Hey all, I went out today and caught bait. Not as many as I would like but enough for a good day, most of them died before I could get them in the water. Thankfully the striper were biting cut bait or my day would not have been good.

I will be buying a shad tank but need some advice. I started this thread a couple years ago but some of the ones mentioned I can’t find online, etc.

Any suggestions on what brand to buy? I’m looking for a 30 gallon insulated with a great filter system.

Best Shad Tank

Right now, I think Xtreme Bait Tanks are the ones to beat and they are pricey. But most with them will tell you they are worth it and/or you get what you pay for.
Personally I have a Creek Bank. It gets the job done for me, but I did change the stock filter to a sock filter system and upgraded the pump. I have considered getting rid of mine and getting an Xtreme.

Super Bait Tank have the pump and filtration system in separate compartment from bait. A real plus for me. I have a 30 gallon that has lasted over 10 years.

Keepalive bait tanks are affordable. Had mine for 20 years and still works great.

Downside on mine. It's not insulated and the filter is not as easy as others to clean.

I looked at the Extreme, great looking tanks but it was too big for where I needed to put it. I bought the Creek Bank 20 gallon as it fit my boat. Would you mind sending a picture of how you upgraded to the filter sock setup?

I am not a live bait fisherman but I have heard the heat that is generated from the pump motor will kill your shad also. I would look at one that pump motor is insulated real well or mounted outside the tank itself.

@ Learnin to fish. I had a 20 gallon Creekbank for 10yrs which worked pretty good with that mat style filter. A couple of years ago I upgraded to a 30 gallon Creekbank and that filter system did not work very well. The sock filter system is the way to go. Here's the link for the https://xtremebaittanks.com/ols/products/dual-bag-retrofit-sock-filter-system

I appreciate the info. I just bought the 20 gallon as it was the only size that would work on my boat for where I want to put it. I’m assuming your comment about “pretty good” meant you could keep shad alive in hot weather?

I tried building a setup like the one shown this weekend and the 20 gallons doesn’t have enough room on the filter side of the tank. I’ll see how it works and might have to get creative to figure out how to setup a filter sock setup for it.

Yeah it would keep shad alive in hot weather as I used it during the heat of the summer. I would always put rock salt and Amquel in to keep the ammonia levels down and use foam off as needed. Rinsing that mat style filter out every 2 of hours was important too. I never had much luck holding leftover shad from a days fishing overnight during the summer though. Have you tried to see if you could fit just 1 sock in there instead of the dual setup? I was surprised how well the sock setup worked. It really cleans up the water and you don't have to rinse out the socks very often.

Rinsing out the socks or any filtration material puts a lot of scales and fish oil directly into the water ! This can put fish , Stripes or Hybrids over the edge into a feeding frenzy , tiz the same as chumming but on steroids !

I was able to figure out a setup to get one filter sock to fit. I’m going fishing Saturday, I’ll keep you posted how it does.

Has anyone used the Bait Boss Tank? How well does it work?

I have the Creek Bank 20 gallon. Can't be more Happer with it. I have to put ice bottles. to keep the water cool. What did you do to the filter that changed it?

New bait tank worked great. I used a single filter sock setup, bottles with frozen water to keep water cool, Amquel and salt. Not one died and they were very lively the whole trip. Wish I would have bought it 3 years ago.

This is what I used to setup the single sock system. I designed a fitting that my nephew is 3D printing for me to allow dual socks, but the single worked great yesterday. I rinsed it out one time, but that was more for curiosity than necessity.

I used a 1” PVC street elbow and a 1” PVC 3 way fitting you can buy at any hardware store. Put it on top of your stand pipe in the bait tank and you are good to go. You need to adjust it at an angle to make it fit inside the tank as its not very deep front to back. You might need to cut down your stand pipe 1-2” to accommodate for the additional height. I used my Dremel to expand the inside of the street elbow as it looked a little restricted. I did make sure water level was below the level where I tied the sock by 1-2” to avoid unfiltered water being sucked out of the top of the sock.