Livebaits - how to keep them?

[OldTaff]

Went for a river hunt yesterday for big perch - however I couldn’t catch any bleak or small roach & perch on the whip. Plenty of 4oz-16oz but no tiddlers and it’s normally bleak central.

It turned out OK as I managed 6 perch in the 2lb bracket on two half sections of lobworm

With this in mind I thought I’d have a dedicated bleak bashing session on the Thursday or Friday afternoon after work and use those for perch hunting Saturday.

Does anyone else do this and if so how do you keep the fish healthy until they are sent on their kamikaze mission of glory??

[Mike J]

I used to use one of those oblong Korda 5L buckets sold inmost tackle shops. If filled with 3-4" of water it would keep all the baits I wanted alive for 3+hours before a water change was required.
Personally I have always caught more and better Perch on minnows that I snaffled in a bottle trap made from 2L lemonade bottles.

.

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[Neville Fickling]

Bleak will
Probably not survive with water temps above 15c

[OldTaff]

Bleak will
Probably not survive with water temps above 15c

That’s good to know - may have to forego the early perch session in favour of bait fishing in the afternoon and targeting the perch at evening time the way things are looking.

[Discus man]

When I was a lad (many moons ago lol) we used to go to our local burn with the trappys false bottom wine bottle , we had a drum out the washing machine snug on the bottom then the catch of minnows went into that , and would last a week no problem we took what we needed then released the rest , and repeated it for the next outings.Also an easy way to catch stickle backs is large hook smaller worms the hook is just to hold the worm the fish sucks the worm in and you gentle lift it out hanging on to the worm , I went flyfishing with the grandson when he was a nipper and to allow me to fish I set this up for him in a little puddle of water , stick bit of nylon hook and worms , he had a blast and the amount of anlgers that had a go was unbelievable lol.

[gary j stockton]

6, 2lb perch on worm stick to the worms mate.

[OldTaff]

6, 2lb perch on worm stick to the worms mate.

Don’t get me wrong it was tidy session but I just know there are 3lb plus beasties in the same stretch and I think a Livebait may tempt one out

[OldTaff]

Also the eels move onto the worms after a while and a Livebait would prevent that

[davelumb]

Also the eels move onto the worms after a while and a Livebait would prevent that

I used to get plagued by eels fishing small lives on my local canal.

[suffolk si]

Also the eels move onto the worms after a while and a Livebait would prevent that

I used to get plagued by eels fishing small lives on my local canal.

eels are a pain on the trent on lives when after zeds!

[OldTaff]

Also the eels move onto the worms after a while and a Livebait would prevent that

I used to get plagued by eels fishing small lives on my local canal.

eels are a pain on the trent on lives when after zeds!

Tell me about it - chop worm and caster is great to bring the perch in but the eels are on it in very short time too

[Neville Fickling]

There are no eels left according to some people!!!

[suffolk si]

There are no eels left according to some people!!!

Genuinely nev , you must catch lots of them on the Terrance surely when after zeds?

[stubbojo]

when i want to catch an eel i cant
then i fish for perch with live bait .....yes eels nail them .....you cant win

[AndyOBrien]

There are no eels left according to some people!!!

There's plenty in your freezer

[Mark Phillips]

Went for a river hunt yesterday for big perch - however I couldn’t catch any bleak or small roach & perch on the whip. Plenty of 4oz-16oz but no tiddlers and it’s normally bleak central.

It turned out OK as I managed 6 perch in the 2lb bracket on two half sections of lobworm

With this in mind I thought I’d have a dedicated bleak bashing session on the Thursday or Friday afternoon after work and use those for perch hunting Saturday.

Does anyone else do this and if so how do you keep the fish healthy until they are sent on their kamikaze mission of glory??

I use a loft tank and put pond netting over the top. I run a two airlines in from an aquarium air pump. No need to complicate things. Just get a little pond net to catch the buggers and you're good.

