Livewell Noob

[PECo]

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!

[Team9nine]

Got a picture? Many of the Tritons have a switch that opens and closes the livewell valve...no plug needed. Check to see if yours does. If so, obviously move it to the closed position to fill and hold water. Recirc auto will recirculate the water already in the well on a timed basis, sometimes on and sometime off. Recirc manual will run the recirc pumps constantly until you turn them off. This early in the year, you're probably fine running it on auto. If water temps are 70-75 degrees or less, you're good. There should also be an On/Off type switch to turn the livewell fill pumps on so you can fill them up. This is usually a manual setting. Just run them on until you have enough water. Might also check to see if you have a livewell pumpout switch - some Tritons do. That will pump all your well water out of the livewell at the end of the day. Just make sure you don't accidently do that in the middle of the tourney and leave your fish high and dry

 

Best I can do without seeing your actual setup. After checking in and launching, yotu can take some time to play with the switches before actual blastoff to get familiar with them if you want. Never hurts to have at least one well filled with water before reaching your first spot in case you catch a keeper on the first cast

 

[PECo]

I'm not a bass tourney guy, but joined a buddy's club this season, because it lost several members. I'd been fishing with my buddy for years as a sub for his son, who would tap out every time the weather was bad or Tom Brady was on TV. The club is small; only six boats, now.

The first tourney didn't go so well for me and my partner.   We were the only team out of six who had to do The Walk of Shame to the weigh-in. So, no, I haven't figured out how my livewell works, because I didn't need it. I just knew that I should have thrown the couple of trout we caught in there, just to see how it works. In case you were wondering, we also caught a small chain pickerel and three short largemouth bass.

Hopefully, I'll have some fish to throw in there during the tourney next weekend. And, hopefully, they'll be bass, not trout.

 

On the plus side, I fished a kayak tourney last Sunday and caught 18 largemouth bass, of which eight were keepers. I'm pretty sure that I caught at least twice as many as anyone else. Unfortunately, my best five weren't all that big and I came in fifth out of 28 anglers.

[12poundbass]

I'd suggest doing some pre fishing before your next tourney, and spend more time getting acclimated to your new boat. This way you can figure things out with being under a time crunch. As you probably know you don't need to catch a fish to play around with the livewell. 

[PECo]

1 minute ago, 12poundbass said:

I'd suggest doing some pre fishing before your next tourney, and spend more time getting acclimated to your new boat. This way you can figure things out with being under a time crunch. As you probably know you don't need to catch a fish to play around with the livewell. 

 

Yes, I DO need to catch a fish to play around with the livewell! 

[PECo]

Last Sunday, I finally caught a two pound, 11 ounce, largemouth bass during a tourney to put into my livewell. When I opened the hatch, I was surprised to see water in it, already. The flimsy plastic drain plug had popped out. After I dunked my arm into the water to put in the plug, I turned the Livewell switch to Manual and filled it 3/4 of the way up, before switching it to Timed. The water temperature in the lake hung between 57 and 58 degrees all day, so I figured that I didn't need to fill it all the way up. Then, I turned the other livewell switch to Recirc. The livewell worked fine all day, even after I added a three pound, one ounce, smallmouth bass and a couple of Englebert Keeperdink smallies to it. I never did get a fifth keeper, though, so it was a "best of times, worst of times" kind of day.