Long Term Livies

[James]

was thinking as i always do and its come to my attention can i catch my livies one day go home and use em the next and keep them alive?

if so how?

[Flattieman]

was thinking as i always do and its come to my attention can i catch my livies one day go home and use em the next and keep them alive?

if so how?

You can, James. All you need is a container to put them in (I use the rectangular ones that you can buy at a discount store), aerators and relatively fresh water. Make sure that you drill some breathing holes in the lid of the container for proper air circulation and temperature regulation, fill the container with water, chuck your livies in there with the aerators on and your livies should survive overnight! 30L and one aerator would keep 20-30 poddy mullet alive overnight. Of course, increase aeration and water quantity for larger fish (or keep less livies for the same quantity). I good idea is to buy containers with good handles and a watertight lid that you can carry by yourself. If keeping livies for longer periods, change the water about once daily.

Hope this helps,

Flattieman.

Edited October 13, 2006 by Flattieman

[James]

You can, James. All you need is a container to put them in (I use the rectangular ones that you can buy at a discount store), aerators and relatively fresh water. Make sure that you drill some breathing holes in the lid of the container for proper air circulation and temperature regulation, fill the container with water, chuck your livies in there with the aerators on and your livies should survive overnight! 30L and one aerator would keep 20-30 poddy mullet alive overnight. Of course, increase aeration and water quantity for larger fish (or keep less livies for the same quantity). I good idea is to buy containers with good handles and a watertight lid that you can carry by yourself. If keeping livies for longer periods, change the water about once daily.

Hope this helps,

Flattieman.

cheers mate

[Flattieman]

cheers mate

Oh... one more tip - keep your livies outside on cold nights - the cool water slows their metabolism down and they survive for much longer. This is a technique that some tackle shops use to great benefit.

Flattieman.

[netic]

What i used to do is just put the livies in a net underneath a wharf or something like that and use them the next day.

We mainly used to hang them on the egdes of clifton gardens and hope and pray nobody found them, come the next morning we had ready livies from the day before

[femalefisho]

Jim set up a tank like that. It was huge and in the garage.

Kept the poddy mullet for weeks and weeks.

[Yoda]

I use an ironing basket alongside the boat to throw livies into as I catch them, when I've finished my bait catching I scoop the healthy ones out of the top and transfer them to the on boat live well, the other unfortunate ones which did not make it lie in the bottom of the basket and go into the dead bait well, this stops the dead ones from contaminatting my live well with blood, my main live baits are slimy mackerel and yellowtail and to keep these guys alive for any extended periods you would probably need a seriously expensive setup, all dead fish are kept in an ice slurry and can be kept for days in this manner as very fresh baits.

Edited October 13, 2006 by Yoda

[Dorado 2]

Last year when I went away on holidays I kept the livies alive using two methods, first was the same like netic said put them under the wharf and picked them up in the morning the second method was going up to an unused bouy and tie the basket to it till the morning

Cheers

[Davemmm]

A mate of mine has an old cement laundry sink that is the ideal tank for mullet etc.

I have kept them alive for three weeks in a large esky with flyscreen over the top and an aerator. You have to regularly change the water and I have found that if you have poddies for a period you cant feed them bread as they seem to bloat up and die.

You can drag a bit of weed out the flats to feed them on. They seem to eat the weed that is black, flat, about 3-5mm wide with serated edges.

[Guest rzep]

3 weeks is a long time to be able to keep them alive.

How good is that.

[Davemmm]

3 weeks is a long time to be able to keep them alive.

How good is that.

Cant do it when it is this hot though

[Guest]

I have a Saltwater Fish tank at home and used to keep yakkas alive for ages and used them off the rocks .

Cheers Stewy

[caine]

on nectics method

i use a camping mesh hanging shelve thingy.

i think its ment to hang in a tree and ya put your food in it to keep away from flies.

but when fishing off the warf its excellent for keeping livies, you can also seperate them into different shelves sorting by species or size or even alphabetical order if you wanted to.

sits perfectly under water

i find its good to seperate tailor cause they smash each other when in confined spaces

i dont like the batery powered air pumps, they suck and they are noisy.

i think when you first catch livies its more important to change the water regulary then to provide bubbles cause they cough up alot of crap which leads to deadies

i also use the same thing on the boat (cheap live bait tank) but with crap like that i suggest tying it to the steering wheel so you dont forget and drive off with out it.

[Guest DV8]

was thinking as i always do and its come to my attention can i catch my livies one day go home and use em the next and keep them alive?

if so how?

i met an old guy a few years ago that reckons he kept poddies alive by just adding tap water every now and then. Never tried it because i have always found poddies easy to catch though it does sound right. They can survive in the most poluted and deoxygenated water you have ever seen. the only thing I know more hardy is the rotten eel.

Cheers

Davo