Frank, I've asked before for the science behind how vents will do the same. Quite frankly, it's BS. You're prior reply is what is called "anecdotal evidence" in scientific analysis. There were many variables at play, and you have no measured data as to which parameters were affecting the outcome, or not. A proper study would use the product in an identical environment with a control that did not have the product, then measure the dissolved oxygen in each in the same manner. I've NEVER seen anyone do that with the device you are hawking. There's a likely reason that has not been done, and that reason is there will be NO DIFFERENCE in dissolved oxygen, or if any (unlikely), not significant. If it's so great, the inventor could hire an independent lab to do the test, then publish it. A positive result from such action would likely generate an amazing popularity (and great revenue). But, that's a ploy that would not work out, I believe. If it's such a sure-fire thing, why not get that independent scientific validation done, and then count the money from the return on investment???

You’re right, with no fish in the livewell; 70 F water that is 100% DO Saturated holds only 0.7 PPM more DO than 80 F that is 100% DO Saturated water.

That’s all DO increase you’re going to get and that's with no fish in your well consuming oxygen if those chemistry gas laws are still correct – only 0.7 parts per million DO increase. You can bet your boat keys there are much better ways to increase the livewell DO than chilling the water 10 F with ice and trying maintaining that all day. Tournament time is better spent fishing for that next big bass than messing with ice all day trying to increase the DO 0.7 PPM don’t you think?

Hot summer environmental water in bass boat livewells that is well aerated often results in insufficient unsafe DO Saturations when they contain a limit of tournament bass. Acute and especially chronic sustained hypoxia in over stocked is THE primary cause of summer tournament mortality so says the published fishery science research. Exceed the collective biological oxygen demand of all the fish in the box and you got yourself a bass boat “Death Well” not a “Live Well.” That results is suffocation/hypoxia and cell death that begins the moment when the livewell DO fall to unsafe levels.

One dead bass can turn a winner into a loser at any summer bass tournament in the blink of an eye. Some fishermen have opened their livewell lid and watched this happen in the summer. Most tournament bass fishermen have never had a fish die or caught a “dead fish penalty, but when a fish does die and you’re hit with that penalty… that is real a disgusting way to lose tournament money/prizes.
Some contestants do actually worry about fish dying in their livewell before and during every summer tournament. Every bass tournament fisherman I know, knows that nagging worrisome feeling that usually begins the night before the tournament and continues through the day at every hot summer tournament.

Responsibility for tournament bass care and bass boat livewell water quality

Tournament Directors and Organizers:
Competitive summer bass tournament kills cause serious public relations problem and always have been since the early 1970’s for B.A.S.S for all bass tournament Directors, officials, organizers and bass clubs amateur and Pro events.
Contestants: On the other hand, well, they skate. Contestants have no responsible for summer tournament bass kills, never have been and probably never will be responsible for bass tournament mortality.

The contestant’s responsibility for the fish ends at the end of a tournament day the moment the weigh-master takes possession of the contestants bass, both the live and the dead bass are submitted by the contestant. The contestant only responsible is for his boat’s livewell aerator /water pump… it must hum when turned on sitting on the trailer or in the water with no fish in the livewell before the tournament begins. If the electric motor hums when turned on the official Certifies that the contestant’s boat does in fact have a “Functional Livewell.”

A “Functional Livewell” must be fully capable of keeping fish alive and healthy for many hours of transport, capable of insuring continuous safe water quality for a tournament limit of bass transported 7-8 hours in a summer bass tournament.
A “Functional Livewell” is a real life support transport system like a ventilator in an EMT transport to a hospital ER. If the livewell is aerated, that’s equivalent to having a variable speed electric fan in the EMT transport vehicle that rums off a battery to insure safe continuous oxygenation for the transport.

Bass kills are only problems for contestants when money and prize are lost because the fisherman failed to keep his catch alive all day, a fish dies and the contestant was assessed a “Dead Fish Penalty.” Sometimes a very powerful punished because the contestant failed to keep the catch alive while in his possession.

Some fishery biologist and researchers (the scientific side of live fish transport requiring safe water quality) make the claim that the most common cause of summer tournament mortality is overstocking the livewell resulting in failure to insure minimal safe livewell water quality, specifically low insufficient oxygen problems, suffocation, livewell hypoxia… aerated bass boat livewell that do not or cannot provide minimal safe oxygenation with aeration systems, livewell pumps, Oxygenators, oxygen injection system or air vent are certainly non-functional. Without minimal safe water quality, they quickly convert to the dreaded “Death Well” when overstocked with bass in summer tournaments. That’s a killer!

Water Temperature stress – temperature shock:
The BOD and cellular oxygen demand is always much greater in summer when the water temperature reaches 80 F -95 F and that cellular oxygen demand requires considerably more dissolved oxygen compared to being in 60-F – 70 F water, especially mature bass are traumatically captured and transported all day in an aerated bass boat livewell.

