Bullheads are Catchable - Get the bait tank setup!

[rushing]

Originally Posted By: rushing

Flat rash, poked by bullheads, being muddy, lumpy from mosquito bites, smelling of campfire. Its all part of flathead fishin.

Rushing's comment reminded me of an old John Wayne quote:

Life is tough. But it's even tougher when you're stupid.

Crazyice - Use a glove if you want, no need to prove your manhood by being stupid. I personally avoid the mud, use mosquito dope, I love flathead rash so that's OK, but I always stay upwind of the fire.

“We need the iron qualities that go with true manhood. We need the positive virtues of resolution, of courage, of indomitable will, of power to do without shrinking the rough work that must always be done.” ~ Theodore Roosevelt

If I was able to fish out of a mini-houseboat instead of hiking through the woods, shore fishing, cooking dinner over a fire every night. I would be able to avoid the mud, mosquitoes, and smoke too, but since I catch more fish from shore, these are things one puts up with to catch fish including receiving a bullhead poke or two. If someone is getting poked they're not holding them right is all. We use those yellow & white flo-troll minnow buckets with about 2 dozen bullies in it and rarely ever get poked, pilgrim.

[aanderud]

Speaking of catching more fish.....is that a new avatar, Rob?

[rushing]

Yep, thats from a very very good night we had earlier this season.

[aanderud]

I didn't realize how similar our avatars were until I saw them right next to each other!

[rushing]

They are very similar. Its one of the three fish in the 40s we caught that night.

[Ralph Wiggum]

Thought I would bring this one back to the top because I am starting work on my tank and there are some great ideas in here.

I've got a good idea of how I want it set up. I'll document with photos and post them up once I get it all put together.

[Here-Kitty-Kitty]

I would like to see what you have in mind. I need to set mine up here shortly. When do you all think the bullies are going to start biting. I think its going to be earlier this year.

[Ralph Wiggum]

I would like to see what you have in mind.

I'll post pictures as I get it done. My plan is half drawn out/half in my head, so once it fully comes together, I'll get them up. I'm photographing as I go.

[stam34]

rob thats never happened to us before has it ? not getting the lid on tight . lol

[rushing]

nope never

[DTro]

It seems like the more I get into this bait tank thing, the more I realize that less is more and that Rushing has the right idea.

Keeping a huge supply is a lot of work.

I think I'm going to scale back a bit this year. Med size container with a couple of bubblers/airstones and few dozen bullies at the most (maybe more like 2 doz).

[uppdacreek]

Lots of great ideas throughout this entire post! It only makes the fever that much worse

I have never tried to keep more than 1-2 dozen alive for more than a week. For me a a giant cooler, biggest one I could find, and 2 aquarium pumps with stones works just fine. I keep it in the garage behind the boat. My gagrage faces north so it does not get super hot in there. During the really warm months I change the water everyday after work or when I get home from fishing. It takes 10min tops. I can thread a garden hose onto the drain of the cooler. Takes a couple minutes to drain and even less to fill it back up. Just make sure you treat the water before putting your bait back in. I usually put the bait in a 5 gallon pail while I do all the work.

There are a ton of places to catch all the bait you want, so I don't see any reason to keep more than a couple dozen at a time. The only bait I have a hard time finding myself are suckers in the 8-12" range. I get some in a couple of areas every year but no numbers.

Bring on the warm weather, I am ready to get the show on the water

[Shack]

I figured since I was up, and checking to see if any reports had come in from tonight, I would share a cool thing I have been using for my bait tank .

My task this season is keeping a good stock of the larg legal sucker minnows around for when that extra live bait is needed:

The rumors are sinking further away as the weeks go by on how hard it is to keep suckers. My suckers are still alive . I have found they do not need extremely clean water, but well aerated water. I have upgraded my air pump and added a kicker pump. I am running two 12" air stones an inch wide at the bottom and a kicker 3" stone right in the filter’s reservoir. I have been changing my water 1.5 times a week, just because when you get almost a dozen of these guys in about 60 gals of water, you want to make them as comfortable as possible They are kind of like a dog that needs to be let outside in letting you know things are not right . They can get a little loud at times (banging around) and at thyis point I know it time to change the water. When the water is changed they just hang out nice and still for a day or two stacked up twords the bottom. When I run bullies in this tank, I change the water every 1.5-2 weeks depending on the amount of them I have in their, and how long I let them soak in quarantine before they go in. This year the bullheads I have gotten have had so much green algae much/matter in them, it takes a week plus before they stop puking that stuff up . Very nice, lively bullheads, but they puke up that green muck, and not much of anything else. Last year it was crawfish skeletons and parts. They would cover the bottom of the tank like a bone yard, but they never touched the crawfish I put in the bait tank, to help clean regurgitated matter. I just have been running 3 five gallon buckets with lids that have a hole for the aerator line in them for my bullies. I run about 20 in each bucket and changed the water almost daily at first because of the green muck puke. Now they are starting to clean out and since the buckets are so small I change the water as needed or definitely when I change the sucker tank water.

