Which Livewell to Keep Fish Alive

[Laid Back]

Planning on fishing a few tournaments this year. Which well would be better at keeping redfish alive. The center with the recirc and bubbler or the port that has fill only?

[Bamaskeet]

I think the port well will do a better job keeping a redfish alive because it's bigger. I have kept a bunch of decent size trout alive in the port well.

If you have issues, you can always add an oxygen system.

[hurricane]

Whichever one brings in more water. Exchanging water is the key, more in more out.

[Shindig]

I use my port well with no issues

[Laid Back]

My port well has no recirc. That's the only reason I'm thinking I need to use the smaller baitwell. It has two fill points and a recirc and a bubbler system.

[Miss Jazzy]

I use my port which has a recirc. but I never use it, just run the live well pump all day putting fresh water in all the time. I've kept a couple man's limits of trout alive all day long, like 8-9 hours with no problem and I have 800gph pumps.

[Pmckh]

I know several people that use the center well and have no issues keeping a few reds alive

[linesider 159]

Whichever one brings in more water. Exchanging water is the key, more in more out.

You would think so, but in the hottest days of summer sometimes recirculate is better and then adding ice to cool it down.

Having it on raw water constantly in shallow warm water brings in warm surface water, whereas recirc with ice keeps the water cool while still oxygenating. This isn't as much as an issue as it is in really warm water like louisiana.

during the summertime in louisiana, redfish tournaments often have a large percentage of dead fish penalties. Some boats even get oxygen tanks.

That being said, I have raw and recirc and normally just keep raw on the whole time in florida. Louisiana would be recirculate and ice

Here's a pro tip, if your redfish is just out of the slot give him a nice little ice bath, you can usually get them to slink up a little

Op, if you want to give yourself the best shot at no dead fish, use the well with recirculate and add ice. You can pump in new water after 2 hours or so and then add ice again. You can also get a livewell additive.

Also, get these: http://www.newproproducts.com/products.html

The best thing is to give the redfish plenty of room and not have them curled up as well

[smooth move]

my 02 2200V only had a drain in the port side. i converted it by splicing into the plumbing of the center livewell. i fish redfish tourneys and keep the reds in the port well. if it's really hot, i'll slip a zip lock baggie of ice into the well every hour or so. only fish i've ever lost was because one once knocked the drain tower out and i didn't find it untill they were dead.