I usually add an aquarium starter from Wally World if I use ice. 30 gal tank. 5 lbs of ice and 3 or 4 capfuls of chlorine killer, handful of salt tablets used for pools.

Have used Ready Ice right out of the machine for twenty years and never lost bait.

Don�t overthink it.

Cold water is dense and therefore it holds more O2.
Warm water does not hold O2 well.

It�s not that shad don�t like warm water. They do!
It takes about five gallons for each shad because of the fact that warm water can�t retain O2.

If you put 40 shad in 30 gallons of warm water the oxygen is just not there and you can�t replace it fast enough.
That�s were the ice comes into play. It makes the water dense and It allows the water to absorb o2 antherefore the shad do well since they they pull the O2 from the water.
You can also replace the 02 with your pump because the water is cool.

I don�t think about that every time I catch bait.
Just salt and some ice in summer and salt and lake water in the winter.

Good information Randy, thank you.

Randy: You are right about that. I went up to Rock creek camp and got the shad. That stained water really helps. I can't see the shad as easy buy they cant run from the net when I throw like down lake.

Not sure about Gizzards. I have not been able to find them. I did get some big 5-7 inch threadfins and they kept pretty well. The smaller ones tend to get caught up in the greyline intake or just die. The big threadswork well for stripers but the sandies wont leave them alone. I miss most of them because they can't get the whole shad in their mouth but manage to kill it.

Kerry: unfortunately, that's what I'm having to do. Gotta go up lake and get the shad and go mid lake for the fish.

Great input from all you guys. These tips will help out many of us.

I have also found out that it helps to have a have a small holding tank (5gal bucket). Once fish is netted, let them swim for a few mins in the holding tank to reduce the amount of slime introduced into the main bait tank

Hamster1: That's a good idea. Think I'll do that in the future. I usually have a bunch of leaves and sticks that I don't want in the shad tank and it can also let we weed out some of the small shad that will get stuck in the filter and perch.

Great post! I use a five gallon bucket filled with lake water to empty my net into. I let them swim for a few minutes and then transport them to the main tank by hand. Cuts down on slime and scales from initial shock...

I do the same as Randy overnight. I fill my tank with salt and lake water and leave it plugged into my charger overnight.

I have a 50gal super bait tank II. The problem I have at night is the filter clogging up. I change/clean the filter before I go in for the night, but sometimes the filter will clog up and the pump stops pumping properly and heats up! What types of filters are you guys using? Pillow stuffing, sponges ??? I found that if I leave the pillow stuffing out at night the sponges are less apt to get clogged up.

I let the shad do there thing once the hit the tank with poly filll.
After I have changed the filter a few times and the bait has calmed down I often pull all the filtered and screens. Just let the pump recirculate and ariate. That way there is noting to stop up while I am away or sleeping.
I start filtering again when I am around to monitor tank.

so lets say you get a had a 10 gallon bucket drilled it plumb full of holes put flotation on it with a lid and put it in the lake? same lake water same lake temp how well would that work?

depends on how many amps your maintainer puts out. lets say your pump pulls 4 amps and your maintainer puts out 1 amp! see where im going? your battery will last a little longer. now lets say your pulling 4 amps and you put a 4 amp charger on it. then on paper it should stay charged. understand? look on your airator it should say how many amps it uses

Here's how it worked. My battery was at 85%. I had the shad tank and the aerator on. Got up the next morning and the battery was at 100%. It worked fine, however the poly filter was almost totally stopped up with scales and shad goo.

I hate fishing with shad but stripers love them so gotta give them what they want.

As a kid we use to take a small garbage pail drill holes in it and place it in an inflated tire tube. We had a 30 gallon plastic drum on board the boat( no holes ) and would place the garbage pail inside it while we traveled spot to spot. Once we got to a new spot we would simply take the garbage pail out and put overboard. We also changed the water in the drum a few times during the trip
FIRST POOR MAN'S LIVE BAIT TANK with no moving parts