I am needing to come up with a live well in my boat for crappie tourneys. Do you guys think a bait tank would work as a small live well? And what size would be the minimum to keep 10 or so of them kicking all day?

Thanks guys for any opinions

Probably a little overkill for crappie except for maybe the summertime. They don't require an oval tank or the filter system to survive, just fresh water.

20 gallons would be plenty, I'd say.

Thanks, It would be used for summertime and right now I dont really have any place to put them except my cooler in my center console seat. If I can find a good used one it may not be that bad, but I dont think I will buy a new one just for crappie

Have you thought about removing the cooler seat, and replacing with a shad tank?

How big is the cooler in your center console? If its big enough I would just put an aeroator in the cooler. That way it saves money and space in the boat. Plus it its a cooler then it is insulated and will keep your water temp lower. To get the water in and out just buy a bilge pump and put longer hoses on it and hook it to a battery and hold it until its full or empty

Ya I have thought about that Kerry I have that other seat without a cooler that would fit a 25 gal slim line perfectly in there. I just don't see a lot if them used and don't want to spend $600 on a new one

I bought one of the portable aerator kits and it just didn't hold up good. I was also looking at the creek bank bait spa, which I may end up going with

If any of you guys have a grayline slim line that you want to get rid of please let me know

Do you have a raw water pump? Is your deck self bailing? If yes to both questions, I've paced a hose from the raw water pump, into my cooler, and just let the excess water spill out onto the floor. White bass stayed alive all day like that, for me, I figure the crappies will too.

Josh, I have a shad tank you can borrow until we figure something else out, since I'm currently boatless, it sits in storage

Heck ya, I found s slim line for what I think was a good idea that I may pick up. May as well buy one while I have the approval from the boss. Just gotta wait until ole uncle Sam sends me that check. Let me know when the next Belton get together is, wanna come meet everyone

June 16
Hope to see you there.

If I'm not TDY I will be there

Easy there TB. Thats the competition.

Crappie slime the water so bad - not sure how they would do without some fresh water coming in every now and then (out with the old in with the new).

They probably would trash the water worse than shad (matter of fact I’m sure they would) - but they do survive so well in live wells (much better than most other fish and they slime that live well so BAD) – they might be able to make it in a shad tank,

They only have survive a few hours. I will give it a try, if it doesn't work I will figure something else out

good point guess I'll have to make sure he can only keep 3 or 4 crappie alive

Lol, I will just get one of those mesh baskets to throw over the side