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Posts: 241
| What is the best way to keep suckers alive overnight - I'm talking two or three, not dozens. Will a 5-gallon pail with an aerator suffice?
Backdraft |
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Posts: 2894
Location: Yahara River Chain | I'd say that would be oo small. Use a large cooler with your aerator. |
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Posts: 100
| Make sure the water temp you use is room temp or close to the temp from the bait shop...and there is no clorine in it. Maybe ask the bait shop to loan you a decent bucket full of water, they might do it |
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| I dump the suckers in my livewell and add more water from the hose. I just leave the live well timer on with the lid open...works great. |
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Location: Elk River, Minnesota | Hiya,
Only thing with leaving them in a livewell...it is illegal (in MN at least) if you transport them that way... I'm not assuming this of Ranger6 by any means...just clarifying so there is no confusion with transport as compared to using a livewell at home.
If you put them in there for the evening, then remove them and place them in a bucket/cooler for transport and drain the livewell, then I believe all is good.
Steve
Edited by VMS 10/4/2012 1:14 PM
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Posts: 128
| The best way: A wooden rack that holds one of those blue 55 gallon plastic drums. Cut a lid out of the top. Use a second drum to cut a lid panel out of.
Then install a sprayer bar made of PVC, and hooked to one of those heavy duty Shur Flo water pumps.....Wire in a aerator timer switch setup, and run it off a battery charger plugged into an outlet.
Change the water every 1-2 mos, and when you make the change add some catch and release or equivalent.
My dad kept suckers year round like this, from spring till it was too cold to keep the water from freezing solid.
Not the cheapest, most elegant, or easiest approach but it could be done for a couple hundred bucks, and works until you don't want it anymore. Saw it work for season after season.
Edited by smallmouth/musky 10/4/2012 4:01 PM
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Posts: 13688
Location: minocqua, wi. | if it's dark with clean aerated water the suckers will chill out pretty well ... 3 in a bucket should work, but best as already suggested is a cheap rectangular cooler with a hole drilled in for the air line. |
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| One day, purely by chance, I went in to a liquor store & noticed they had the big plastic buckets for icing beer kegs at parties on sale for $5.00 each. That made a nice inexpensive sucker tank. Probably 20 -30 gallons. |
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| just buy a buy a decent size cooler , aerate overnite , you should be fine . We leave them in cooler with aeraetor 2 hours from the house for 6 -7 days and they live just fine . |
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Posts: 8780
| There's always the bathtub! |
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Posts: 150
Location: Central Minnesota | It takes between 24 and 48 hours for chlorine to evaporate from tap water depending on the amount. So my suggestion is fill up a big Rubbermaid with tap water and let it sit a day or two. Then get an aerator and drill a hole in the top cover to feed the hose through. Some of the big Rubbermaid containers can hold up to 40 gallons or more. This is an inexpensive way to keep a dozen suckers alive for a while. Now with the cool air temps you should be ok leaving them outside. Also fill a few 5 gallon buckets with tap water and let the chlorine evaporate and then you can add fresh water as needed. Good luck. |
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Posts: 172
| muskie! nut - 10/4/2012 7:33 AM
I'd say that would be oo small. Use a large cooler with your aerator.
Cooler work as long you don't let your wife found out that you had been using cooler as bait livewell!!!!
Day of spring cleaning. Wife-"Honey why does cooler smell like fish? Me-" uhhhh I don't know???????" |
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Location: Yahara River Chain | deafmuskyhunter - 10/4/2012 6:20 PM
muskie! nut - 10/4/2012 7:33 AM
I'd say that would be too small. Use a large cooler with your aerator.
Cooler work as long you don't let your wife found out that you had been using cooler as bait livewell!!!!
Day of spring cleaning. Wife-"Honey why does cooler smell like fish? Me-" uhhhh I don't know???????"
Don't have a wife and won't get one unless I find a lady with a Ranger. 
I would also say that chlorine does not "evaporate", but rather it dissipates. I would also leave it sit for more than a day or two - just to make sure it does dissipate all of the Cl2. There also products at your pet store that you can add to the water that will also remove the Cl2.
