Homemade shad tank

Here are some pics of my homemade shad tank. About $75.00 invested. Not hard to build and it filters the water and circulates/aerates it. And is insulated. Same principal that grayline uses. Works great for me!!! Put about 100 baits in it last weekend! Kept em good for about 24 hrs or more.

http://picasaweb.google.com/leewitte/ShadTank#

I like that! Should work just fine. Good that you used a cooler with wheels on it. Remember to add some salt to the water.

I built a Bait tank for my Cobra Navagator XF kayak. Water is pumped up through one of the rear scuppers and then into the 5 gallon bucket tank. Drains out the small holes in back of the tank and out the other scupper. Battery duration is 13 hours.
Unless the tank is round or oblong Shad will kill themselves in the corners.


More pictures and project details on TKF:

http://www.texaskayakfisherman.com/forum...t+tank#p1270675

Very Nice.What did you use for the pump/filter tank?

And ..... how much would you charge to build one?

One of those ice cube bins from walmart. Cut it down to fit and used the extra to make the divider. hot glued it in ...

Looks like it will work great!

You've already got hungry cats ready to fish shad out of there

I've always heard the same thing but there was a guy on here that put up a thread where he kept them alive in an aquarium for a week. I've never tested it myself, a 50 gal. greyline works too well to do any experimenting

That was me with the aquarium and they stay alive two or three weeks depending on if I change out some water or not. Those 100 baits died because they were overcrowded. I can keep around 24 large gizzard shad in the 15 gallon aquarium. That aquarium taught me allot about how to keep shad alive. I do have a 17 gallon Sunshine/Greyline tank on the boat. Sometimes we stock that with the aquarium fish to save time in the morning and to be sure we have live bait. It is work hauling all that water.

This cooler has semi-rounded corners in it(if you look closer).
The shad did not bunch up in the corners. I did overload it on purpose. Just as a test. I will put some water in it tomorrow and show you the circular water flow around the tank. It is very good. I'm not a guide and 50 baits will get me thru a very long day of fishing. As well as my limit on stripers. This was just a project for me as I am a Manufacturing Engineer and love a challenge. It does filter the water very well. I just thought someone might want to see an economical way to keep a few shad alive for a day of fishing. We have a 20 gallon purchased round tank also.(Around 300 bucks,and not insulated). I will take some close-up pics for any that are interested in the construction.

Gofishnow... Don't haul water .... get a small bilge pump, drop it over the side of the boat with a long hose on it and pump the lake water right into your tank, and then when you are thru, drop it in the tank and pump it right back into the lake.

I built one last year but I was not pleased with my filter. I am going to steal your filter design. How did you attach the filter/pump box to the wall of the cooler?

I put a little hot glue on it and then put three (NOT VERY LONG)stainless steel self tapping screws on it.

PREDRILL THE HOLES

OK .....
For those interested ...
I updated some of the pics and added a few short videos to show the flow in the tank ....
The flow is really a lot smoother in real time the video seems rough ........


http://picasaweb.google.com/leewitte/ShadTank#

That is awesome. Could you tell me more about how it skims the slim off the top?

PM SENT ...DryBass

fmclee,
What material are you using for the filter?

You can use quilt batting that can be bought at wal mart. it is cheap and works outstanding.

craig
www.cncoutdooradventures.com

The quilt batting does work GREAT. I kept about 150+ 3"+ shad using the quilting material in a 20 gallon and had no floaters the entire day.. The water I put in tank was VERY VERY muddy and was vitrually clear in about 30 minutes of filtering.

I bought cheap 20 gallon shad tank without filtering system but added one using some 4" and 2" PVC parts. I will post pics as soon as I can figure out how to post pics on here....

I bought cheap 20 gallon shad tank without filtering system but added one using some 4" and 2" PVC parts. I will post pics as soon as I can figure out how to post pics on here.... [/quote]

PM sent

Is the black material in the bottom oof the filter tray just tight cell foam?

Looks good to me! As long as it works, that's the way I see it! Good Job!

Very nice job!!!

But.... I am most impressed.... this thing MUST be a "Cat Magnet" judging from your pics!!!

LOL!!!

