ARW Friday 7-17

It was nice to have ran into you all on your way in. Congratulations to all for the nice halis.

Joe

Nicely done once again guys! You really know what you are doing and it constantly shows.

Thanks for the report,
Ray

Great post Ariel.  We gotta go out there again.  I may bring some of my own gear this time!

WTG Guys,
I was wondering how you keep the bait alive over night ???
Thanks,
Wally

10+ gallons of water and a good aerator should do the trick. Make sure that the aerator doesn't go out on you at night or you will have floating smelt in the morning.

Nice One(2) For All!!   What a night for bait and what a day for dem' Butts!

Damn, this is one of the best fishing years I can remember.

Way to stick 'em fellas.

Won't post eh sharky? Here I am!

Well, thanks for the kudos everybody! Those guys really do know what they're doing. I sort of know what I'm doing thanks to those other guys. Dave and Sharky made bait the night before with two magik casts of the net which helped me. Sharky has spent hours preaching to me about WTF to do to catch these fish @ the ARW. And Ariel totally assisted me to bring that monstor in. I was stunned when that thing came up. My gaff suddenly looked so small. So thanks to the radios and sharky spreading the word that I probably don't know what the hell to do with a 39"er, Ariel quickly paddled over and gaffed it and wacked it. Just after that I had another large one on, tried to handle it alone and it bailed. For some reason these fish FREAK OUT the moment the touch air. My gaff sucks, I need a new one.

To answer the bait question:

I kept about 25 smelt and 10 shiners alive overnight in a 48qt. cooler filled up to 1 1/2 inches from top. I get oxygen in the water using two fronts: I use the cheapest airator pump from the pet store, but I upgraded the bubble-stone from the little ball it comes with to a long brick shaped stone. It increased the surface area of the bubbles nicely. More important than the bubbler tho is a "power-head". It can also be bought for about $15 for a cheapy one from a usual pet store. This is used to create a circulation across the top of the water.  It sucks water in and blows it back out to create a current. You want this pump to push water in a circular direction around the cooler. This is accomplished by using a power-head that has suction cups on it which stick to the sides of the cooler placing it out-of-center submerged just under the surface of the water. This is what causes the largest surface area of water to renew its contact with the air on top. I also bought a little cartridge that had some stones in it that claim they reduce ammonia in the water when circulated through the cartridge. I rigged it onto the power-head's water intake with electrical tape to pull water through the cartdridge. I heard fish make ammonia when they are stressed. All and all I spent under $50 for this capability.

using this method the fish were unphased by being held overnight. They lasted the entire next day in the yak livewell after that too. I think I had one smelt roll on me.

Cheers folks!