Livewell usage on 2001 263 Chase

[walt bowen]

We have had our 01 263 for 2-3yrs. now and we primarily bottom fish w/live bait(pogies,cigars,etc.). Our livewell is incorporated into the leaning post and has a bottom drain and also a top or overflow drain, and the supply is in the lower section of the livewell in the side. In the past I typically leave the pump on all the time and let both drains drain free, but in the fall after killing one battery sitting all day in one spot bottom fishing-w/the pump on, I later thought of sticking one of my rubber plugs in the bottom drain hole and just cycling it periodically to keep the water refreshed, and this way it would stay full w/the pump off. I would think that if this is done some baits are more likely to need more water changes than some other heartier breeds. Any experience with this would be much appreciated.

Walt Bowen
01 263 Chase
w/200 hpdi's

 

[gradyfish22]

For larger baits like pogies, if you shut it off for more then 10-20 minutes, you may kill the bait or if not they will become sluggish. With large biat, they need a fresh supply of oxygen put into the water, if they use it up they will die. At on epoint on my older boat my livewell pump died and my larger baits would not last more then an hour without the pump, luckily I was fishing bait schools and could catch fresh baits. For smaller baits they may live longer, but some will not last the day, others might. I would assume a cigar minnow would also need a good supply of oxygen. How many house batteries do you have? If only one, you may want to upgrade to two, on a 26' boat you should have 2 house batteries. If you already have two, are they a few years old or not in good shape? You should be able to operate your livewell pump all day without killing the batteries unless something is wrong with the pump or batteries. Another alternative is carrying a separate battery just for the livewell and wiring it through an isolator switch so it cannot kill your other batteries, but can charge off them when switched to.

 

[BobP]

Try it, what's a pogy?

Up here, we have porgies. Legal size porgies may die anyway if you bring them up from the deep very fast.

I cut the dead ones in half, onto the hook, blood dripping all over the place. What striped bass could resist ?

 

[walt bowen]

Gradyfish, thanks for the info. and your right, I only have one house batt. which does all the electronics and the pumps and the other batt. is pretty much just for the other motor. For obvious reasons I allways keep the two seperate on the switches so if I kill the house batt.
That is one of my next projects, I currently have two batt. switches so without going thru a whole re-do I guess I could just add one more batt. in parallel w/my house batt. and that motor would keep both up and it would give me twice the holding power?
The batts. that I have are farily new I think I replaced them 2yrs. ago, and I went w/Dekas and followed yamaha's recomendation as far as the cranking amps, as they say the hpsi's take a lot of juice.

Walt Bowen
2001 263
w/200 hpdi's

 

[gradyfish22]

That should be your best bet, my 265 Express does not have huge batteries, but I have 2 in parallel and they last me 12hours+ with the livewell running. I ususlly run it while anchored and maybe more only 2 or 3 times and run maybe 5-10min between spots. If you have the space, that is well worth the work, adding a second battery in parallel is not very hard as long as there is space, I believe your boat should have enough. Good luck!!