The Ultimate Live Bait Tank Options

[salty fil]

Its been many months in the making fellas.
Actually its been ready for a while but ive been lazy to take photos and post it up.

In my garage i have a 1000 Litre bait tank, fully plumbed and full of little yakkas and poddy mullet.

It started off as an idea last Winter when catching live bait was proving to be very time consuming and difficult and while work was slow.

Filling it up was the hardest part. It took about 6 trips with a dozen or so 30 L drums bouncing around the cabin.

I didnt want estuary water, i wanted the nice clean stuff out wide.

At the start i had a problem keeping fish alive cause i didnt have enough bacteria living in the filtration.

To fix this, i went down to Narrabeen Lakes, got me a dozen Poddy Mullet. These things are great cause they can live in a bucket of chlorine!

Even when i went to QLD for 2 weeks over Xmas they survived with no food until i got back.

After a month of building the bacteria it was time for Yakkas.

At first they were dying on me and it looked like something was eating their skin and they stunk!

I learnt that this was because in captivity i must have a stronger ratio of fresh water. So i got a thingymijiggy for $12 that tells me if the tank needs fresh water and i havnt had a problem since.

In Summer i had to add fresh water every few days due to evaporation, but now its not even once a week.

Whenever im bored or the tanks running low i nick off to a wharf and stock up.

Before ydays fish i had over 60 Yakkas in there.

Another big reason i did it was because in the ocean the Yakkas we get are massive. I wanted the little estuary ones that i call a cheeseburger.

Think about it.
If youve had dinner and not hungry but a person puts a little cheeseburger infront of you, you can fit it in cant you???

Im trying to use the same philosophy with the fishies.....

Also with the small livies you broaden your scope of species. I dont keep big ones. All of them are smaller than your 7" gulps we use as plastics. Although they do look bigger in the water.

I wana try and get close to 200 of them in there before the water really cools down and they become a pain is the ass to start catching again.

I did have a Tailor in there a while ago for about 2 weeks. He was like a shark in there. Everything else stayed wide away from him.

I had to get rid of him cause i noticed my Poddys disappearing!

Every time i go out i take 40 L with me and when i come back i replace the water just to keep abit of circulation going.

At the moment ive only got 1 Poddy so i wana stock up on a couple of dozen cause i think the Snapper would love them. I did have a little platey smash one a month or so back!

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[salty fil]

Yes Jumpy.
I do use that milk crate to stand on to scoopp them out.
And i do use a life jacket incase i fall in.
And i do occasionally go scuba diving in there when im bored!

HAVE I COVERED EVERYTHING????????

[Spudly]

hope you got no pet cats!

[Jumpus GooDarus]

Just be carefull that you dont slip on the milk crate & fall in

You'll never be able to get back out