. The smaller one. Not the giant one. A standard bilge pump hung over the back of boat pumping water into bottom side of can with an overflow at top. I had to make overflow larger hose than inflow or my can would spill over.
Mike

[huntergreg]

I made one for my 15 ft. smoker-craft Alaskan. I made it 36in. long 12in. wide and 12in. deep. in the pic the lid is open. I used 1/8 in. aluminum. cut out my sides and top. took some 1/2 x 1/2 in aluminum angle and pop riveted it to the sides. I had some 1 1/2 angle diamond plate that I added to the outside vertical edges. I installed the live well pump kit and drain. I then used silicone to do all the inside corners. That thing works great. I should have taken pics while I built it.

[magnus100]

Very nice!

[HunterFisher]

cooler and an areator?

Buy a cheap aquarium aerator pump, stone and hose from wally world, get a power inverter and run it from that.  Drill a hole through the lid a cheap cooler that doesn't have a drain plug. 

You can keep live bait live, but also when you catch a limit of crabs and don't want to eat until the next day, take home and plug into the wall outlet.  You get about 24-30 hours before they begin to fade without changing the water.

[oldcamper]

Very nice huntergreg. It looks like you worked it in real good.