what's a good additive to live-wells to help fish?

[Hobious]

not sure what happened, but seemed to have agreed to be a co-angler in some tournament in the California Delta.  I just want to get a bottle or tablets?  something to help the fish. 

what else?  frozen water bottles?  how cool should I keep the water?  this will be first weekend of June, so it could be hot out.

thanks.

[D.W. Verts]

First you need put bass in the livewell. That's how you start.

Dale

[loomisguy]

I don't know if it's the best but G juice seems to work.

[Princeton_Man]

I've been using G-Juice. I have the Pro-Air plus the regular re-circulation stuff and never lost a fish yet. 
 

[Hobious]

First you need put bass in the livewell. That's how you start.

Dale

So. Catch fish first, then mail order a bottle of stuff?

[Nutoy]

Water can only hold a certain amount of dissolved O2. The warmer the water gets, the less dissolved O2. 
Cooling the water down is the best thing you can do.
In my part of Texas, water temps can easily get in the 90's during the peak of summer.
Once the water temps hit the 80's and above, I start adding frozen bottles.
I try to shoot for mid-upper 70's in the livewell.
Ice will also work, but ice made with chlorinated water can kill the fish faster than hot water. If using chlorinated ice, use a instant chlorine eliminator like Bait Life or Finer Shiner.
I typically start a tournament day with 40 frozen bottles.
10 go in on fill up. Every 2-3 hours they are replaced with 10 more.

[Donald Garner]

I use frozen water bottles the 16.9oz size.  I carry maybe 6-8 in the boat with me.  The tournaments I've fished here are only last like 4hours. When fish get added I'll add another bottle to the livewell.

I also use 'Sure-Life Release Me' a 10oz bottle will treat 500gal.  I don't add this till I start adding fish to the livewell.

Like Nutoy mentioned here in Texas it doesn't take long for the livewells water to heat up during the Summer Months.   We got to protect our catch.

 

[FlatsNBay]

I know most of the pros use G Juice, even if they aren't sponsored by them. I'd try that and also the advice from those that posted. Good ideas!

[D.W. Verts]

My comment is tongue-in-cheek from 47 sometimes frustrating years of doing this...

Dale

[J.W.]

I lost a limit of fish once when I first started tournament fishing with my son. When that happened I did a lot of research and talked to several folks about what I did wrong and how to prevent it. Since then, I adopted a routine and have not lost a fish since with the exception of one when my aerator crapped out.


The livewell routine:

Ice if the water temp is 70* or higher! Either bagged or frozen bottles of water. I don't fill up the livewell until I get to my first spot though (having it empty at first just keeps you from having to make that first run with a bunch of water weight in the livewell). Once I get there, I'll fill it up. The water needs to be very cool to retain oxygen, but not ice cold or you'll shock the fish. At this point I'll also turn on the recirculating aerator to get some oxygen in the water in preparation for the fish.

When I put my first fish in, I also add G-Juice until the water gets a blue tint.

The G-Juice will take care of any fish waste or chlorine that might've been in the ice, but It also seems to stop bleeding. I've had several bleeding fish that were either tongue-hooked or deep-hooked that I was worried wouldn't make it. I put them in the livewell and after a while, I'd see a clump of blood floating at the top and the fish would be fine.
It has worked far better for me than the Coke or Mountain Dew trick.

I recirculate the same water all day and do not add water unless I lose a lot of water from running a rough lake. With the ice and aeration, your livewell water will have more oxygen than the lake water, so no need to add fresh water. I may add ice if the water warms up any, but that's it.

[Hobious]

thanks.  I will buy G Juice, and bring some frozen water bottles

[D.W. Verts]

In pondering this subject while thinking about some YouTube stuff I plan on doing, and I've come up with a question for ya'll- just how cool do you want your water to be?

Dale

[FlatsNBay]

This is a good podcast that just came out about fish care from Bassmaster Conservation Director Gene Gilleland.

https://youtu.be/A8P2WsOUBxA?si=E7peGslKd9HmkiQE

He advised to cool the water no more than 10 degrees.

[D.W. Verts]

And that's a FACT. Too cool will shock a fish, and that might be okay, but then you put it back into 80 degree-plus water, and guess what happens?

