We love to catfish and load up the well, take pictures of all of our catch and release most of them.
The catfish model boats with the giant livewells 60-90 gallon are ridiculously expensive. I’m also not wanting to take up a ton of deck space with a portable well.

Has anyone had success converting a dry storage compartment into a well in either a fiberglass or aluminum boat?

Alternatively, on an aluminum boat do custom builders offer big coffin options you could weld to the deck and plumb for a livewell / put upholstery on top for seating?

Haven’t bought the boat yet, so I’m trying to figure out what my best options are or recommendations of groups that could fab a setup like that and if that is too much weight for a 19-22’ boat.

Thanks in advance.

Plan one of these as the cooler/seat of a center console. 222 quart that's long & slender, often used as a big fish box. It could be plumbed as a livewell for some trips, and loaded with ice for keeper fish on other trips.. Canyon makes a nice tough cooler. I've had two of their products for years. They are thick roto-molded; think Yeti and RTIC. I believe the company existed well before either of the other two names.

On my first boat (17' Whaler); there was no livewell; so I rigged up 2 48qt (or so) coolers on the back raised portion plumbed with a pump for recirculation, and then a drain that went out the back of the boat. That worked great. With recirculation, you can put a of cats in and they'll be alive when you release them. Unless you have a knack for that kind of stuff, getting one already built in is probably better. You'll pay alot more to retrofit one than just to buy one with a livelwell built in.
Tim