The summer tournament hook-line capture and transport environment in a bass boat livewell is definitely not even close comparable to the steady state environment conditions of lakes and rivers where bass live their normal lives every day undisturbed experiencing minimal to no stress cruising around slowly in their natural environment other than short burst swimming to catch food and chasing love in the spring.
Regarding temperature stress: There is stress, but less temperature stress when fish go from 80 F lake water to chilled 70 F livewell water.
The temperature shock (stress) if far greater those fish having been in chilled 70 F livewell water for hours and then acutely returned back into that 80 F lake water a few hours later. Cold iced livewell water to hot lake water is not good for the fish and is not pretty, but the contestant never sees this and is often totally unaware of this type temperature shock.

This temperature shock is of no concern to the contestant, this happens upon final release after tournament officials have taken possession and responsibility for the bass. This is the Tournament official’s problem, not the contestant’s problem. This type temperature shock and stress, cold water to hot water, is serious and can does increase summer tournament mortality.

Low oxygen in livewell water, lack of oxygen, suffocation is no doubt the ultimate physiological/emotional stressor that fish or man will ever experience whether this happens to a bass in a bass boat livewell in a summer fishing tournament or a fisherman dying on his bass boat on a hot summer day fishing is a bass tournament.

How do you know when you have overstocked your livewell?
You know when your fish begin to behave abnormally, exhibiting stress symptoms (nasty, dirty looking foam on the water surface), fish go belly up, often seen gasping at the water surface, gulping air, hyper agitated trying to jump out of the livewell, acting like they are on speed and you are watching them suffocating in your livewell @ 2 PM and you see no serious hook injury, abrasions, arterial bleeding or enlarged air bladder that needs fizzing to relieve the gas pressure… you’ve got yourself a very serious livewell water quality problem that needs your immediate attention. Dirty foam on the water surface is a symptom of serious stress. Many fishermen prefer not to look at the nasty foamy mess in their livewell and hide the foam using livewell chemicals like Foam-Off or any popular anti-foaming livewell additives that make the foam just go away.

Making that nasty foam go away with popular livewell additive does not fix your water quality problem that is causing all that foam. You still have the problem, you are just hiding a symptom of your water quality problem, that's all.

Jack, you've got a phrase "specifically low insufficient oxygen problems" above.....you might want to correct that in whatever you pasted from. There's a double adjective there, where you should pick one or the other.

As to temperature shock, Tod Driscoll, TPWD fisheries biologist and tournament fishing, says the following about cooling a livewell:

Never drop the temperature in the livewell more than 30 degrees below the lake temperature, but in no case cool the water below 70 degrees.

So, he's going with more than 10 degrees difference as safe when the lake is above 80, but never more than 30 degrees.

Thanks for the English grammar tip, I appreciate that. Should I use a comma between low and insufficient? How should that be written, low and insufficient mean different things. Livewell water having a DO a little low won’t suffocate a bass if the livewell if the livewell is not overstocked. Insufficient oxygen will definitely suffocate bass as well a human or a cat.

A 30 F acute chill in water temperature from 100 F down to 70 F instantaneously is impressive and will be somewhat shocking to a fresh hooked, caught, fought bass that has acclimated to that 100 F lake water. That hooked bass is exhausted and suffering from severe oxygen debt when it’s landed and hit hits the boat carpet. Then there is a minute or more of acute anoxia (air time) before the fish is unhooked and released into that chilled livewell water.

That’s nothing compared to riding all day in an aeration bass boat livewell all day in a summer tournament chilled to 70 F when that bass in acutely released back into that 100 F lake water… that’s type of temperature shock (going from cold to hot water) is a real killer and will definitely increase summer bass tournament mortality.

You might tactfully ask Todd or any TP&WD fish hatchery manager just what really happens when that bass has been transported all day in 70 F aerated livewell water, then it is dumped back into that 100 F lake water temperature after a very stressful capture and all day boat ride in a summer bass tournament. That only takes a phone call or email and ask 1 question… what happens when that bass is releases back into that that 100 F lake water after the transport?

I have found consistently that hatchery managers and supervisors at the TP&WD fish hatcheries love to talk with fishermen that have interest in transport water quality, how they transport live fish safely, water temperature shock, safe oxygenation and any other live fish transport issues.

They are real experts at transporting live fish, they grow and transport live fish for a living, live fish care is not a hobby for them. They don't do or recommend bro-science.

I’m just trying to help people. That’s all. Not trying to argue science. I just like to fish. I’ll just stop posting about them and go fishing. Ya’ll have a good day.

not to say anything good about California, fish and game out there has a 6 hour limit on summer tournys from june to sept.
might not be a bad idea for here also

or if you want to live like leftist pseudo communists you can pack your things and move to Commifornia

Heck yes move to California if you want there rules we do not need more rules here.

Bass lives matter

Sinko, nice catch-word application. You have summed it up very well with “bass live matter.” Very popular buzz words that everyone relates to these days. The catch-phrase reminds me of the core theology of Buddhism… all living things are sacred and all life matters.

