Keeping Bass Alive in Livewells

We don't want to see bass expire in a livewell due to a lack of effort on the anglers part! Keeping bass in livewells during the hot months and keeping them alive should be tournament anglers priorities and it is easier than you may have thought. I have been using this method of fish care for several years and I can assure you it works. Recently I saw a video that was put together by Jonathan Henry on Wired 2 Fish and he did an excellent job going through this process step by step in an instructional video to help you better understand this concept. I would encourage you to check out his video, but I have included the basic step by step process in this post. Depending on what area you are fishing and how quick the water temp and outside temps rise in the summer you should start considering this method when you are going to be keeping bass in your livewell starting around the first of May through the end of September. Before you hit the water take the following steps to prepare your livewells: 1: Place your selector switch on your boat to recirculate and plug your overflow hole inside the livewell with a rubber plug. Most overflow holes will require a 1 plug. This will prevent any water from the lake to enter your livewell until you are ready. This will also prevent losing the cool water from inside your livewell. 2. Dump a 22 pound bag of ice in live well. On those hot summer days this ice will typical be melted by the time you catch your first fish. 3. Place your preferred livewell additive into the livewell. This will simply prevent you from having to apply it at a later time and will also combat ammonia that your fish give off in the water and any chlorine that may be in the ice. On the water steps: 4. AFTER you catch your first fish, move your livewell selector switch to auto or fill and select livewell selection on manual. This will begin to fill your livewell to the desired depth. It is recommended to fill your livewell to within approximately 1-2 inches of overflow hole which again is plugged off. With that in mind, be sure to monitor your water depth as the livewell is filling. You will overflow the livewell if you do not manually shut them off. 5. Once the livewell is full, move selector back to recirculate, again with the overflow hole plugged, and fish the rest of the day simply recirculating this same water. In addition, keep two or three frozen 2 liter bottles of water in your boat will enable you to place one at a time in your live well as the day passes to help maintain cool water. It is much easier to maintain cool water then try to cool off hot water. This is the basic breakdown in a step by step approach that will keep your fish alive to be released and caught again on another day.