You can legally take a max of 15 coarse fish (except eels) up to 20cm in one sitting and they must be from a river. I usually get dace and chub for death row stockings. If fishing a still water, you need the owners (written) permission to take fish.

[Neville Fickling]

There are no eels left according to some people!!!

There's plenty in your freezer

Only ones that failed to he exported for food.

[AndyOBrien]

There are no eels left according to some people!!!

There's plenty in your freezer

Only ones that failed to he exported for food.

I know, I know. Just joking. Some people still get shirty about them

[Bob Watson]

I used to use one of those oblong Korda 5L buckets sold inmost tackle shops. If filled with 3-4" of water it would keep all the baits I wanted alive for 3+hours before a water change was required.
Personally I have always caught more and better Perch on minnows that I snaffled in a bottle trap made from 2L lemonade bottles.

.

.

I use the same trap! The bottle neck allows small silvers of a perfect perch bait size in aswell!

[Bob Watson]

Went for a river hunt yesterday for big perch - however I couldn’t catch any bleak or small roach & perch on the whip. Plenty of 4oz-16oz but no tiddlers and it’s normally bleak central.

It turned out OK as I managed 6 perch in the 2lb bracket on two half sections of lobworm

With this in mind I thought I’d have a dedicated bleak bashing session on the Thursday or Friday afternoon after work and use those for perch hunting Saturday.

Does anyone else do this and if so how do you keep the fish healthy until they are sent on their kamikaze mission of glory??

I use a loft tank and put pond netting over the top. I run a two airlines in from an aquarium air pump. No need to complicate things. Just get a little pond net to catch the buggers and you're good.

You can legally take a max of 15 coarse fish (except eels) up to 20cm in one sitting and they must be from a river. I usually get dace and chub for death row stockings. If fishing a still water, you need the owners (written) permission to take fish.

What about club controlled rivers? I think you need permission for them aswell.

[Mark Phillips]

Went for a river hunt yesterday for big perch - however I couldn’t catch any bleak or small roach & perch on the whip. Plenty of 4oz-16oz but no tiddlers and it’s normally bleak central.

It turned out OK as I managed 6 perch in the 2lb bracket on two half sections of lobworm

With this in mind I thought I’d have a dedicated bleak bashing session on the Thursday or Friday afternoon after work and use those for perch hunting Saturday.

Does anyone else do this and if so how do you keep the fish healthy until they are sent on their kamikaze mission of glory??

I use a loft tank and put pond netting over the top. I run a two airlines in from an aquarium air pump. No need to complicate things. Just get a little pond net to catch the buggers and you're good.

You can legally take a max of 15 coarse fish (except eels) up to 20cm in one sitting and they must be from a river. I usually get dace and chub for death row stockings. If fishing a still water, you need the owners (written) permission to take fish.

What about club controlled rivers? I think you need permission for them aswell.

No permission needed on rivers. This is how EEs are taking fish to eat and not getting prosecuted. But then one could also argue it's in the pikers favour, as it allows us to legally take baits. It's the other size limit that always grates with me - you can also legally take one pike per day that's 65cm or less from river - and of course they all know that.

https://www.gov.uk/freshwater-rod-fishi ... tch-limits

[Mako234]

The tap water in my area severn trent is treated with chloramine. A mixture of chlorine and ammonia it kills all known germs dead and is fatal to coarse fish. I have to use a 4 stage filter to remove this chloramine in order to keep fish alive. Aquarium shops sell a water treatment called tapsafe that does the same job. .If you are going to keep baits make sure your tap water is safe

[Mike J]

The tap water in my area severn trent is treated with chloramine. A mixture of chlorine and ammonia it kills all known germs dead and is fatal to coarse fish. I have to use a 4 stage filter to remove this chloramine in order to keep fish alive. Aquarium shops sell a water treatment called tapsafe that does the same job. .If you are going to keep baits make sure your tap water is safe

One way around chemically treated tapwateris to use rainwater. I ran a couple of tanks for years using the water run off a small shed.
Two tanks was so the new arrivals could be cleaned out in one before being transferred into the holding tank which had regular water changes everytime it rained.
Dont bother with lives these days, just use quality deads and go hunting.


