Cooler Livewell

[Cootz]

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

[slonezp]

Make sure there's room for the beer. Lol

Somebody makes a cooler to livewell conversion kit. I'll see if I can find it when I get home

[gardnerjigman]

The bigger the better. Think 25lbs of fish on 100 degree days and an 8 hour tournament...

[Cootz]

I'd like to add this will be put in a 14' flat botom

[slonezp]

http://www.thmarine.com/products/O2-Marine-Technologies/Oxygenator-Cooler-Conversion-Kit

 

https://flow-rite.com/products/marine/aerators/ma-110

[gardnerjigman]

Doesn't matter what size of boat you have. If you want to fish a 5 fish tournament you need to be able to handle the situation I listed above.

[CRANKENSTIEN]

I just purchased a livewe kit from cabelas. It was as good a deal as any. I haven't used it yet but I am confident it should do the job. Someone on this site had said to freeze a jug of ice to put in it. No insight on the cooler size you should use. There are some YouTubes you can pull up that are interesting.

[Dogmatic]

I use a 70 qt. cooler (Coleman xtreme) and a livewell pump kit I picked up at Cabela's,but I don't fish tourneys and never hold five fish(because it won't)

http://www.cabelas.com/product/Super-Fish-Saver-Kit/699706.uts?Ntk=AllProducts&searchPath=%2Fcatalog%2Fsearch%2F%3FN%3D%26No%3D0%26Ntk%3DAllProducts%26Ntt%3Daerator%2B%26Ntx%3Dmode%252Bmatchallpartial%26WTpageType%3Dsearch%26WTz_st%3D%26WTz_stype%3DSP%26nl%3Dtrue%26recordsPerPage%3D18%26search%3DSearch%26searchTypeByFilter%3DAllProducts%26infiniteScrollType%3Dproduct&No=0&Ntt=aerator+

[Bluebasser86]

Doesn't matter what size of boat you have. If you want to fish a 5 fish tournament you need to be able to handle the situation I listed above.

Exactly. If you don't have the equipment to keep a limit of fish alive, then it's irresponsible to try IMO because you're just going to end up killing fish. I had a 16' aluminum with a small livewell that didn't keep fish alive well, so the only tournaments I fished were weeknight tournaments that I only had to keep fish for a couple hours at best and during cooler hours of the day. 

 

If you get a cooler that is big enough, you can probably build onto the top of it and turn it into a makeshift deck so it isn't just taking up space. 

[MDBowHunter]

The bigger the better. Think 25lbs of fish on 100 degree days and an 8 hour tournament...

Just take another cooler with ice and add to live well cooler as needed, I've done this many years in a row in a tournament at a local reservoir here. We've never lost a fish, just toss in a fish tank thermometer to help keep track of the temps in the cooler.

[gardnerjigman]

Just take another cooler with ice and add to live well cooler as needed, I've done this many years in a row in a tournament at a local reservoir here. We've never lost a fish, just toss in a fish tank thermometer to help keep track of the temps in the cooler.

 

That would help, but I still like to make sure they have plenty of room. Only other amendment I would make on your suggestion is to freeze water in water bottles or similar to protect the fish. I've seen chemicals from our drinking water sent them belly up fast...

[MDBowHunter]

That would help, but I still like to make sure they have plenty of room. Only other amendment I would make on your suggestion is to freeze water in water bottles or similar to protect the fish. I've seen chemicals from our drinking water sent them belly up fast...

I've been fishing this particular tournament for the last eight years and all we do is take a 60qt cooler, some G juice a fish tank thermometer and an aerator along with another cooler with a couple bags of ice n it for drinks and to add to the livewell. We have never lost a fish ever, and this tourney is at the end of June and it's generally hot as heck out.