Keeping Bait?

[know1]

I'm guessing the round container with a bubbler would work for shad if you kept them cool and could find a way to filter/change the water.

[first2fish]

In warmer weather best way to keep shiners/minnows alive is to use a aerator and fill a couple 16 oz. Plastic coke bottles with water and freeze. Never add ice directly to the water in the bucket. Put the frozen bottles with the cap on tight into the bucket and they will last a lot longer. Put one bottle in bucket at a time. Once one bottle turns to mostly water take it out and add other bottle which i keep in my drink cooler with my other drinks. This has worked really well for me on those warm/hot days when i want to fish with minnows/shad.

[know1]

This might be a dumb question, but where do you get the original water for the bait bucket? Does it come from the water you purchased with the shiners?

[RoadToad]

This might be a dumb question, but where do you get the original water for the bait bucket? Does it come from the water you purchased with the shiners?

Yes. It'll be blue from the additives the bait shop uses to make them live longer. I can tell you from experience that changing out that water is an effective way to kill all the shiners The suggestion about frozen bottles of water is a good one. It's important to keep them cool, so they'll require less oxygen, but you don't want to use ice because of the chlorine in tap water. As far as keeping them alive in the bucket, the colder the water the better. Thing is, if they're in really cold water, but the water your fishing is warm, they'll die on the hook pretty quickly, so it's a trade-off.

[Fishin is life]

I have a 5 gallon bucket with an aeration system I use to keep them alive until i get to the lake and then i usually put them in my livewell....may have one or two die here and there but have had good success for the most part