Livebait tank

[diver 1]

Has anyone on here made a removable livebait tank for their rib? I'm starting to do more fishing using large livebaits - mackerel / pout etc and find that I'm struggling to keep them alive for the half hour run between my bait fishing mark and my main fishing grounds. Thus far I've been using large builders tubs and frequently stopping to replenish the water with the over spill being taken out by the bilge pump

I'm torn between rigging up some sort of mesh over the bilge well and keeping them there - downsides being its small, square sided (risk of damaging the fish more) and low down - lots of grovelling about OR a 25 gallon drum trapped behind the front jockey seats fed by an external pump with a gravity overflow over the side.

Would be good to see other peoples variations if any...?

[Pikey Dave]

Originally Posted by diver 1

Has anyone on here made a removable livebait tank for their rib? I'm starting to do more fishing using large livebaits - mackerel / pout etc and find that I'm struggling to keep them alive for the half hour run between my bait fishing mark and my main fishing grounds. Thus far I've been using large builders tubs and frequently stopping to replenish the water with the over spill being taken out by the bilge pump



I'm torn between rigging up some sort of mesh over the bilge well and keeping them there - downsides being its small, square sided (risk of damaging the fish more) and low down - lots of grovelling about OR a 25 gallon drum trapped behind the front jockey seats fed by an external pump with a gravity overflow over the side.



Would be good to see other peoples variations if any...?

Plastic central heating header tank, plastic glued drain pipe over the transom with the open end facing forward, this acts as a scoop when the boat runs forward. Other end of the "scoop" pipe into the tank. Either let it overflow into the boat & let the bilge pump or bailers deal with it. Or additional pipe work to act as an overflow over the side.

[jonp]

Most of the boats I ever owned have always had built in livebait tanks this side of the world, however since owning my rib I had to make my own one up. Rather than explain how I made mine I found it easier to make a short video ( after being asked on a different site ).

This tank will happily hold around 20-30 mackerel all day, large squid are a little trickier due to the amount of inky slime they can produce so I keep them to around 10.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DfWaRCuuVO0