Enjoy your season

.

[Neville Fickling]

The tap water in my area severn trent is treated with chloramine. A mixture of chlorine and ammonia it kills all known germs dead and is fatal to coarse fish. I have to use a 4 stage filter to remove this chloramine in order to keep fish alive. Aquarium shops sell a water treatment called tapsafe that does the same job. .If you are going to keep baits make sure your tap water is safe

They obviously dont use that treatment at a fish toxic level all the time. You get short periods when baits start to struggle. Simply a case of stopping any inflow

[muncherpike]

I set up a 4 tank (50 gal ea) system for Bob Baldock in his garage with a re circulating system for the water and an air pump for each tank, 2 tanks for trout and 2 for coarse fish, worked very well.

[OldTaff]

After another failed tiddler catching mission lunchtime today - smallest roach was 4oz and two Flippin half pound chublets - I made up a bottle trap from a 1.5l coke bottle and went back to the river after work. Dropped the trap in the margins whilst I had fun with a dropshot rig and after just 20 mins half a dozen perfect little roach and two little perch had decided to swim in.

They went back as it was a test and I had no bucket to transport them with but tomorrow I’ll do it again - local tackle shop had a battery air pump reduced for clearance so fingers crossed Saturday should be a big perch hunt again.

Really appreciate all the help - many thanks.

[David Vaissiere]

Went for a river hunt yesterday for big perch - however I couldn’t catch any bleak or small roach & perch on the whip. Plenty of 4oz-16oz but no tiddlers and it’s normally bleak central.

It turned out OK as I managed 6 perch in the 2lb bracket on two half sections of lobworm

With this in mind I thought I’d have a dedicated bleak bashing session on the Thursday or Friday afternoon after work and use those for perch hunting Saturday.

Does anyone else do this and if so how do you keep the fish healthy until they are sent on their kamikaze mission of glory??

I use a loft tank and put pond netting over the top. I run a two airlines in from an aquarium air pump. No need to complicate things. Just get a little pond net to catch the buggers and you're good.

You can legally take a max of 15 coarse fish (except eels) up to 20cm in one sitting and they must be from a river. I usually get dace and chub for death row stockings. If fishing a still water, you need the owners (written) permission to take fish.

What about club controlled rivers? I think you need permission for them aswell.

No permission needed on rivers. This is how EEs are taking fish to eat and not getting prosecuted. But then one could also argue it's in the pikers favour, as it allows us to legally take baits. It's the other size limit that always grates with me - you can also legally take one pike per day that's 65cm or less from river - and of course they all know that.

https://www.gov.uk/freshwater-rod-fishi ... tch-limits

Club controlled rivers still require permission to remove fish, if angling club/syndicate rules require ALL fish to be returned unharmed then that supersedes the EA bylaw and any fish removed would be classed as theft. (Spoke with EA chap the other day and he confirmed this)
The EA bylaw only applies to free to fish waters that only require a rod license to fish.

[Bob Watson]

Went for a river hunt yesterday for big perch - however I couldn’t catch any bleak or small roach & perch on the whip. Plenty of 4oz-16oz but no tiddlers and it’s normally bleak central.

It turned out OK as I managed 6 perch in the 2lb bracket on two half sections of lobworm

With this in mind I thought I’d have a dedicated bleak bashing session on the Thursday or Friday afternoon after work and use those for perch hunting Saturday.

Does anyone else do this and if so how do you keep the fish healthy until they are sent on their kamikaze mission of glory??

I use a loft tank and put pond netting over the top. I run a two airlines in from an aquarium air pump. No need to complicate things. Just get a little pond net to catch the buggers and you're good.