For the fisherman: Bass lives really do matter because that directly affects their pocket book, winning or losing bass tournament prize money in summer tournaments. If and when 1 bass dies in your livewell all day and you catch that “dead fish penalty” that my man will ruin your day because you will most likely lose that prize money just because 1 fish died in your livewell. You had a winning sack of fish before that fish died. Winning that money or prize is the whole point of tournament bass fishing for fishermen world-wide. The bottom line is about winning the $$ any way you want to color it.

For the Tournament Officials: Bass lives really matter because summer tournament bass kills are a serious public relations problem these days and dead bass floating around boat ramps, marinas and shorelines will cause a big stink so to speak… the big stink is definitely a PR Nightmare of the worst kind for all bass tournament officials. The big stink is not really a problem for the fishermen because the fishermen are not responsible for kills. The kills are perceived as caused by the tournament officials poor fish care while they were in possession and responsible for the bass from weigh-in to the final release, 20-30 minutes of possession at the end of the day.

But the excitement and media hype of summer tournament bass kills passes quickly, it always does and preparation for next weeks’ summer tournaments are right on schedule and will proceed as usual. You know that routine and that’s as normal as a July afternoon rain shower.
The media, public and state DNR’s are well aware now why and how summer bass tournament kills happen.

The public is always watching and waiting for those summer tournament bass kills now. That’s normal too.

Wow,nothing like butchering a fellow TFF'er for a suggestion just to insert politics into a fishing thread.

I do everything I can to keep fish alive in summertime Temps I run aerators constantly keep a live well lids open a bit for fresh air, add frozen water bottles and change out water about every couple of hours or more and I mange to keep fish in good shape unless they are hooked deep or play them to long on lite line then they seem to get stressed out and sometimes die. I have never used the method of filling live well with Ice to cool water and plugging the drain holes so no cool water will escape or hot water come in. My question on ice method is what about Fish waste in Livewell if you recirculate the same water all day and do not add fresh is there a factor of fish mortality from gases fish put off by not pumping in fresh water? Not trying to stir the pot on the debate of using Ice just curious of all the Gases/waste the fish put off in Live well Maybe being the waste is cooler the gas/waste is not as much?

Normal sloshing from running around some is typically enough to disperse the gases. I guess if you never moved and never opened the livewell there's a chance. I know with pure oxygen we never touch the aerators for 8 hours. If water does start to look foamy sometimes we will exchange with new water, slowly cool it down, and continue with pure oxygen

Foam on the water surface in your livewell is a major symptom of toxic livewell water quality –

Toxic bass boat water quality will increase summer bass tournament mortality. Toxic water quality increases fish stress dramatically. ** That livewell stress increases the fish’s production of cortisol hormone - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cortisol

By the time you see foam on the water surface you’ve already got yourself a very serious toxic livewell water quality problem that needs your immediate attention. If that water stinks of ammonia, you got critical livewell water quality problems, your fish are very sick and dying. What you are looking at and smelling is “dead fish” penalties if you don’t fix your toxic livewell water quality problems immediately.

Dirty foam on the water surface is a major symptom of serious fish stress in bass boat livewells. It is most common in the summer. Most fishermen hate looking at the nasty foamy mess in their livewell and hide the foam with the popular livewell chemical like Foam-Off, Foam-Be-Gone or powered coffee creamer is a lot cheaper and works great too. Anti-foaming livewell additives are detergents that reduce surface tension of the foamy bubbles. The bubbles pop and the foam disappear quickly before your eyes. Most bass fishermen may think this is the quick fix to their livewell foam problems.

Making that foam go away with any of these detergent livewell additive will not solve or fix your toxic water quality problem that is caused the fish stress that produce the excessive mucus that makes that nasty foamy mess in the first place.
Foam in the livewell is a major symptom of serious fish stress. Toxic livewell water quality is a major cause of fish stress in summer bass tournaments. The more toxic your livewell water quality, the greater the fish stress, the more slime (mucus/protein) the fish produce which is a normal stress response to toxic livewell water quality.

If you will eliminate the toxic stressors causing the excessive slime production, fix your toxic water quality problems, the fish will not produce the excessive mucus (slime) or sluff off all those scales and you will not see that nasty foam in your livewell water.

If that foam really troubles you, you can either hide the foam (hide the symptom of toxic livewell water quality) with detergents or recognize that you are having serious toxic livewell water quality problems and fix the problems causing the fish stress… if you want to fix it.

The primary most serious livewell water quality stressor in summer bass tournaments is: low oxygen – hypoxia.

The secondary livewell water quality stressors in summer bass tournaments is: >Dissolved CO2, >Carbonic acid, >acid water, >ammonia, >nitrites, >feces-urine-vomit-dead and dying organic matter.

Beware of sustained livewell stress and your bass’s excessive sustained cortisol hormone production… especially with hours of transport in bass boat livewells in hot summer bass tournaments and that “dead fish “ penalty that can cost you the prize money!

What a fun thread. Everyone mining the internet for information they can Copy/Paste and act as though they know what they are talking about. When in actuality it’s still just their opinion.