Snagged bunker the the night before I expect to fish with them. I am concerned about leaving my boat for the night and leaving the live well on all night to keep them alive. I have shore power. Am I being to cautious worring about having the pump run all night while I am not on the boat? I choose not to keep it on so I will have dead, but fresh bunker until I can buy cage to keep them in the water. Opinions please.
Livewell operation
- Thread starter Scarlet Knight
- Start date
I have not left the livewell on overnight either, yet. With my last boat it did not have shore power so it was not an option (batteries would have been dead or very weak in morning). However, we did run it from 7am to 7pm on many occasions. Never had a problem running it for long periods of time. I think the livewell pumps are rated for near continuos duty, in other words you could probably run thenm non-stop fotr at least 24 hours.
Now that I have shore power, I may get to try the overnight livewell trick. Going Friday morning and if I find the bunker, I will certainly give it a test Friday night. I will be close to the boat all weekend long so it might be a good time to test it out.
Now that I have shore power, I may get to try the overnight livewell trick. Going Friday morning and if I find the bunker, I will certainly give it a test Friday night. I will be close to the boat all weekend long so it might be a good time to test it out.
Running the livewell overnight is not a problem as long as you have power to keep the batteries up.
Leaving the pump on all night is a lot of wear on it as well as power from the charging system. Why not make a PVC holding net for them?
It would not be my top shoice to elave it on all night, but you will not burn the pump out, I fish with mine running all day long on the water, you should not kill the batteries if it runs all night, but I would leave the batteries on and the shore power running so you stay fully charged once you come down. When I run my livewell and anchor up, I shut off my one battery as a precation, I know I do not have to, but I always have an it has worked for me so I stick with it. If you plan to fish bunker a bit let me know, my buddy and I jus built a bait pen and I put 50 bunker in it and they stayed alive for 2 days, it is big we could have put 150 in there without a problem. We built it from parts from home depot and lowes for far less then what they charge for ones from tackle stores, I think one our size runs $180 new, we built it for under $50, I think it was even less but hard to tell we wasted some material playing around with it and had to buy some stuff in bulk. That is your best bet if you plan to fish bunker a lot. Since I fiah a lot, it is easier for me to get lots of bait at once, or after a day fishing for the following few days then run every day to get it.
I don't have experience with "bunkers," but I have left my live well running overnight on several occasions, using shore power, with anchovies.
I do this as 1/2 a scoop of live anchovies (which is actually two rather large scoops) in San Francisco runs $30.00, and you get a ton of chovies. We can't possibly use them all in a day fishing for halibut. Also, the live bait operation closes at 9:00 a.m., and sometimes I can't get there in time. So, I choose to run the livewell overnight, and fish two days running.
However, one morning I returned to the boat with two inches of water on my deck, with anchovies swimming freely. The livewell overflow tube got clogged with dead chovies, and the tank overflowed, thus leading to dead anchovies plugging the deck drains.
After that, my dealer sold me a device designed by another Grady owner (made of pvc, with a solid top with vertical slits on the body of the tube), that slips over the original tube, which prevents dead anchovies from clogging the top of the overflow tube.
I am not overly concerned with burning out the pump. I assume it was designed for extended use, and running overnight is no different that running all day.
Tim
I do this as 1/2 a scoop of live anchovies (which is actually two rather large scoops) in San Francisco runs $30.00, and you get a ton of chovies. We can't possibly use them all in a day fishing for halibut. Also, the live bait operation closes at 9:00 a.m., and sometimes I can't get there in time. So, I choose to run the livewell overnight, and fish two days running.
However, one morning I returned to the boat with two inches of water on my deck, with anchovies swimming freely. The livewell overflow tube got clogged with dead chovies, and the tank overflowed, thus leading to dead anchovies plugging the deck drains.
After that, my dealer sold me a device designed by another Grady owner (made of pvc, with a solid top with vertical slits on the body of the tube), that slips over the original tube, which prevents dead anchovies from clogging the top of the overflow tube.
I am not overly concerned with burning out the pump. I assume it was designed for extended use, and running overnight is no different that running all day.
Tim
Thanks for the advice. My initial concerns were wear on pump and oveflow cylinder getting clogged. Does not look like a huge issue when needed in a pinch, but I like the idea of building a pen or PVC holding net if this will be a consistent need.
Gman25
GreatGrady Captain
I would make sure all of your hose clamps are up to par if you decide to leave the pump on. Im not crazy about the idea. If God forbid a hose let go or just failed it could fill the hull. My self made bunker cage works like a charm and gives me peace of mind.
2005 300 Marlin w/F250's
2005 300 Marlin w/F250's