Dale

[J.W.]

In pondering this subject while thinking about some YouTube stuff I plan on doing, and I've come up with a question for ya'll- just how cool do you want your water to be?

Dale

Dale, I don't know what temp it is exactly, I never have a thermometer handy, I just know when it feels cool enough when I put my hand in the livewell. As far as being released, I'd say they probably warm up gradually in the weigh bags and tank while standing in line and then getting weighed, if that's part of the weigh-in process, but for a little fruit jar tourney, they might get released more quickly with less time to re-acclimate. All of ours have swam off energetically so far as I can tell, though.

[D.W. Verts]

I guess my point is that too much is not a great thing. A bottle or two of ice a few times during the day is a huge help. As far a "G-Juice" type products, well, it's the real deal. It does several things, including actually "bleaching" the fish, enough that the body reacts by producing more "slime" thereby increasing the protection factor. We used to add some salt to the livewell, way back in the day...

I learned all of this after decades of tournament fishing, guiding, and five semesters studying fisheries biology. I know my Ictiobus Cyprinellus from mu Ictulurus Furcatus (anyone impressed?) Probably not...

Dale

[Donald Garner]

And that's a FACT. Too cool will shock a fish, and that might be okay, but then you put it back into 80 degree-plus water, and guess what happens?

Dale

I've never used a thermometer to check the temp.  When we used ice we dumped a 1/4 bag in first on one side of the divided livewell.  I can only remember us using a whole bag a couple times during the Summer Tournaments on Toledo Bend back in the 80's.  These tournaments were our monthly club events. 

The Fishing For Freedom Events here were 4hr events per Flight Times.  The tournament staff had  6 holding tanks at the weigh in lines that had oxygen pumped into them.  Once the fish were weighed they got put into a Giant Glass Holding tank were people could walk up and check them out.  I don't remember if we had any dead fish released back into the lake.  I don't remember if they had a Live Release Boat at the event either.  I know that big trailer had wheels on it though.   They could / guess they drive it down to the ramp and release the fish there.

There was plenty of  recovery time from the catch to weigh in to release for the fish to recoup.  These FFF events were always held the 1st weekend in Oct here.  That time of year here in Texas the water has cooled down quiet a bit .

[D.W. Verts]

Advantages to a release boat- first off you can just flat handle more bass while doing some doctoring to them. However the biggest advantage is being able to scatter the released bass out in deeper, and generally COOLER water. Think about where you've weighed in bass before- many times it's in the backs of creeks and coves where the water may be summer-stagnant and very warm to HOT. Those poor bass don't hardly stand a chance.

What's happened with me is that I've chose a hypocrite standpoint on tourney fishin'. Hypocritical because I've weighed in a ton of bass myself over the years. I've snatched many a bass off the nest only to transport them miles away. Done that. And I always figured that there were so many bass that it couldn't really hurt the population. I think now that I was wrong. Maybe bad wrong.

I don't own a cell phone and have no plans to. But I would get one if it meant weighing in and releasing a bass via the interweb. I think it's a necessary and much needed system for tourney fishing. All this leads back to taking care of the bass in the livewell. The whole process really. I've just spent (wasted) too much time of my life chasing these little green and brown bass that we all love so much, and they HUGE deserve to be taken care of to the best of our abilities.

Sorry for the rant. Peace.

Dale

[apenland01]

Just fished a 2 day tournament for our championships at Roosevelt Lake Arizona.  104 on the ramp at weigh-in.  Water temps were 78-80.

Even when we fish night tournaments, the water temps are in the mid 90's.  Keeping fish alive in the livewell comes down to simply pumping new lake water often, regardless of the water temp.

This keeps their water temp close to what they were in when you caught them and the only time to you need an additive is if you have to wait for a weigh-in and can't get fresh water to them.  Our tournament director gives us a small bottle of oxygen something at the livewell check and we use it once we load the boat to keep oxygen available.

If it's going to more than 30 minutes to get to the weigh-in, we add a small amount of ice from the cooler every 10 minutes or so, so we don't shock them adding too much ice at one time....