Engel bait coolers

[leech~~]

4 hours ago, Wanderer said:

Managed to keep 2 dozen shiners and a decoy sucker alive and kicking well for a full week.  Kept them cool and changed the water once.  The other cooler kept the “mix” going, except the small suckers.

 

Basically $20 worth of bait I didn’t have to re-buy.  I’ll take that. 

 

Keeping shiners alive for a week is darn near a miracle! 

In the summer I just hope to get them from the bait store to the boat!

[ozzie]

I was able to keep my shiners and fatheads alive for a week between trip saving $20...thing I learned is that I will remove the mesh liner when holding them for a week and use it when going fishing.

[Wanderer]

3 hours ago, ozzie said:

I was able to keep my shiners and fatheads alive for a week between trip saving $20...thing I learned is that I will remove the mesh liner when holding them for a week and use it when going fishing.

 

Probably a good idea on that liner.  Mine started getting the brown stain cuz I wasn’t changing the water enough I’m sure.  I washed them after last weekend and they’re a little better but I would probably have to bleach them back to white if I wanted them that way.

[huntnfish]

I picked one up last spring and love it. Keeps the minnows much more lively and as long as you keep the water clean you can keep bait from week to week.

 

I did notice they have now changed the design a little and now instead of that useless tray there's a net that fits in the cooler. The net would be much handier than the tray. I'm working on making 2 nets that would fit next to each other in their cooler to keep minnows separate. My only hang up right now is what to use for the wire frame. 

[Wanderer]

How about checking if Engel sells replacement nets?  Otherwise some heavy guage wire could do the trick.

 

Youre right, they’re handy.

[huntnfish]

16 minutes ago, Wanderer said:

How about checking if Engel sells replacement nets?  Otherwise some heavy guage wire could do the trick.

 

Youre right, they’re handy.

 

They do sell them but it's just the one big net for the entire cooler. That's more than likely what I'll end up doing. I just think that 2 separate net areas would be a little more handy. 

[ozzie]

buy the big net and then sew in a divider.  I am no seamstress but I can imagine that would be too tough to pull off...just a thought.  Good Luck

[huntnfish]

10 hours ago, ozzie said:

buy the big net and then sew in a divider.  I am no seamstress but I can imagine that would be too tough to pull off...just a thought.  Good Luck

 

That's what my backup plan is. I'm pretty sure that's what I'll be doing. I haven't been able to figure out what the little tray was good for. I always kept crawlers in there but it only fit a container or two in it. 

[vtx1029]

I use to fill the tray about half full with water and a few minnows being it was a little quicker when you had a hot bite. But yeah the tray is a waist and I normally don't bring it with.

[castmaster]

I do like VTX and use the tray to hold a few minnows to make it quicker to grab one. What I use it for more though is to "stockpile" minnow heads. When running a spoon tipped with a minnow head I will get 6-8 heads and toss them in the tray. Makes for much faster rebaiting. IMO it's the net that is worthless. What does the net do except make changing water a tad faster?

[ozzie]

the net is so you don't have to fish the bait out of the cooler or wonder where your minnow net is...all you have to do is lift n grab!  you don't get your hands wet.  Will be perfect for the boat when looking for a quick rebait!!

[Workstoomuch]

The net is also handy when at the landing and you have to replace the water in the cooler with  bottled water. Just pull the net with all the minnows, dump water, replace water, replace net.

[PurpleFloyd]

I went to the ice fishing tournament on Madison lake today and picked this up at the bait shop. It was about half price which was still more than I would have wanted to spend but I thought it was worth a shot.

 

I like being able to get your minnows out without having to get my hands wet. That's pretty slick. 

[Wanderer]

Interesting.  Never saw one of those before.

[Big Dave2]

3 hours ago, PurpleFloyd said:

I went to the ice fishing tournament on Madison lake today and picked this up at the bait shop. It was about half price which was still more than I would have wanted to spend but I thought it was worth a shot.

 

I like being able to get your minnows out without having to get my hands wet. That's pretty slick. 

 

I saw those at a local bait shop a while back. How well did it work?

[PurpleFloyd]

9 hours ago, Big Dave2 said:

 

I saw those at a local bait shop a while back. How well did it work?

Not too bad actually. I never used the air pump but didn't need to with the cold temps. The lift up strainer is actually a pretty nice feature. 

 

We found that sometimes you get more than one minnow but there is that little funnel on the top that you just drop them back into.

 

Lots easier than a net.

[Wanderer]

I’m ALMOST embarrassed to admit this but it’s too good of news not to share. My leeches that I bought and fished with on Memorial weekend (half pound) are still alive and well in my 13 quart cooler in the beer fridge - with one water change after that weekend.  The water is still crystal clear and they seem to be back in hibernation mode.  One may be dead or about to be dead.  I’ll have to warm em for a few hours I think before I use them.

 

And the 19 quart was our boat cooler, in place of the Igloo, for our Canadian trip last week.  13-15 hour days in 90 degree heat.  We packed 4 sammies, snacks and about 8 bottles of water, half of them frozen each day.  The frozen bottles doubled as our ice.  The sammies were still cool at the end of the day when we were dying to get the ice to melt in the last bottles of water to drink them!  The cooler stayed dry inside and the yogurt covered cranberries didn’t melt.

 

I consider this this to be the end of the testing phase.  I’m hooked.

[leech~~]

1 hour ago, Wanderer said:

I’m ALMOST embarrassed to admit this but it’s too good of news not to share. My leeches that I bought and fished with on Memorial weekend (half pound) are still alive and well in my 13 quart cooler in the beer fridge - with one water change after that weekend.

 

So your saying Great cooler not so hot fisherman?

 

[Wanderer]

7 hours ago, leech~~ said:

 

So your saying Great cooler not so hot walleye fisherman?

 

 

Fixed it for ya. 

[leech~~]

3 hours ago, Wanderer said:

 

Fixed it for ya. 

 

Actually I have been suking as a walleye fisher person as well this summer. 

 

Since I keep my leech's and crawlers in the frig up at our camper all summer my wife hates looking at them wigglen around and told me to put them in a paper bag! 

 

I picked up one of these which has a Styrofoam liner and it helps keep the bait cool out in the boat as well and makes my sweety a lot happier!  I have kept leechs alive since Mem weekend as well in it. 

 

Frabill Worm and Leech Lodge Bait Bucket.