Good looking tank. If you will drill a 3/8 hole in the outlet tube of the pump and run a peice of copper in it and out to suck air it will oxygenate the heck out of your water. As far as corners in a bait tank, I heard that the reason shad stack up in a corner of a tank is due to static pressure, by pumping oxygen into a tank of water eliminates the static pressure. The change in the static pressure in the corners leads them to believe it is an escape route and they will beat thereself to death trying to get out. You da man Lee, look's like it will work great.

High Tech,
I did that (so of) ... added a small tube to the suction side of the pump along with a small adjustable valve. That way the pump impeller really mixes the air up with the incoming water ......
It does put lots of oxygen in the water .... This is an old post.
Who woke it back up? I have new pics if anyone needs em ....

And Cajunrichard ... The barn cats know when I come home , there are usually treats to be found as I empty the tank of leftovers...
Smart critters ........ And they like fresh shad !!!!

Will work with small shad.But large shad require a much better tank,along with a little current to help shad stay lively and calm.There is a big difference between live shad and lively shad!

If I where going to build a tank from a cooler Id make it out of a longer cooler and cut a piece of plexiglass or aluminum so that it would fit in from top to bottom and round the corners.You could even put rubber gaurd on top and bottom to stabilize material.For a tight fit. Then I would utilize the space in the corners for pump and filter.I would make sure and have my pickup at bottom so it would pick up all particles and scales much more efficiantly.Then you would have a insulated round bait tank for shad.drill small holes in corner of cooler lid for wires.A dab of silicone will fix any leaks.ive been thinking of making a kit that would turn any rectangular or square cooler into portable bait tank but dont know where to begin.

i admire you guys enginuity. would copy your design if i was to put a bait tank on my boat. the bucket design has got me thinking of doing one with a spare igloo 5 gallon drink cooler for my kayak. do ya think it would work if i drilled holes in the rim like you did the bucket tank? figured the spout could be removed for the water intake connection.

Fine if your using crappie sized minnows.

i just made one out of a platic tub mabey 20 gallon , round ,and i used radiant barrier rap from HD and spay glue . i picked up a pump from bass pro works great for shinner not one floater in 2 days of 90 heat but the first time i put a few shad in it for about a half a day they stayed alive but it seams the filter on the pump is not enough even with the shad saver had a black film and had to clean the pump out. dont fish live bait alot or mabey enough is the word so iam still working on the bugs but still works great and only coast about $50 allready had the tub . should i be running a separate filter for shad?

Well,
When I hook the oxygen bottle up to it .... They get real lively !!!!!

Sure they do buddy.....

You can actually just hit the drain button to get your lively shad out that bad boy shad tank!!!!!!!!!!Thats a classic right there.

This is genius!

I'm going to rob your design.

Jackson

30 Gallon GrayLine can keep 50-75 6 inch Gizzards alive and KICKING....When it counts you need a pro built tank, pure and simple.

had some shad left in my live well in the boat after a trip...I had about a dozen or two in there to start the morning. Dumped some shad keeper in there and would at water as needed throughout the day (this is a square livewell in a Lowe Roughneck aluminum boat)...finished the day and had about a dozen left in there, forgot about em and went back four days later expecting a stinkin mess. What did I find....6 of them still alive, alive enough let em go when I got to the lake...probably a fluke but, I think it goes to show that over crowding is a main reason they die.

Nice tank by the way, I've been looking to modify one that I have with a filtration system.

I saw this thread last year and added this makeshift filter/aeration system to the built in 40 gallon bait tank on my blue wave and it works like a champ. Certainly not as good as a professioal bait tank, but it keeps bait all day long and I dont have to lose any fishing room on the boat. Rigged it with a cigarette lighter and just plug it in and all have to do is add amquel and clean the filter periodically. Thanks for original post fmclee.

Me and sandbasstard made one heck of a tank with a 100quart cooler and some rings cut out of a plactic barrel. Its oval not round! Round will work better than square but oval is the way to go because shad are a schooling fish And when they are able to school in your tank they are less stressed. Less stress means the ammonia levels and death rate go down! But like Mr bunch said nothing beats a greyline/sunshine bait tank!!

fmclee,I did the same thing you did. I used a rounded cornered cooler,5 gallon size, I put a suction cuped bilge pump,Stick it to the bottom run 1/2 inch pvc out of it to the top of the cooler then made a halo all the way around the top of the tank. Drilled small holes ,about 75-100 under the halo to recirculate the water. I just put in lake water and some salt and are good to go for about a day. Mark