Had one for a while in college. As others said it is pretty cool, but gets expensive.

You will learn a lot about bass though.

For those who have done this with a 100gal or bigger, is there a specific filter you would reccommended ?

Now you know why TPWD stock fingerlings,as it cost a lot to feed the larger ones.

I have a wet dry sump I'll sell you for $50. it came from one of my saltwater set ups I am no longer running. a wet dry sump is by far the best way to filter when you have a large amount of waste such as with a game fish. a wet dry will have an overflow at the top that pulls water down into the sump. a return pump will be needed as well to return it back into the tank. i have the sump and the over flow. you will need to spend around $80 on a good return pump.

Your in Austin and I am sure there are some wet dry sumps to be found locally as well. pm me if you want it and I can fed ex it to ya..

The bigger the pump the better.... I ran a big canister pump, can't remember the brand. It had three or four layers of filtration in it plus a bag of charcoal. Inlet on top left of tank and outlet on top right with alot of current. A good one will cost alot, but worth the money.

Thanks guys, are there filters that are easier to clean or maintain than others ? Or are they similar to an air filter where you would take old one out/put new one in?

If the bass eat like my little flathead I have it's gonna be a hassle I have a gas station right by my house I buy minnows at , he can eat a dozen in one setting no problem

The black rectangular whisper filters are awesome get twice the capacity you need

Completely agree with the pellets. Easier and safer than minnows/goldies.

If you search online, you will find that there are alot of fish farms out there that offer pellet trained fingerlings. I kept a 50lb bag by the dog food and when company wanted to see it eat. I just kept a few gold fish in a smaller tank.

I fed mine trout pellets, the same thing they feed trout at hatcheries, but they might be hard to find here in Texas. A lot cheaper and healthier than gold fish. Goldfish don't have a high nutritional value. Or I fed them what ever I caught in the yard!!! I had spots, largemouth, & smallmouth at the same time very interesting on how each is different and where they like to hide in the rocks!!!

Has anyone here had a seperate tank to raise some sort of baitfish or other food source? Seems like if you did it right that would be way more cost effective with higher set up costs but low ongoing costs. My goal would be to have a self sufficient bait tank that reproduces at a fast rate.

I thought about that but then decided to produce enough baitfish, you would have to have another large tank with a very large amount of baitfish. It would be a bunch of extra cleaning, food, space, electricity, etc.

You would have to be able to have enough goldfish for example to be able to take out 20 mature goldfish a week (for a smaller bass) up to 100 a week (for a medium size bass). I dont know how fast they reproduce but just guessing that would require at least several hundred in another tank.

I tried the �self sufficient� environment in my 55gal setup once, if I was to get back into fish keeping this would be the setup I would return to but with one 10 incher ruling the roost...I had an under gravel filter system with Power Heads on the stacks for circulation, I had some ornamental wood and assorted plastic plants and some pots to make hiding areas for the assorted catfish � looked awesome ! I had a three 2&1/2 to 3 inch largemouths in there and a bunch of male/female molly�s and guppies � molly�s and guppies breed like nothing you�ve ever seen !!! so the plan was the breeding molly�s and guppies were too big for the bass to eat so that was good and the amount of tropical fish fry was great so it worked fine for a few months...but...the bass grew real fast and ended up eating my breeders too killing the self sufficiency...and the other problem was the little bass did a lot of hiding and the molly/guppies did a lot of hiding from the bass, so the tank always looked empty...so there is another tip for you start ups � it looks great to have a bunch of cover in there but then the fish have more hiding places too !...give them just enough to cruise around �hunting� but not enough to disappear in...just my two cents...

This thread has more than peaked my interest. Any of you guys got any pics of your current or past set ups?