Looking for ideas to keep some live bait at the house.. thinking about minnows any ideas is great

How many minnows??? How long do you want to keep them?

I run an aquarium products retail company including live goods. I currently hold 350 gallons at the house. I have held minnows with varried results but your in luck, this is the exact right time of the year to start a minnow holding bin.

My reccomendation is a round barrel with a clear top that sits outside in open sunlight with an aerorator or a power head to keep te water from going stagnent. Let it sit till it grows algea, you can jump start this by dumping a pinch full of fish food for every 10 gallons of water into the barrel when you first set it up.

Once you have algea around the edges you have a sufficient food supply for the minnows. Move the barrel to a place where it only gets 3-6 hours of sunlight a day. Use a power head to move the water in a circular motion so that the fish get the fealing that they never stop swimming. Minnows love current. Use an aerorator filter system to keep muck and mess to a minimum while making sure everone can breath with ease. Make sure you check water temps and if the barrel is to hot just give it less sunlight each day.

Using this method I have held minnows well into october. With a temp controlled area and an aquarium light on a timer I bet you could use this method all year long but I would grow the algea outside first.

Tight Lines,
Alex R.

Nice response Alex!

Good info

What I did at the lake house @ Whitney.I bought a blue plastic 55 gallon barrel cut it in half.Had a welder friend of mine make a stand for it.I used the half that had the little threaded opening on it so i could thread a water faucet in it to drain it using a water hose. I drilled 2 small holes in the top part on one side to run the small hoses for a aquarium pump I bought at Walmarts for $10.50.It works really well.I then cut a piece of messed metal to lay on top.I put around 3 to 4 dozen minnows in it when we go down ,and they will stay alive for at least a month or so.When ever I clean it out and put new water in it I add 2 caps of hydrogen peroxide to the water and run the pump for about 30 minutes before putting the minnows in.My neighbor goes down about every 3 days and feeds them fish food from Walmart.

I have it inside my shed to keep the sun off of it , and in the summer I freeze small milk jugs with water and put them in to keep the water cool.Hope this helps