wow, thanks for mentioning this guys.
the contents coming out of the fish will happen no matter what. and it can be pretty awesome and interesting to see what comes out. I have heard guys losing up to 2 ounces on there fish while waiting in line to weigh in. because there bass upchucked half of a gizzard shad :shock:
I have never used a cooler livewell before but i was more comfortable with that then stringin them along. first off, that 3 pounder was in the live well since 8 am. when we released her she was a little slow to get going but she went into the depths hopefully with no recourse.
here is my setup and ways i actually read about online to keeping the fish alive.
15 gallon cooler
Super Fish Saver Kit by marine metal products $40.00
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/t...s&QueryText=aerator&Ntx=matchall&N=4887&Nty=1
a bottle of
Sure-Life™ Please Release Me™ $9.00
http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_-1_10001_1268____SearchResults
and an extra battery from mike at the rental for a total of two in the boat. which worked out better than expected.
note: i had forgotten the ice water bottles at home which would have been better for the fish if I had it.
the pump pulls some awesome water it doubles as a bilge an filled my cooler up in 5 minutes after fish kid got his first fish.
we continued to fish and i kept the aerator in check turning it on and off periodically as it didn't need to be on all the time. i also needed to make sure the holes on the tubing didn't blow water on the fish as it can remove scales this way.
believe it or not there is a 3 pounder in there. :shock:
i took this pic after i had put in some of the please release me powder in it helps provide a little more oxygen for the fish. and got all the rip rap wiring out of the way as well.
by 11am we had to empty out the live well and introduce fresh water into it. I did it because i thought i read somewhere that there is a biproduct released from the fish converting the oxygen. i could be wrong but knew i had to do it. our fish tried skying out of the cooler but luckily came straight back in. fishkid.... the look on your face was priceless :lol: :lol:
we added more of the please release and kept an eye on the fish till the end of the tournament. i should also mention by 11 am our battery was not working so well for the trolling motor so we swapped batteries and it worked out great. the older battery had more than enough juice to aerate water in the cooler while the battery used for aeration hauled butt for us to fight the wind. :wink: