Foam in bait tank???

Years ago when I fished for Stripers with live shad we added something to the water to keep the foam down. I remember it worked but don't remember what it was. Any suggestions?

I use rock salt and coffe creamer. They sell some "Shad Keeper", it is blue and works well. It is pretty pricey though. I keep some of each in the boat.

http://sure-life.com/pro_FOAM_OFF.html

Shad Keeper is a great investment. It takes far less than it calls for. I mix Shad Keeper with stock salt. About 10 parts stock salt to 1 part Shad Keeper. It's not too expensive and lasts. I fish all day and never have any baits die. Keep Alive Pumps work great as well. I just installed a Keep Alive on each of my boats bait tanks and now I don't carry the other bait tanks any more.

Also the Shad Keeper will keep the foam from being a problem. But as mentioned above, coffee creamer will work.

CenTex, did you just remove the factory recirc pum and put the keep alive in their place? I have debated about trying that. I have a bait tank I carried in my old boat with a Keep Alive and it worked very good. The new boat has got the max air Venturi on its built in tanks, and it works pretty well, but not as well as the keep alive IMO. It will keep Gizzards all day long, but Threadfins last about 6 hours and get sluggish and die quickly on the hook. I'm wanting to get away from the extra bait tank hassle.

In a pinch coffee creamer will work so-so....bit Foam Off is what u want and they sell it at bass pro and academy. Orange and White bottle.

I left the factory pumps in place. I used the pumps Keep Alive makes that install externally. They work great. Factory pump fills and Keep Alive aerates. You can add fresh water as needed with factory pump. They are great for shad.

Ernest I guess you are getting old,cant even remember which forum you are supposed to be in LOL,I guess you need that live well to keep your soft plastics alive.

Actually it's my Crappie that I want to keep alive. This forum has more shad fishermen on it so I decided to post here. Now if I can remember what I wanted to know ?????

Throw 4-5 handfuls of ice in there too.

i use foam away its in pool supply at wal-mart or a pool store .use about a cap full works all day.it doesn't color your tank.

good call on the pool supply or Walmart, probably a lot cheaper than the "fishing" foam kill, never thought of that

This is what I use as well. Lot cheaper than the other "fish" stuff.

Foam off is what I use to keep the foam off.

I use foam off and it works very good. I order it from grayline bait tanks, among the other shad keeper and stuff. Nice people and they ship it to you.

just go get you some normal cheap old table salt (26oz can thing lol), for us this keeps the foam down and keeps the shad more lively acting then when we put them in there

cheatos work really well

Sure Life Foam Off. Buy it by the gallon for the best price. Also are you recirculating treated water or pumping fresh water in?

how could you sacrifice Cheetos for that?

How much salt per gallon?

Water softener salt, NOT table salt. Table has chemicals that may kill your shad
1 cup-10 gallons.
I just throw some handfuls in. If it foams some, add some more.
It'll toughen their scales and salt water holds more oxygen than fresh.
I get the big bag at Lowes for I think $5-$7 dollars.
No, I don't carry the whole bag in the boat, just some in a screw top container. Refill every few trips.
You're going to get some foam, just shouldn't be running out of the top.
Leave the lid open, evaporation assists cooling water.
If you get too much foam, your bait is stressed and releasing too many chemicals.
Don't put ice in either unless it's well water ice. Community water has chlorine, dead shad.

I just got a massive Grayline bait tank in my new to me boat. I've never used one before.

Use lake water to fill.
Salt, run the aerator.
Leave the lid open unless it's sloshing out running from spot to spot.
Evaporation promotes cooling.
If you must change out water, do it a little at a time so you don't shock them.
Don't overfill. Too many shad, they get stressed.
Mine's 20 gal homemade, I can keep 75-100, 3-4" shad alive from before dawn to 4-5pm in 100*.
That's really too many but they don't red nose and stay frisky.
Bigger, less bait.
There's a ton of good information out there, google.

Here's some reading.http://www.arkansasstripers.com/keeping_shad_alive.htm

https://www.graylinebaittanks.com/?page=18&info=prep

Clicking that link was a mistake. I ended up ordering more stuff.

40 lbs $4.37
http://www.lowes.com/pd_25656-113-100012...r+softener+salt