Add On Livewell

[Bluebasser86]

Well I've come to the determination that my boat livewell sucks. It's too small (13.5 gallons) no insulation so it gets hot in my aluminum boat, 90 degree corners so the fish are constantly running into the edges and injuring themselves, and if I ever actually caught a good limit of fish in a tournament I'd have no where to put them. This is an overview picture of the exact model I have.

http://www.jamesrivermarine.com/new_vehicle_color.asp?veh=42922&CatDesc=

The livewell is directly in front of the console. It looks huge but a lot of that is dead space with nothing in it. I wish I could take the whole thing out and add an after market live well but I'm afraid I'll mess up the boat or knock a hole in the hull and really be in a bad spot. Plus when the day comes to upgrade I don't want to take that out and make it harder to sell. It's not a huge boat obviously so space is pretty limited. I wish I could find something that fit perfectly into the space between the front deck and the livewell that was the same width as the boat but without having something custom built I don't see that happening. 

Does anyone have any experience with the after market livewells? I've seen very mixed reviews and on top of being expensive they take up lots of precious room in a small boat. Should I just modify a large cooler and go that route? Any other suggestions would be appreciated. 

[Christian M]

My buddy has the 1448 Lowe Roughneck and is having the same issue. I had a 14.5' trihull that had no livewell at all. I bought a big cooler and built a pretty nice livewell for pretty cheap and it wasn't difficult at all. It worked great, I kept fish in it for up to 8 hours and never had one die. I was also able to take it out of the boat whenever I didn't need it which was a big plus especially with limited space.

[Goaltender]

I had a 15' smokercraft fiberglass bass boat with the same issue. I ended up selling it. The link below is for the Toho-Rig and was the best aftermarket livewell I could find.

 

 

http://www.basspro.com/TohoRig-Livewell/product/883/

[james 14]

A cooler will be your best bet without spending a lot. I've used both 70qt and 120qt. The 120 is nice but it's also BIG in a 12 or 14 foot jon. In a bigger boat it might not be so bad. The 70qt I had measured at least 24" long inside so I was comfortable with it for the short time I used it and it gave me a lot more room in the boat. I never had a big limit in it so I never got to test it that way but never had a fish die in it.