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Live bait tank


General Zod

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Ok, where to start. I wanted a live bait tank, not a portable one because when I go fishing with the family it’s in the way. I like to put something in then leave it and not have to worry about it after.

I wanted something big, but space and cost was an issue. The bank didn’t approve of the funds (wife) and the boat really didn’t have a lot of space anyway. I was scared a small one wouldn’t be good enough but then I just kept researching, and researching and what I found was as long as I can turn over the water every now and then, the fish should be fine. So I went on that after reading and seeing it. With all this wind and wet weather and coldness I thought it was a good time to do it as well. Bit by bit.

Now I didn’t want a bilge pump hanging off the transom, although there’s nothing wrong with that, I just didn’t like the look of it. (Personal choice I guess).

Thru hull I thought about it and decided not to go that way because there would be consent pressure pushing water thru the hull and even though there would be a shut off valve I just didn’t want that. . (Again personal choice) Maybe later down the track

So I went to boat show rooms and saw how they had thru transom fit outs, it looked neat and effective so did research and thought that’s what I’ll do. Now I didn’t want to drill a hole in the transom but after seeing YouTube and the show room boats I decided what the hell, all it is; is a hole with Sikaflex around the skin fitting, just like the drain plugs in the back of all boats. I just had to come to terms that my boat could take in some, alright a lot of water if I didn’t do it right. But I’m confident with my projects and I’m pretty confident it will work. There’s no secret trick to it, just common sense. (Fingers crossed)

Now I did make some mistakes along the way with other things but it all worked out fine in the end. I should of set everything up before drilling but that’s ok because I made it look like that’s what the holes where meant for anyway.

I see it this way. My mistakes are your gain.

So here is the almost finished product, it’s a 25ltr Johnson live well bait tank from flee bay $90 new and unused from a bloke that had it sitting in the garage for a while, with a new Rule 500 tournament series pump and some flow-rite connections. Still need to add a light.

The goodies from flowrite, (Marine Warehouse in Australia)

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To begin with, where I’m I to put it. Easy choice, ladder gone that’s where. Cut the hole first using the template which came with it.

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After drilling and fitting all the skin fittings it can hold 19.5ltrs of water, which is ok for me. But as u get near the finish of this post you’ll see it can hold a lot of live bait

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Fit the live well tank and pre drill holes and extra ones for that extra support. I reckon I shouldn’t have cut any holes in the tank yet, but too late I did. Luckily I brought a drain plug.

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I needed to removed the bilge pump outlet and put it on the drive side where I can see it if I need to pump out the water. Before I couldn’t even see if it was pumping out the water. I will use that hole for the over flow for the live bait tank. I needed to file the hole bigger to fit the 28mm skin fitting. The hose from Flow-rite is good but not flexible enough. The one in the pic is more flexible, less strain on the fittings.

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New bilge pump out hole with new 19mm elbow skin fitting from Flowrite. I used the old hose as well, still in great condition.

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Now the drainage for the LBT (live bait tank) this is where I made the mistake of drilling a hole before I actually had a proper look to line up the drainage out with the outlet. Although the water will still drain out there will be some water left in the hose. Not a big deal, but it’s just that I want it prefect. So

I will use this outlet for the bait board now. I hated turning the bait board around to clean it, and the bloody water and guts which fill down the bottom part. Now by putting a drain there it allows me to clean it easily and acts as a little burley bucket as well after I gut the fish.

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Now I need a straight skin fitting as I’m going to let the LBT drain out the back of the boat, thru the transom but above the water line. This was a bit difficult because I couldn’t get my hand inside to tighten the bolt was I had to look around to find something like this (MA-072-QLB Qwik-Lok bulkhead thru-hull) sort of like a reverse skin fitting. I just needed to modify it and cut off one side to make it work the way I needed it. see below

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to be continued.....

Edited by General Zod
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