Livewell Issue

[Mike Tosello]

I fished a tourny over the weekend and both myself and my co-angler had fish die on us..... 3 out of 4... Now i had checked the fish and the water temp in the livewells probably 15 times throughout the day and everything seemed fine. The fish never came to the top or turned belly-up on us, so without any indication we thought there was no problems. So we get to check in and go to bag our catch and found 3 dead. If a fish dies of natural causes or of poor oxygen levels, they will float to the top. Seems to me the reason the stayed at the bottom is from some kind of toxic problem.....



Does anyone know of a good livewell cleaner to use that i can flush the entire system with, that will nuetralize any chemical in the system and not harm fish????



Thanks in advance....



Mike

 

[Bryan McDonough]

Water from the hose is all you need. And let em dry out good afterwards. Maybe even take a towel to em. I always hesitate to clean my livewells with anything else.

 

[Bruce Freeman]

I was told to use a little bleach and make sure to run your areator system, then flush with fresh water????

BF

 

[Teri C.]

Quit pottying in the livewell. hahahahahahahahaha!

 

[Jim B]

Bleach is the way to go. It will kill every kind of bacteria you may get in them. What i do to clean mine is a use a 32 oz spray bottle fill it with water and add a tablespoon of clorox bleach to it. I spray the wells with it(just a light coat i et many cleanings from one bottle of mix) then rinse them out thoroughly then dry. If you can still smell any bleach after a day or two rinse again and dry. I have used bleach to clean mine for years and its never been a problem for the fish because its such a low amount and i rinse it out.



I think haveing the well be clean is as important as proper aretation, cooling etc. Not to tooy my own horn or anything but i have lost very few fish over the years im my wells. The only ones i have ever lost were hooked so deep they died within minutes of going in the well. I have never had one die for any other reason.

 

[Michael Snow]

One other thing I might suggest... Fill your livewells and turn off the fill. Go on a long high-speed run. Check the level in your livewells. Your valve could be the issue. This makes a lot of assumptions, such as:



1. You had the fill on a timer or turned it on regularly

2. You went on short runs after catching the first fish.

3. Your only long run with fish in the livewell was returning to weigh-in site.