I'm headed down to Rockport this weekend. This will be my 1st trip where I have to "support myself".
Going with a guy who knows how to navigate and fish the area. We're fishing live bait and I'm taking my 43 gal Sunshine Bait Tank.

Fishing partner says that the bait we are using are pretty fragile so that's why I'm taking the bait tank rather than to use the livewells in the boat (24ft Skeeter Bay). What we're using - I don't know???


Salt water in the bait tank: What do I do?

Any thing I should add to the water; just pump water into the tank and go; if I add ice to cool the water down can I add some conditioner to remove what chlorine is in the ice; etc.?
Do's / Don't / Tips ?????

I'd leave that big tank at home. I don't see why his live wells wouldn't work. Just guessing...he may be using Live Croaker for bait. Ask him what he plans to use for bait. I am curious. I've used a few drops of Hydrogen Peroxide to knock out the chlorine but it only takes a few drops in a large cooler.I used this bc we were using "Black Salties" from Arkansas. These were a freshwater hybrid bait fish produced by Anderson Farms over 20 years ago.

IF you had to cool down bait well water,saltwater, you can always get a few plastic bottles of water and freeze.Then drop it in the live well.Let us know what bait he is going to use.

Croaker is the response I got when I asked

That's what I thought. Did you mean 43 qt. bait tank? Croaker can be "Beat Up" easily,from shrimp trawls to way they are handled.Inspect them if you can at the bait camp. If they have RED bellies, leave them alone. They are the first ones to Roll Over!! They can be quite pricey per dozen. I have my way of Rigging them and it works. If you don't know how, just PM me and I'll tell ya.

I didn't get the previous message before I left town. I was working like a dog up to the time that I was finally able to put the key in the truck to start it for the fishing trip.

No, didn't mean 43qt bait tank. My bait tank is gallons.

1st day:
We put 9 dozen croakers in the tank. Long hot day and we lost I would guess 6 - 8 of them in the tank. All of the other baits were very lively coming out of the tank.

We launched in the North Padre Island ramp. Don't really know where we fished but I seen some cabins on the water. 2 keeper reds and 3 keeper trout. Caught alot of small fish.
The one thing we noticed was that the bite was very light. Several times hook sets came once you seen your line moving and not from the feel of the tug.
Guide we spoke to at the end of the day said that the bite was better with smaller bait.

Day 2 (Sunday) we put 4 dozen in the tank. That was the last 4 dozen the bait stand had.
Learning from day 1, we started our day earlier so that we can get on the water earlier. But were delayed by lightning so other than getting bait, it was a waste getting up earlier...

Launched out of Cove Harbor. Caught lots of small fish around little islands. We got on one really good bite by these pipe things coming out of the water but the birds showed up and were so thick that we couldn't get a bait in the water. So we had to give that up. Caught some better fish along a grass line later in the day.

I did catch biggest trout of the trip which was 17 in.
I also caught the most gaft top. I also caught a big croaker with a lure. Which I'll take as a positive because it lets me know I can catch fish. Just not the fish we are wanting to catch

Awesome Report! Glad to see you expanding your horizons!! We're going to Port O'Connor in Jan. Go with us!!

I don�t do anything special. I use a 5 gallon bucket to dip water out of the canal at the bait camp and fill it in the back of my truck and turn on the aerator before I go in and buy them. They live fine all day long and still good and lively. Sometimes I have added some stuff called croaker/pogie saver, it just knocks out the foam on top of the water in your livewell if it gets foamy. I do shrimp the same way and haven�t had any issues. Just make sure you aren�t getting sunscreen off of you into the water.