On the suckers, water temp is the other major key in keeping them alive. I have not been tested with higher temps in the garage yet, but what I have found is the ideal water temp range is 55-60 deg. (cold right out of the well pump water is too much of shock for them. Bullies seem to love/be ok with this cold water. You should wean them down to colder than current river temps but I have just stuck with current river water temps as the rule). Monitoring this can be a task and I have found a good little tool that has been helping me do this. I bought it about 3 years ago on sale, for almost nothing, in the clearence isle at Wal-fart. I pretty much have found no use for it since as I have other devices in the boat that tell me the water and outside temps. It has been just sitting in a drawer for a couple years now. The other week my aquarium thermometer failed on me after only one years use. I was doing a water change when I noticed this and panicked trying to find something to check the temp of the new water. After a firm denial from the wife on using anything from the bathroom or kitchen I remembered about this just sitting in the drawer:

It sure is nice to just glance at the inside water temp and see the outside temp around the tank.

I just mounted it with a little Velcro (my BFF ):

and run the wire and prob to the back of the tank in my cord notch for the filter system.

Works pretty slick and if you blend water temps during the water change, you can just drop the prob to the bottom for a reading, then pull up aways for a middle reading, and then check the surface.

Almost forgot . The one thing I have found with bigger suckers is you need a cover for the tank. I have not had one flop out yet using this cover, but they have moved it pretty good So I just did this:

[Ralph Wiggum]

I gotta get some bullies in the tank NOW!

[Surreal Deal]

How many bullheads do you go through in one night of fishing on average?

[audemp]

I keep a dozen or so on hand in a 5 gallon pain with bubbler and a bit more in my cooler livewell I made. They will live for 3 weeks in the hottest summer. You do have to change the water everyday and keep the water cool so they dont get sick or loose to much weight.

[Larry FlatCaster]

depends on how the fish are biting. Plan for one an hour with a few extras.

[Surreal Deal]

Thanks LFC,

The way this thread was going I was starting to think that they were like crappie minnows - bring a gazillion of 'em!

[DTro]

I’ve had nights where one bullhead stayed on my hook all night, and then others where I’ve ran out with over 30 in my cooler

[mainbutter]

I’ve had nights where one bullhead stayed on my hook all night, and then others where I’ve ran out with over 30 in my cooler

I like fishing and running out of bait. It might drive some people crazy thinking they are "missing out" on more good fishing, but for me it always means that the day of fishing was WAAAAAY better than I ever expected.

[rushing]

Running out of bait is the WORST! No less than a dozen per person is what I try to bring with.

[SteveD]

Running out of bait is the WORST! No less than a dozen per person is what I try to bring with.

Ive had that happen before and it sucks. I now keep several different kinds of manmade cat baits in the boat just in case that should happen. GULP, Food Source Cut Bait and a couple of other brands of the nugget type stuff. I've never really used them yet but at least I have it handy if I need it. I don't want to go home early cause I'm out of bait. I'll have to do a Cat Tip of the Day on the kinds of baits out there as back ups.

[ec30_06]

This time of year you never really know how much you could go through. I like to bring around 30 baits with per trip. sometimes more if I'm staying late or have a lot of people with. I have a twin outlet aerator for my livewell mounted under my console with a toggle on the dash. It will keep plenty of bait alive all night.

[BuckKiller]

Running out of bait is a good thing... it means the fish bit better then you thought they would.

where do you guys usually get your bullheads? I normally buy suckers but that gets expensive.

[SteveD]

Running where do you guys usually get your bullheads? I normally buy suckers but that gets expensive.

You ned to go back to page 1 on this thread and read it all the way through. It should answer most of your questions.