This is not about on the water... I am wanting to know how I could keep bass alive either ina fish tank or in the livewells while on the road to put into a pond... is this possible and if so what is the best way of doing it? the drive would be about 3 hours...

Most livewells leak eventually. You can usually put a drain plug in the hole at the back of the boat to stop the dripping. Run the livewell on recirc. Also fill the other livewell as a back up or the add additional water. Dont forget th stock and check every hour or so.

buy some ice to put in the water to keep it cool and put some catch and release in it then turn on the recirculate button and stop every now and then and check it out

I thought I read somewhere that it is illegal to transplant fish from one body of water to another...Unless of course you are the TPWD.

I've always wondered if there was any laws against this so I checked it out at TPWD's website.

It is a violation to:

Place any game fish into public waters, other than the body of water where the fish was caught, without a valid permit issued by TPWD. This includes fish caught by pole and line. For permit information, please call 1-800-792-1112 (menu 4) or 1-512-389-8037.

Now it does say public and makes no mention of private lakes. I would call TPWD and make sure you don't need a permit. I don't see any issue, it is just like harvesting fish to eat but you get to catch them again. I always wanted to put some in an aquarium at my house but thought you had to have a permit. If your going to transport the fish to a pond I would do so in cooler weather. The warmer water temps makes it very difficult to support the Bass and is very stressful, sometimes they will belly up this time of year for no reason at all. I would wait until early spring or late fall. Also ponds tend to suffer low oxygen levels this time of year and would not be a good time to introduce the fish. But if you are determined. Fill your livewells turn them on recirculate and add some Sure-Life Please Release Me formula. It is important to maintain the water temp, fish don't do well with temperature shock. If it is a new pond you will need to establish a forage base (minnows/shad/bream/crawfish/frogs) before adding predatory fish. TPWD has some good resources on pond management:

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/landwater/water/habitats/private_water/

Good Luck!

It's not illegal if your putting them in private water. I have transported many bass from Bridgeport to Azle in the live well on recerc. I have even brought some from from East Texas. Just make sure you seal your live well and run your recerc pump. And they'll be fine.

He meant to say that he wants to keep the fish fresh on the long drive home before he eats them.

Can you say LMBV????

lol if its illegal i wont do it

coryp it's NOT illegal to transport from any public lake to private water. It is illegal to transport from public lake to public lake or Private water to public water

It may not be illegal, but I doubt any fish would be alive after a 3 hour transport.

Private ponds don't count. Only public waters.

Not illegal if it is a private pond.

you can do anything you want with the fish once you leave the lake....just can't put them in another public lake.

Zoro, Why wouldn't they be alive don't you carry them around in you live well all day in a tourn. sometimes 8 or 9 hours. 99% of the time I fill my live well,add some sure life and then recerculate the rest of the day There alive at weigh in and released alive. As long as you have good water temp and level with circulation they will make. I stocked my tank that way.

I agree with PaulMarshall on this however, to be on the safe side go to home depot and get a couple of those 5 gallon "Homer" buckets. Buy the lids that go with them too. Fill them with clean lake water from the lake the fish is caught from. Put the lids on and store them in tow vehicle if possible. If not, then you will most likely need to stop and get ice to add to this water when you use it. Stop every hour and check the fish. If the water levels are getting too low in the livewell, use your lake water to replenish. It may even be advisable to add new water anyway after a couple hours to displace the accumulated ammonia in the water. Use catch and Release or similar product and keep the pumps running continuously. Take some 2% Hydrogen Peroxide just in case. Here are some resources for you. There are many others, just Google it.

http://www.sure-life.com/pdf/bass_champs_falcon_tips.pdf

http://www.flwoutdoors.com/article.cfm?id=140787

http://www.state.tn.us/twra/fish/Reservoir/blackbass/livebass2.pdf

http://www.zeiners.com/tips/fishalive.html

http://www.instructables.com/id/Portable-Livewell/

Oldham sells an awesome portable oxygen tank with high quality diffusers. It sure keeps the fish in good shape.

Mike... do you have a link to those tanks? I would love to have one for our team trail.

Once it cools down your chance of success will sky rocket. Much easier to keep them alive in cold weather.

It is actually illegal.

my fishing partner stoked his pond with fish we caught at some of our tourneys. he used a 50 gallon cooler and installed an aeretor pump in it and a holder to hold 2 liter bottles of ice and transported several bass to his place in kemp. without any fish dying on him when we fish cedar creek i stay out at his place and we have a good time recatching those same fish.

Back in 1987, when I was an employee of Jungle Labs, we had a company deer lease in Uvalde, Texas. This ranch was about 7,500 acres in size. The owner of this ranch owned 12 other ranches larger than this, up to 25,000 acres. There was a man made lake on this ranch which was about 50 acres, and his wife loved to fish it, but there were not many big fish living in the lake at that time.

The owner of Jungle arranged for me to go to Florida and bring back brood stock for the deer lease’s owner. I flew to Orlando and fished the Harris Chain of lakes for four days with guides along with one of our customers using wild shiners. Between two boats, we caught 40 brood stock of females and males that we carefully culled and selected. These fish were kept in raceways (large rectangular bait tanks) and kept alive with shiner holding formulations.

After capturing these fish, we drove these fish back from Leesburg to Uvalde in a bait hauling truck to the ranch. Not one fish was lost. I personally released those fish into that lake with witnesses at about 9:00 am on a Saturday morning. Years later, the wife of the rancher commented how much enjoyment she received from catching bass in that lake.

While hauling these fish, permits and paperwork were pre-arranged with state wildlife agencies. Obviously, having that many ranches meant that this rancher had some clout and could arrange for the transporting.

The bottom line is this:

1. We used live bait to catch the desired fish legally. The live bait was kept alive with a shiner holding formula we made.
2. Once caught, the bass were kept alive in the livewells using CATCH & RELEASE.
3. Once brought into a holding environment, we continued using water conditioners to keep them alive during confinement for days.
4. During transportation, we continued using water conditioners all the way from Florida to Texas.
5. Everything we did over that week revolved about keeping some type of fish alive for a reason.

Therefore, catch your fish and treat the livewell with CATCH & RELEASE to CALM them down. Use a little extra product to really calm them down and don’t overcrowd. Keep the water cool with ice, preferably between 65-68 degrees Fahrenheit. If you have a very large cooler, then use this instead of the livewell for the transportation process. Keep constant aeration going. Supplement the oxygen content of the water by using ½ cup of 3% hydrogen peroxide per every 15 gallons of water along with using CATCH & RELEASE. Once you arrive at your destination, carefully remove bass from the transportation vessel and immediately release into new surroundings.

I had proper paperwork to conduct this service from the states, so please check with authorities before you attempt to move fish from water to water.

P.S. That fall, I shot a perfect 10 point buck which scored 145 in view of that ranch lake. To this day, I wonder about the size of the fish, which swim there.