Livewell Size

[Polarkraft05]

I am currently building a livewell for my bass boat. I am using a 23"x15"x10" rubber made container. using an online calculator it is about 15 gallons

is this too small? I may be entering some tournaments this year

i also have a smaller livewell in the front of the boat, guestimate the size to be 18x12x12

the new livewell im building has recirculate (bar on top to spray several water jets back into water) but even with this the bar is only about 8 inches from the bottom, so to use it i would have to have 8 inches or less of water in the tank.

[Christian M]

I just built my first livewell too, I used a 150qt marine cooler (37.5 gallons), I guess as long as you keep the water aerated, put in fresh water every couple hours, keep the water cool w/ice, & have the proper additives, the fish should be fine. Your only issue will be because of the lack of space, the ammonia levels will rise & oxygen levels will drop the more fish you put in.

[james 14]

I really think that's going to be too small for a full limit of fish. We use a 120qt cooler (30 gallons) and had fish dying with two limits and water temps in the 70s. You're half that size and the loss of useable space is almost exponential since you won't even be able to fit a 7+lb fish.

They make 30 gallon containers like you're looking at and they're only $10 last time I checked. I would get two, spray expanding foam on the bottom and sides of one and place the other inside of it.

And now that I realized it only 10" high I have to say it's a no-go for sure. You're going to have water sloshing and fish jumping out all the time.

[TommyBass]

Yes, 15 gallons will be close to being too small for a healthy tournament limit. 30 gallons should be more than enough to keep at least one limit of fish alive I have a 31 gallon and can keep fish alive in it no problem during hot temps.

James your probably pushing the fish too hard to have 2 full limits in a livewell that size. That size is generally only good for 1 angler or a team tournament. It would hold two smaller limits easily if you aerate it and add fresh water frequently, but two big limits would struggle.

PS.... hes right about the 10" That is going to be too shallow. You'll need at least 14" of water probably. Make sure you orient your container to the boat to minimize sloshing as well. In otherwords, don't run it longways so that the water gets more momentum.

[Polarkraft05]

thanks for the tips guys, im going to get one thats about 3 foot long, and 18 inches wide. thats the biggest i can go in my little boat.

[james 14]

James your probably pushing the fish too hard to have 2 full limits in a livewell that size. That size is generally only good for 1 angler or a team tournament. It would hold two smaller limits easily if you aerate it and add fresh water frequently, but two big limits would struggle.

We were on a good school of fish hitting a shad spawn first thing in the morning and didn't want to stop to cull while we were getting bit heavily. Once we hit two limits we had to stop and cull and a couple of fish were not doing so hot. I don't remember how long we had it full but it wasn't more than a couple hours. I would not normally have that many fish in the well and we learned out lesson to cull immediately regardless of what was going on. It's not fun weighing in dead fish...even if we did win by 12lbs.

[james 14]

thanks for the tips guys, im going to get one thats about 3 foot long, and 18 inches wide. thats the biggest i can go in my little boat.

If its tall enough to hold 10" or so of water without sloshing out and allowing fish to jump out that should work out well. That's roughly the size of a 120qt cooler (if I remember correctly last time I measured mine).

[Spurrburr]

Hi guys I have a 98 169v stratos bass boat is there any way to upgrade the live well size