Edited by muskie! nut 10/4/2012 7:02 PM
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Location: Sawyer County, WI | Whatever you decide to keep them in, make sure it is covered securely. In my neck of the woods, raccoons LOVE suckers. |
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Posts: 373
Location: Maine Township, MN | So I thought I did everything right and let my water sit for a day, kept it aerated the whole time, and bought my 1st batch of suckers yesterday. I already had a floater this morning. As spendy as they are, I thought maybe I could get some extra pointers. I have them stored in a 20 gal rubbermaid tote in my basement (dark and ~65 deg_F). I have a 110v aerator with a 2" round airstone. I've heard suckers stay longer in colder water? Should I have them outside?
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Location: Sun Prairie, WI | nocturnalmotors - 10/5/2012 8:02 AM So I thought I did everything right and let my water sit for a day, kept it aerated the whole time, and bought my 1st batch of suckers yesterday. I already had a floater this morning. As spendy as they are, I thought maybe I could get some extra pointers. I have them stored in a 20 gal rubbermaid tote in my basement (dark and ~65 deg_F). I have a 110v aerator with a 2" round airstone. I've heard suckers stay longer in colder water? Should I have them outside?
Put ice in the tote. Keep them cold. Cold is more important than aeration, but the combination of the two is best. Make sure to keep ice in there. I like to use block ice when storing suckers. I just take a large, rectangular food storage container, fill it with water, and put it in the freezer. Replace ice as needed on the suckers. I've kept suckers in my garage for over a week doing this and they stay very lively. |
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Posts: 114
| i leave mine in a 55 gallon cooler outside with a fish tank aerator and i change the water every day or two with well water, so far i have had one living for 2 weeks now. |
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Location: NorthCentral WI | Like GTP said. Cold is more imortant than aerating. Last time I picked up a dozen suckers the water at the bait shop was 44 degrees. Tap (city) water at my house was around 65 degrees. That is enough difference to kill them. Add ice or leave them outside now that it's getting colder.
Kind of like minnows during the hardwater season... I've left an insulated minnow bucket outside for a week to chip off the surface ice and still have lively bait. |
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Location: Anoka | Yep throw some ice in there and keep that water cool.
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Location: minocqua, wi. | keep em outside ... and cover em up so it's dark.
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Location: Hayward, WI | Cold is good. Either ice or outside if it's cold enough. It also looks like you can put a lot more water in your tote. I would fill it to near the top and cover it also. I also bought one of those airstone "bars" that are about 6 inches long rather than the little cylinder shaped ones. I actually have a 110v pump with 2 hoses so I run 2 of the bars. Quite a bit of aeration. |
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| Once you have 1 dead sucker in your batch it usually means there are more to come soon. Good luck. |
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Posts: 8780
| If you use a cooler, put a cinder block or a log on top of it. Same goes for a sucker cage in the water. Otters and racoons are smarter then you think!
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Posts: 373
Location: Maine Township, MN | Sounds like they need to chill out a bit. Thanks guys! |
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Posts: 8
| we always leave them in the garage with an aerator and change the water every other day or so. make sure you leave a cover over them because they will jump out and die. |
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Posts: 469
Location: Downers Grove, IL | Rather then using ice, fill a few empty water bottles with tap water and freeze them. That way no chemicals get in the water when you cool it down. Also, I've had great success with a product called "stress coat" which you can buy at a local pet store. It helps condition the water and also helps hooked suckers recover for more use. Lastly, get some 55 gallon black contractor bags, the heavy duty ones, and line your tub with it before you add water. You can feed the aerator hose through the top of the bag a seal it off with a zip tie. The bag fills up like a balloon, water doesn't splash out, and it's dark. Also, try to eliminate huge temp fluctuations, insulated coolers seem to help with this.
Edited by thedude 10/5/2012 4:27 PM
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Posts: 5874
| I'd suggest the KLY methode. Put a big rubbermaid in the trunk of your old car, and run 12 volts to an aerator. Keeps them cool, oxygenated, and dark. Also makes for a great conversation icebreaker! I miss that kid.
