two questions

[walleyeRyummy]

i have invested in two products to go with my new wheel house that i have questions about. one is a "live well/ bait keeper". its a big net that you drop in your hole to keep your catch fresh and, more importantly to me, your minnows alive. my thought was, i could leave my left over minnows swimmin til i came back to fish the next time........my question is, how fast will my hole freeze? i wont be leaving any heat on...and when the hole does freeze, how am i gonna get that net out? i am more worried if i am gone a week...i figure i am pretty safe overnight.

i also picked up the "structure on a string" and wondered the same thing.....are they going to freeze in?

thanks for any info!!

[mnguy152]

The best thing i found out that works is to bring the minnows home with me and then every other day switch out the water from a water pitcher pur kind that is in the frig. I had minnows live up to 3 weeks by doing this. I do keep them in the garge to keep them cold and when they start to freeze bring them in for a few hours and back out they go again.

[zamboni]

That thing would be a pain to get out if it froze to save $2 worth of minnows, I would take them home as well.

[maxx rpm]

Really not worth it. Minnows last just as well at home. This has really been tried since the chisel was invented, with no success. I can imagine that for people new to the sport some things dont seem right, or there should be an easy way, but usually there is a reason that things are done the way they are, and short cuts generally lead to problems.

[JSK76]

last year I would take the seat cushions of the dinette and put them over the holes and it did a great job at keeping the hole open with out heat. With a 10" auger I could go 7 days (if I fished every day) before I would find the holes being to small and would need to reopen them. Thats why I run a 10" auger instead of an 8", I can go longer between reopening.

[broken_line]

just drop the net below the ice with a cable stringer.. so that just the cable freezes if anything then im assuming you can pull the net through the ice..

[harleyharry]

I keep my minnows in the hole on the permenat all winter. My shack has holes that are large enough for a five gallon bucket to fit into. I have a chain lagged to the floor. When I get to the shack, I just spud the ice out and lift the pail out.

If you are fishing with 8 or 10 inch holes, this will not work. I keep my minnows from first ice to hold the shack to the last day I take it off. If I am using one of my portables and fishing the same lake, I don't have to transport minnows to the lake.

[Gator Slayer]

I've "heard" of a guy that keeps them out front of his shack. Made a minnow keeper from ~2 feet of 6" PVC tube with lots of small holes, sinks it to the bottom, has it tied to a float that freezes into the lake. Just drill next to the float, grab the line with a gaff and haul you minnows back up.

just make sure you "mark" the spot real well, because if you hit the line with your auger, you got a mess and lost your minnows more then likely.

[zamboni]

Doesn't PVC float?

[njpierz]

BUY FRESH BAIT

[walleyeRyummy]

one in every crowd.....

[Gator Slayer]

Doesn't PVC float?

Not when you drill a "boat load" of 1/8" holes in it, a small shot of chain helps it to sink quickly out of sight too.

[folke2000]

Gator,

I like the idea, but how do you get the float out after it has been froze it?

Folke

[McGurk]

I've never seen one, but I heard one described to me from a guy that had a permy house. He had made PVC pipe rig, capped on both ends with one end theaded for opening, and drilled a lot of small holes in it. He then weighted it (a rock?) to sink to the bottom, with pretty stout tip-up line and a large float tied to it. He made the length of line long enough so the float was about a foot under the bottom of the ice. He then made some sort of rig (a 4' stick with a coat hanger bent into some sort of hook, maybe?) that he used to snag the float and retrieve the pipe.

Then he'd just hang it so the top lip of the open end was just above the water line to keep the minnows fresh and accessable while he was there. When he'd leave, he would just drop it down in the same hole and let it freeze over. Next trip out; auger out the hole, snag the pipe, and fish with fresh minnows.

It takes up a hole in the house, but I rarely have lines down all 6 holes anyways. If I needed to, you could put the whole thing in a bucket with lake water in it.

[Gator Slayer]

a large cork (pike) bobber attatched to heavy duck decoy line. You can drill all around the float at the end of the year and take it home in a block, or wait for the ice to soften and search for it in the spring.

[walleyeRyummy]

thanks for your ideas....

I particularly like the ideas gator slayer and mcgurk suggest

i think i will try my hand at that trick.....

how about the "structure on a string"?

has anyone here ever found it to enhance their catch?

[jd524]

Here is what I do in my permanent.

I took a 4" inch PVC pipe approximately 3' long and put a screw on cap on the top. I then drilled holes around the bottom two thirds of the pipe. I then placed an eye hook on each end of the pipe.

I attached a weight with about 1' of rope to the bottom of the pipe. On the top I attached about 30' of rope and a marker buoy.

Put the minnows in the PVC pipe and lower down the hole. The pipe will fill up with water except for the top third where there is no holes, creating an air pocket for buoyancy. The pipe will now float a foot off of the lake bottom.

I'm still holding on to the rope attached to the top of the pipe. I then tie the buoy to the rope a couple feet below the water level. I then hook the rope with my gaff just below the buoy and lower it down. The buoy is now floating below the ice.

I then just let the hole freeze over. When I come back out I just auger the hole and there sits the buoy below the ice. Grab it with the gaff, pull it up, and grab your minnows.

This system works great! Minnow last forever, and no more hauling them back home. I can't take credit for this ingenuity, I got the idea from a buddy.

[walleyeRyummy]

that souunds great too!!!

i guess all short cuts dont cause problems after all!!