all the products available on the marketplace. You shouldn’t have to worry about much more at this point of the day until you actually start catching a few fish you intend to put into the live wells. You can focus of catching some fish but once you start using the live wells to hold fish, that’s when your attention needs to be in two places at the same time all the time and for the rest of your day. as a tournament competitor you have an obligation to yourself to go catch ‘em up and try to win or place as high as you can every time out. But you also have an obligation to the bass once you’ve decided to hold the fish long enough to weigh it in and better your tournament result.
TWO FISH RULE
once you’ve got two fish in the live well, you really need to turn your aerator on and leave it going for the remainder of your fishing day. as you add in more fish you’ll need to heighten your awareness of the temperature of the water in your wells as well. Having ice on board, in a form that can be administered throughout the fishing day, is especially important during the summer months when water surface temperatures tend to climb dramatically over the temperatures to be found only a few feet below the surface. reusing your drinking water bottles is the best way to provide a steady and controllable cooling system for these purposes. Fill empty water bottles three quarters full and freeze them. add them to your live wells one at a time and over the course of the fishing day to keepthelivewellsatasteadytemperature. it’sbestto keep the wells at a temperature a few degrees cooler then the waters surface temperature.
TOWELS CAN HELP
When the summer day gets to be a bit too darned hot for you, it’s a solid indication that it’s too hot for the fish in your wells also. ice helps but if you lay some damp towels down across your deck and over the lids of the wells, you’ll find that has a cooling effect also and helps make your ice in the wells last even longer.
REPLENISH WATER FREQUENTLY
during the tournament day you’re going to want to change out the water in the wells frequently to give the fish in them the best chance at survival to the scales and beyond. even with all the steps you’ve taken so far, water in a small compartment, even when aerated, loses oxygen over time. in between
Issue 4 October 2011
When changing over water in your wells you always want to be aware of what type of area you’re in and make the determination of whether or not the water there is best for your wells.
fishing spots and once your boats come off pad and you’re closing in on your next fishing spot, swap out the water in your live wells completely and reload with fresh water. Then turn off the water intake, keep your aerator running and re-supply the live wells with your chemical treatment. You’ll want to repeat this process each and every time you drain out the used water from the wells. it may sound like a time waster, but you’ll lose less fish and suffer less dead fish penalties if you follow this course of action and stick with it always.
Some coves can have water that lacks oxygen or is too hot to begin with and taking that water into your system really does you no good and will harm your fish.
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