• The SH Membership has gone live. Only SH Members have access to post in the classifieds. All members can view the classifieds. Starting in 2020 only SH Members will be admitted to the annual hunting contest. Current members will need to follow these steps to upgrade: 1. Click on your username 2. Click on Account upgrades 3. Choose SH Member and purchase.
  • We've been working hard the past few weeks to come up with some big changes to our vendor policies to meet the changing needs of our community. Please see the new vendor rules here: Vendor Access Area Rules

Tournament livewell?

Nutterbuster

Nutterbuster

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Joined
Oct 12, 2017
Messages
10,063
Location
Where the skys are so blue!
So I'm cooking an idea on the back burner.

The wife and I like to fish together. When things calm down a little I'll probably add a boat to the stable. She's one of the most competitive people I know and I think she'd love bass tournaments. We have them about monthly down here, and most of them are maybe a 20 minute drive from my house.

What size livewell would I need to keep 5 bass alive all day?
 
Won’t be long until your driving one of those glitter boats. :)

When I used to fish tournaments we had a 36 gallon live well divided into two parts. So 18 gallons per side.We could have probably got by with one side on most tournaments. Around here 12-15lbs wins a lot of tournaments.

Now with that said, 5-5lb bass would win most tournaments anywhere in the nation so if that’s the size fish you plan on catching you might need the full 36 gallons
 
GCTerpfan said:
Won’t be long until your driving one of those glitter boats. :)

When I used to fish tournaments we had a 36 gallon live well divided into two parts. So 18 gallons per side.We could have probably got by with one side on most tournaments. Around here 12-15lbs wins a lot of tournaments.

Now with that said, 5-5lb bass would win most tournaments anywhere in the nation so if that’s the size fish you plan on catching you might need the full 36 gallons
Click to expand...
Yeah, most of the bass I catch down here are in the 2lb range.

So you're saying 20 gallons should be good assuming I'm not the next KVD?
 
If you have a pump that recirculates water from the lake and/or use frozen bottles to lower the temp and use a bubbler you can get away with smaller livewells. Anything to keep the oxygenated water to fish ratio as high as possible. I've never tried the livewells additives but I hear people swear by them. It's kin of like scent control to the deer hunter lol
 
Nutterbuster said:
Yeah, most of the bass I catch down here are in the 2lb range.

So you're saying 20 gallons should be good assuming I'm not the next KVD?
Click to expand...

yeah, 20 gallons with a good aerator or a recirculater would probably be fine. Like said above the trick is to keep the water cold and oxygenated. On hot days, or tournaments down south we’d buy a bag of ice on the way to the tournament and drop it in the live well.
 
I used 48-60 quart coolers with a 12v pump/aerator the first couple years of tournament fishing before I finally got a bass boat. Never lost a fish. Just had to change the water out a time or two during the day, which was easy with the electric pump. Never used ice but I've heard it helps.

Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk
 
Last edited:
I’ve had a few boats over the years for tourney fishing bass and 20 gal is a good size especially if it is insulated and you toss in some ice. I was to cheap to buy ice and had a few one gal jugs in the freezer I would toss in, a 20 gal tank gets small with a lot of ice. If you circulate water the gal jugs work great because you don’t melt the ice as fast when it’s in a jug and cold fish seem to hold their weight better.

depending on the HP limits on your lakes if you have any, small Hp limits and smaller live wells work well together so when you fill it up it doesn’t lug the boat down. No Hp limits I would stick with 20 gal or bigger.
 
I used to fish a night circuit and a team limit was 3 fish. 25# might not be in the top 10. Ice and live well vitamin helps a lot to keep fish.
 
Nutterbuster said:
So I'm cooking an idea on the back burner.

The wife and I like to fish together. When things calm down a little I'll probably add a boat to the stable. She's one of the most competitive people I know and I think she'd love bass tournaments. We have them about monthly down here, and most of them are maybe a 20 minute drive from my house.

What size livewell would I need to keep 5 bass alive all day?
Click to expand...
Use your hunting bucket. Boom. Done.
 
I can see it now, glitter apple green to match the Subaru, big ole hickory creek mini decal down the side, a long shaft mud motor, and ole nut doubled over on a keeper crappie sitting in his Waldrop on the front deck while aiming his trusty mossberg with one eye at a passing flight of woodies
 
Nutterbuster said:
So I'm cooking an idea on the back burner.

The wife and I like to fish together. When things calm down a little I'll probably add a boat to the stable. She's one of the most competitive people I know and I think she'd love bass tournaments. We have them about monthly down here, and most of them are maybe a 20 minute drive from my house.

What size livewell would I need to keep 5 bass alive all day?
Click to expand...
Easiest way is a good 65 cooler like an RTIC or similar, you can use it for things other than a live well as needed plus your able to stand on. Put an aerator in it and your good to go! Good luck!
 
The night circuit would hit local lakes. San Vincente and El Capitan were always known to put up huge limits.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top