Keeping Fish Alive Thoughts

After having a fish die on me last night, I have been doing some research on keeping fish alive during the summer. With my last boat, I had a smaller livewell which did not have a recirculation option and I just ran my livewell pump on the automatic mode and never had a problem. With my current boat, my livewell is twice the size but I have not felt good about how my fish have acted after releasing by just keeping the automatic modes running and bringing in fresh lake water. From researching, I feel I need to utilize my recirculate mode anytime water temps are above 75 degrees.
With this method, I probably need to add a product to help, I have read about utilizing hydrogen peroxide as well as rock salt or stay alive or a similar product. I have also read about adding ice but have never used this too much due to the fact that I believe too drastic of a change will also hurt the fish.

I have attached some guidelines below which seem to be the simplest which I have found!

What do you guys do to keep your fish alive. I realize that in some instances, fish will die ina livewell and it can not be helped. But I want to do everything I can do to keep my fish healthy where they can be caught again!



Caring for Your Catch Fish Care Guidelines for Tournament Anglers


I. Fill your livewell early in the day. Fill your livewell at your first stop. It will be cooler and better aerated than later on. Use water from open lake areas with good water quality.

II. Turn on the recirculating aerator immediately. Set your aerator switch to manual (continuous operation). Run the aerator all day. If your pump only runs on a timer, run it as frequently as possible.

III. Land fish quickly and handle them as little as possible. Grasp fish by the lower jaw and hold them vertically. Bend the jaw as little as possible. Wet your hands before touching fish. Support large fish with a wet hand under the belly. Use soft, knotless nylon or rubber landing nets. Don't allow fish to touch boat carpet When deep hooks cannot be removed, cut line five or six inches above the hook Don't keep fish out of water longer than you can hold your breath.

IV. Care for fish while in Livewells. Fish in forward livewells are more likely to be injured from bouncing while traveling in rough water. Monitor livewell temperatures. When water temperatures are below 75 degrees, pump fresh water as often as your system will allow. When water temperatures are above 75 degrees, recirculate live well water rather than pumping in hot lake water.

Use ice to cool water and slow your fish’s' metabolisms.
One eight pound block of ice (one gallon plastic jug) cools water in a 30-gallon live well about 10 degrees for three hours. Block ice melts more slowly.

Add one-third cup of non-iodized salt per five gallons. It helps maintain electrolyte balance and reduces the effects of stress.
Use 'Live N Well' or 'Catch & Release' products to maintain metabolism.
Drain half of the livewell water every three hours and refill with fresh water to remove waste byproducts like carbon dioxide and ammonia.

Good article.

I find the fish last a lot longer when......I DON'T PUT HOOKS IN THEM :-)

Do not be afraid to use ice but try to use non-chlorine ice if you can, primarily this is done by making your own ice. Also do some research on additives I believe "Fish O2" is the best on the market because it removes almost all harmful chemicals out of your livewell water. Change your water out and add ice you will hear allot of guys that use the frozen bottle method which is also great. Search youtube for video's on hydrogen peroxide use in live wells by Doug Hannon (the bass professor) it's very informative.

The method that i use on the cumberland smallies is fill up your livewell and put the fish on the side with the pump nozzle.. make sure the nozzle is ABOVE the water level and when i squirts it makes bubbles in the water.. on the other side i put 2-3 gallon milk jugs with frozen water in them.. dont put all of the jugs in at once but keep adding them throughout the night.. i also us rejuvinate in the water as well.. i always put 2-4 cap fulls of rejunivate in the water.. Knock on wood we havent lost a fish in a couple of years using this method, and the fish are so lively that they try to jump out when you open the livewell up.. And when the temp get in the upper 80's or 90's like it is on cumberland this really helps..

fill your livewell early, add ice, and Hydrogen peroxide works GREAT!!. also the catch and release.

The best way I know is to fish in December when the water is cooler, set the hook, reel them in, remove hook, pose for photo opportunity, KISS, then KISS again (NO TONSIL HOCKEY), then place fish belly across the palm of your hand, gently ease her back into the lake and watch her swim away. NEVER had one die on me using this method.

You can also use the Oxygenator system as it helps keep fresh O2 in the water, it is not the actual water temps that kill the fish but the lack of sufficent oxygen, as hot water looses o2 very quickly. This along with the other methods as mentioned above should help keep them alive. Also if your are not in a tourney then DO NOT put them in the livewell. If your are going to eat them them them just put them on ice.

Surface temp on Barren yesterday was 90+ degrees. If you are bringing in fresh water into the livewell you are bringing in hot water.

All we fish for is smallmouth on lake cumberland and HAVE not lost a fish in the summer in 4 years !!!!! We fish about every weekend and until this past weekend have had a limit every tournament, this is the key to keeping them alive.... We put a temp gauge in the live well!!! fill it up on your first fish ,we have a 30 gallon live well , It makes it easier to have your fish on one side and all your jugs on the other, with the surface temp running 84 -90- degrees right now we add 2 frozen one gallon jugs and 2 caps full of rejuvenade. Then let the circulator pump run on auto sitting on the 2 minute cycle. If and when we have 3 fish we turn the pump to manual to have a constance flow. it will take a while to cool down but that will end up in the range of 75 -78 degrees. The key is not so much the water temp being to high for the fish as much as at a lower temp water contains more oxygen. If we are fishing an all-nighter about 3 am we will pump in some fresh water and watch the temp guage when it hits 80 I stop the pump in and add 1 cap of rejuvenade and another gallon of ice . Carry one of the soft zip up coolers in a regular compartment and the jugs will stay frozen .. Like I said we have to be careful about raising the lids they will jump out .
Hope this helps hate to see ANY fish dead at the weigh -ins even though we have won I know of 3 events because the other guys had a dead fish and ours where jumping out of the scales

This has worked well for me this year and I have fished 2 tournaments in the last 2 weeks with the hot temps. I take 3 seperate frozen gallon jugs and keep them in my cooler. Once I have fish and the temps start heatting up for the day I will add one jug at a time to keep the water cooler. The three jugs have been enough to keep the water at least 10 degrres cooler for the whole tounament. Every few hours I will pump fresh water in to flush out the livewell but mostly recirculate to keep the temp cooler. I have not lost a fish and have had 5 fish in a livewell for the last 4 hours of one of those tournament. I use the milk jugs because of the concern for chemicals from treated water mixing in the water effecting the fish. When one jug melts, they usually last about 2 hours each will change them out. This is the only thing tthat i do and have not lost one fish this year or ever. I'm sure the additives work but I like to keep it as natural as possible. When releasing the fish treat them as you were bring in fish to add to an aquarium, keep them in the weigh bag and hold the bag in the lake water for a few minutes so that they do not get a shock when releasing them back to the warmer water. They have all swam off rather aggresively. This works for me.