Do not use commercial ice, or most tap water ice. It contains chlorine, and it will kill your suckers. If you must use ice, make sure it's from chlorine free water, or use the bottle method above. |
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Posts: 303
| Whats with it needing to be dark? |
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Posts: 334
Location: Madison, WI | Last year while we were up north we had a hard time locating suckers at first, so of course we wanted the ones we had to survive. We found that leaving suckers in the bucket with the aerator on was not enough, eventhough it was plenty cold something about the water (which was from the bait shop) was killing them. We filled the bucket/rubber maid tub up with lake water and put the aerator in and they stayed alive for the rest of the time. Even suckers that were on quick strike rigs that did not get hit were able to survive. Which was not the case while using bait shop water. After returning home and seeing such a drastic difference i now use nothing but river water in my bait tank and hardly ever have any floaters regardless of whether or not its crappie minnows, fat heads or suckers. They all seem to last longer. |
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Location: Yahara River Chain | EsoxAddiction - 10/6/2012 9:04 PM
Last year while we were up north we had a hard time locating suckers at first, so of course we wanted the ones we had to survive. We found that leaving suckers in the bucket with the aerator on was not enough, eventhough it was plenty cold something about the water (which was from the bait shop) was killing them. We filled the bucket/rubber maid tub up with lake water and put the aerator in and they stayed alive for the rest of the time. Even suckers that were on quick strike rigs that did not get hit were able to survive. Which was not the case while using bait shop water. After returning home and seeing such a drastic difference i now use nothing but river water in my bait tank and hardly ever have any floaters regardless of whether or not its crappie minnows, fat heads or suckers. They all seem to last longer.
The water used by by bait shops are usually from wells and the water is "sterile" as far as nutrients in the water goes. That's probably why they didn't last in bait water. One thing you have to remember that transporting live bait in water other than water from the bait shop is illegal. Once you add lake water and you leave that lake you must remove that water before you leave to prevent spreading invasive. |
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Posts: 334
Location: Madison, WI | muskie! nut - 10/6/2012 9:25 PM
EsoxAddiction - 10/6/2012 9:04 PM
Last year while we were up north we had a hard time locating suckers at first, so of course we wanted the ones we had to survive. We found that leaving suckers in the bucket with the aerator on was not enough, eventhough it was plenty cold something about the water (which was from the bait shop) was killing them. We filled the bucket/rubber maid tub up with lake water and put the aerator in and they stayed alive for the rest of the time. Even suckers that were on quick strike rigs that did not get hit were able to survive. Which was not the case while using bait shop water. After returning home and seeing such a drastic difference i now use nothing but river water in my bait tank and hardly ever have any floaters regardless of whether or not its crappie minnows, fat heads or suckers. They all seem to last longer.
The water used by by bait shops are usually from wells and the water is "sterile" as far as nutrients in the water goes. That's probably why they didn't last in bait water. One thing you have to remember that transporting live bait in water other than water from the bait shop is illegal. Once you add lake water and you leave that lake you must remove that water before you leave to prevent spreading invasive.
Correct, I should have pointed out that rule. For us though, at that point in our trip we didnt leave that lake so that wouldnt have been an issue. Good point though, I didnt think of that before I posted my story. I would hate for someone to get ticket. |
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| Simple buy the largest tote you can find, fill with water from bait shop and grab Aerator and stone from petco. Put in garage with aerator on 24/7. Kept suckers alive for days on end. Need more water grab more from bait shop on way home from work. Works with 18-22 inchers. |
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| Make sure to grab water straight from the sucker tanks. I always grab an extra tote of water. |
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Posts: 13688
Location: minocqua, wi. | Deeply Hooked - 10/6/2012 8:41 PM
Whats with it needing to be dark?
when kept "in the dark" the suckers settle down completely and don't stress at all and i think this is key to "keeping" them. i won't argue the water piece but will offer a counter that i keep 20+ suckers seasonally and just re-fresh water every 3 days (about a third of my tank) from my hose and have never lost a sucker. dark, cold and air work for us and have been doing this for many years now. i'd suggest it may have more to do with what "was" in your container prior to putting fish in them. if you put them in something that you clean with a chemical that might be why you are having difficulty. |
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Posts: 128
| Yep agree on all counts.
But in our case that I mentioned in my first post to this, we only refreshed water every couple weeks, and changed most of it every month or two |
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Posts: 217
Location: ladysmith, wi | adding a tablespoon of salt helps them keep there slime coat and fill plastic soda bottles that have about 1'' of soda in them with water, freeze and put in cooler with the cap of the bottle slightly cracked open, the carbonation from the soda i believe creates oxigen releasing it in the water in the cooler |
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Posts: 153
| A five gallon bucket with an aerator is more than enough. I keep suckers alive for a week or more I leave the bucket in an unheated garage and they are good to go. |
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