I do not get up to Texoma alot so I cannot justify spending alopt of money on a bait tank. Plus not room for one in my fish and ski.

Any ideas on what I can do with a 5 gal bucket to keep shad alive.

There was another post on this subject in general but it kind of confused me and I think it was geared to larger tanks anyway.

Thanks,
Karl

I add a handful of water softener salt pellets to the bucket before putting the shad in the bucket. Keep it in the shade if possible, put a chunk of ice in the water to slow down their metabolism, add fresh water often. They keep better in cooler weather....the hotter the weather, the shorter their lifespan in a bucket. At least that's been my experience. The more shad you have in the bucket, the sooner they die. The bigger the shad in the bucket, the sooner they die. I try to keep them small and small in numbers when using a bucket.
My 2Cents....
R

Don't put ice in the bucket, the clorine will kill them (faster). Freeze a couple of plastic coke bottles and put them in one at a time. I built a cheap bait tank with a used igloo cooler I bought in a garage sale. Bought a submersible 12v pump and aerator at Academy. Superglued the pump to the bottom of the cooler and ran the wire leads to a 12v outlet. The insulated cooler, salt, and frozen coke bottle keeps them alive a lot longer. I just changed the water out every hour. I think I spent $50 total.

Then at the end of the day, replace the water, place your catch in the cooler and leave it connected with your last frozen coke bottle. Your catch stays alive until you can get home and clean them.

Lots of ways to make a shad tank....... here is another way.

Go to any farm seed store and buy one of the old blue color 50 gal empty plastic seed barrels (about $15 dollars; cut the barrel in half and remount the lid to the barrel with some "L" shaped brackets. Cut a square hole in the lid and attach back to the lid with a door hinge. Drill a round hole (small) near the top edge of barrel so water can drain out......... his boat was a self draining center console so the water just ran out the back of the boat.

Buy a bilge pump put it in bottom of the barrel; just set it there you do not need to permenently attach it........ attach a plastic garden hose to the pump intake and pump lake water thru the barrel; wire it up with alligator clips so you can attach to a 12v battery. Depending on the length of the garden hose, you can pump DEEP cooler water thru the tank. My fishing buddy Bill made one of these for about $40 (25 gallon tank).

When you get done fishing pour out the water and store the pump and hose inside the empty barrel.

Something I learned from my aquarium hobby: PetCo and PetSmart have a product called "Stress Coat" which helps fish (especially those that have been netted) calm down. It also removes chlorine instantly (in case your frozen pop bottle leaks)

I agree - Lots of ways to make a shad tank.

Couple of thoughts to consider. First, I do not recommend using the submersible pump. Get one that floats in the tank or remains outside the tank. The submersible pumps put off a lot of heat and make it harder to keep the water cool.

I seldom take shad on the boat, but I fish with them every night on the dock. I use 2 five gallon buckets (AKA Redneck coolers). I have ropes tied to the handles so the can easily be dipped over the side. I fill them both with water, catch the shad, and put all the shad in bucket #1. After about 15 minutes, I gently net them and transfer them to bucket #2. Usually, this is all I have to do to keep them alive for a late night of fishing. If we plan to go all night, I may use some ice (in a bottle), and sometimes one of those little "D" cell aerators - hung on the handle.

Unfortunately, I do not know how this would work on a boat. I like Boatman's idea. Maybe you can come up with a combination of the two?

As for the 55 gallon drum for a tank, I have made at least 10 of them. I get the barrels at no cost so after hinges the total cost is about $5. They work great and so far the blue ones hold the cool in much better than one would think. The way I do it is simple. Use a jig saw and remove 1/2 of the top side of the drum so that it looks like a half moon opening. THen use the saw tond remove about half of the outer rim. This is needed so that it will go down into the drum. Then mark a line around the drum 8 inches fro the top and cut the top section off. Turn this piece upside down and stuff it down into the tank but not all of the way. Just get it started. Then use liquid nails and place a bead all the way around the tankon the small piece thats now upside down. Stuff it into the tank and secure it with about 4 drywall screws and let it cure for 24 hours. Then attach the lid back onto the half moon cut out with brass hinges. Cut handles out on each side and use a piece of rubber hose duct taped into the top of the handle holes. I use the same setup as the other guys for the fresh water with the bildge pump but make sure the fresh water coming in spins that water in a circle so the bait have to swim against it. This is very important. Its also very important to make sure nothing cloggs the drain. I left mine running once while grabbing a bite at a marina and the dang thing almost sank my boat. Good luck!

I agree the 50 gallon plastic work great, you can hold 150 plus shad in them without much die off. Shad savor and alot of salt the secret. bildge on the bottom with hose running up to the top, using a sock as a filter on the other end returning the water back to the tank. you can also throw a floating airator on the top.

I have an old cooler that I can donate to the cause. I have one question though. I have read on a few post that the shad need to swim in circles. Have you seen this. If that is not the case I do not see why I cannot keep them in my live well with an aerator and a couple of bottles of frozen water with some of the salt product.

I am just hypothesizing here.

The corner of a square tank or cooler appears darker. A bunch of the little geniuses will sometimes swim into the corner and then use up all the oxygen in that spot and die. Or sometimes, they get so anxious they bang themselves into the corner. Either way, circulating water and no corners helps out.