Search the Community

We just purchased our first boat, a 1978 Jay Bee. It has a live well, but no pump. It only has a drain with a plug and a side drain. The side drain flows to the bilge. How does this live well work?

Hey I bought a 1997 panfish that didn’t have a livewell. Been looking for a replacement mostly for the extra seat and the storage room, but to use for live bait and such. Does anyone know where I could get one

I just got my first bass boat, a 2017 179 TrX. Even though it's my third fishing boat, I've used the livewell in all three of them a grand total of one time. . . and that was two boats ago. I'm fishing a bass tourney on Sunday and have no idea how the livewell works. To top it off, my livewell has three different pumps. I've never seen a more complicated setup.So, how do I operate my livewell? Do I put leave the drain plug in or take it out? I'm guessing "in". In what positions should the switches for the livewell be? I'm guessing Recirc Manual would fill the livewell and Recirc Auto would circulate it when full. But I'm not sure. Help!

okay so i saw something kinda cool the other day and i've decided to make one myself, i'm talking about a laundry basket livewell. the concept is simple, take a laundry basket, drill holes in the bottom (if needed),tie a pool noodle around the top rim, tie to boat, put it in the water.

Does anyone know what's involved in plumbing up my livewell so that I can pump water out the side hole where the bilge pumps water out? This would make filling my weigh bag a lot easier. I have a 1998 Skeeter ZX185C. Thanks

I currently own a 2007 26' Rinker Captiva which only has 1 hole for the drain, plus bilge, and I used to own an old 17' fisher with 3 holes (live well inlet & outlet, and the main drain plug.) plus bilge. However, i recently purchased a side project for this upcoming fall & winter. Pictured below is a 1991 Nitro 185TF. Currently no main motor, just using it on a small local pond for this year with trolling motor. Took it out the other night and i stuck the drain plug in, sealed a few old screw holes the previous owner left from his gps transducer and hit the lake with my wife. 10 minutes in we find water coming in quickly and lots of it!! Luckily the bilge worked great and started shooting out like a fountain and Of course, the jokes were made about making sure the drain plug was in, which it was. We get back to the trailer and yank the boat out, only to see water pouring out this 4th hole above the drain hole. Its perfectly centered between the inlet and outlet holes for the single livewell, and directly above the hull drain. Anyone know what the hell it goes too? I am pulling the batteries and what not out this weekend to verify all hoses and pumps are cracked or leaking. I have filled the livewell up and verified which is the drain hole (clearly inlet hole has black screen over it) and also made sure the recirculating pump works. I didnt have any water loss during that test. When we pulled the boat out, this hole looked like a hose was turned on as well as the bilge hole on the top driver side shooting out like a fountain. Lucky we didnt sink!! I know i need to seal the outlets/inlet up a little more, i was just eager to get out and see what it was like! ANY HELP WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!

not sure if theres a forum for boat troubl or if this is allowed. but wondering if anyone could help me put here the livewell on my boat is acting up. when i turn livewell on manual aerator it pumps water fine. but if i put it on automatic. the water just barely pumps. it worked fine last year wondering if anyone had any ideas why it isnt pumping correctly on auto

Hey guys I've recently been asking about tournaments in a Jon boat and you all said I'd probably be fine if I were to just make a cooler livewell my next question is how many quarts do you think I will need to hold about 5 fish? Thabks

Right now my livewell only has one pump, that just pumps in water, not sure what type the pump is. I want the livewell to have pump out, a fill pump, and an aerator. I want to be able to empty the well while out on the lake, fill it back up, and then aerate it. Problem is, I have no clue about any of this stuff. I need to know what type of pumps to get for each purpose, and how the heck to rig all this up. I also would like to be able to have something I can leave on safely overnight to keep bait alive, (maybe the aerator can do this, I don't know). Also, should the aerator have some sort of timer on it? If so what do I need to get? I have seen some people talk about bubble systems for overnight use. Please excuse my extreme lack of knowledge about this topic, this the first boat I've owned, and I'm learning. Thanks to all who reply and any help is much appreciated.

The title says it all guys. I have a champion boat with livewells that work, but do not recirculate water. Any ideas/links/anything would be great.