LIVE BAIT WELL

[randazzo]

i HAVE A 1981 245 CCP.IT HAS A FISHBOX IN FRONT OF THE CC.IT ALSO HAS A SALT WATER WASHDOWN VALVE AT THE STERN.ANY IDEAS ON HOW TO  H OOK U P A LIVE WELL?......I HAVE A LEANING POST WHERE A COOLER OR SOMETHING CAN GO UNDERNEATH.AVAILABLE ELECTRIC TOO???CANT FIGURE WHERE TO PUT IT.THANKS DON RANDAZZO NJ

[GoneFission]

Where do you want to have the livewell?  You can install a pump and use the livewell in the back, plumb some hoses to one at the leaning post, or run it up to the fishbox in front.  Assuming you have the original gas tank and deck setup, I would rank them in the following in order of difficulty:

1.  Rear - easiest, not much to it - install a pump, hoses, and drain.  
2.  Front - install the pump in the back, some effort to run the hoses up under the deck (there should be a deck plate under the fishbox); the fishboxes already drain overboard, so not a real big deal.  Probably the best choice for weight distribution.
3.  Leaning post - install the pump in the back, and then you would have to lift the center deck panel (which requires lifting the console) then run supply and drain plumbing into the gas tank area, up through the deck, and into the livewell.  You would also need a new through-hull on the side above the waterline for the livewell drain.

[John Jones]

Rear - 90% less sloshing to kill the fish.

I had mine in front.  If it got a little snotty out, I got more water on me from the livewell than from the spray.  Now it's under the leaning post and almost never any sloshing out.

[randazzo]

Livewell in the back, it will be.I am going to use a cooler that fits in the frame of my leaning post.I can use the saltwater washdown to fill er up and the cooler plug to drain.wires to aerator pump?..Drill a small hole on bottom of cooler and fill with silicone?Randazzo 245ccp.

[John Jones]

I guess that will work but I'm not a fan of recirculating live bait wells.  The water gets nasty very quickly, builds a giant layer of foam on top, and if you don't get rid of the poop and scales your bait will not last long.  Be sure and refill with new water every hour or so to keep the bait frisky.  The Keep-Alive system works better than just a recirculating pump but one still has to change the water often.

http://www.keepalive.net/tanks.htm

I use their KA10460 10 Gallon tank with KA460 Oxygen Infusor to transport bait but a one hour trip sloshing in the back of the truck makes the bait pretty ragged.



This pump is made for coolers etc. with suction cup feet.


They also sell conversion kits to add the "oxygen infusion" to some brands of existing pumps.

Hope this helps.

[warthog5]

On this 24ft boat, what kind of bait's do you want to keep alive?

Square box's [cooler's] make VERY poor livewell's.

This is a Kodiak PF42-2 livewell. 1100gph pump. 3/4in intake port. 1 1/2in exhaust port.
Both have seacock's on the thruhull's.

The hard part is not mounting the livewell. It's the plumbing. It will usually take some cutting on a boat to get thing's plumbed properly.

If the boat is have major surgery, it's not a problem.

[ddd222]

I most definately agree that the biggest obstacle is the plumbing. The original livewell on my 87' 222 is in the worst possible place in the splashwell by the transom. Besides the surgery involved to plumb if its not there already, is checking often to make sure water pickups, strainers are in good shape. About 8-9 years ago the guy in the slip next to me sizzled my strainer w/ his electrolysis and my boat was 2 inches from going down, and after fixing the intitial damage then I am still finding problems to this day. As much as I love aquasports, they also were designed poorly when it comes to access plates/hatches. Besides inspecting transoms, stringers,foam, etc., if you go ahead and modify your boat to accomadate this livewell, make cuts and install hatches like the very expensive one i saw on this thread to service the plumbing as well as the integrity of the fittings and such.
    2 other things that should be a must if u are gonna do it:
     1) Placement of the well will be important for the liveliness of the baits as well as the performance of your boat. AS's sit so ass heavy to begin with so w/out a doubt the best location is the leaning post seat area. Not my first choice but TODD makes one w/ the livewell built into the livewell, half of it sitting inside the footprint of the seat.
      2) The shape of the well doesn't half to be perfectly round, and there are some oval shaped if that fits better, but it better have rounded corners all around or no bait will survive. A macerator pump goes on most modern livewells now but is not completely necessary in my opinion for most baits.  But you do need a way of getting old water out w/ all the extra scales, guts, you name it, and fresh water in. I've seen a few setups that were pretty no frills, and the water was exchanged manually before reaching the fishing grounds. And back to shape, it has to be round, but besides that it has to have surface area. Tall and skinny is much less effective than a short and stumpy one w/ a ton of surface area. And i don't care if your using menhaden in the N east, or ballyhoo or cigar minnows down south, or bonito for marlin(different if u have those circulating tubes), surface area and fresh salt water are key, good luck