You can legally take a max of 15 coarse fish (except eels) up to 20cm in one sitting and they must be from a river. I usually get dace and chub for death row stockings. If fishing a still water, you need the owners (written) permission to take fish.

What about club controlled rivers? I think you need permission for them aswell.

No permission needed on rivers. This is how EEs are taking fish to eat and not getting prosecuted. But then one could also argue it's in the pikers favour, as it allows us to legally take baits. It's the other size limit that always grates with me - you can also legally take one pike per day that's 65cm or less from river - and of course they all know that.

https://www.gov.uk/freshwater-rod-fishi ... tch-limits

Club controlled rivers still require permission to remove fish, if angling club/syndicate rules require ALL fish to be returned unharmed then that supersedes the EA bylaw and any fish removed would be classed as theft. (Spoke with EA chap the other day and he confirmed this)
The EA bylaw only applies to free to fish waters that only require a rod license to fish.

Thought so

[fenland piker]

Dave is correct. Although there were still varying regional byelaws regarding the total number, species and sizes of fish that could be taken in different parts of the country under the older regional byelaws when I used to be a bailiff. Not sure if this still applies as that was a long time ago.
Another thing to be aware of is the rules around transporting live fish to and from venues. Strictly speaking livebaits, where allowed by the controlling club, should only be from the water that they are being used at. Pushing this would be catching in one section of a river to use in another, or catching them one day then returning the next and transporting them with you.
People have been known to get round this by catching lives and storing them at venues in sunken cages or keepnets.

Unfortunately a small minority of individuals moving lives from completely different venues have introduced diseases or unwanted species in the past, hence this rule. It is not one that often comes up under normal circumstances due to the difficulty in proving continuity in court.
I have prosecuted individuals for it a long time ago, but not as a single offence. Most memorably a group fishing the Fens out of season, multiple rods, no licences, rods spaced 100m apart, who had a large tank of manky live goldfish in their car as bait. They happily explained these had been bought from a pets hop in London and were excellent bait. I confiscated their tackle, bait etc. The lives were euthanised and found to contain lots of nasty diseases by our national fish health labs when preparing the court case and this didn't do the offenders any favours as the magistrate luckily turned out to be a keen angler. Largest fines I ever saw for fisheries offences.

[cookiesdaughtersdad]

Went for a river hunt yesterday for big perch - however I couldn’t catch any bleak or small roach & perch on the whip. Plenty of 4oz-16oz but no tiddlers and it’s normally bleak central.

It turned out OK as I managed 6 perch in the 2lb bracket on two half sections of lobworm

With this in mind I thought I’d have a dedicated bleak bashing session on the Thursday or Friday afternoon after work and use those for perch hunting Saturday.

Does anyone else do this and if so how do you keep the fish healthy until they are sent on their kamikaze mission of glory??

I use a loft tank and put pond netting over the top. I run a two airlines in from an aquarium air pump. No need to complicate things. Just get a little pond net to catch the buggers and you're good.

You can legally take a max of 15 coarse fish (except eels) up to 20cm in one sitting and they must be from a river. I usually get dace and chub for death row stockings. If fishing a still water, you need the owners (written) permission to take fish.

"You can legally take a max of 15 coarse fish (except eels) up to 20cm in one sitting and they must be from a river." but as far as I know you cant then take them to any water, even the water they came from as they dont have passports!

So not to break any rules on transporting fish about all I can do is advise on keeping coarse fish as pets.
As ,Nevile said it becomes far easier to keep fish in cold water but there in lies the rub with bleak,because they vanish in winter, to where exactly no one knows?
An important thing is that if you wish to keep your pets temporarily, its important to use two containers, one where you are introducing new pets and one where you are taking them on their hoolidays, this way you are turning over your pets so they are not kept to long which helps avoid problems like fin rot which in not ideal conditions, is common.
The water should go through partial water changes of around 25% on a weekly basis and ideally taken from the bottom via a hose and syphoning. Tap water can be used for topping up but when a complete refill is done, the water should be left for 24hrs or more before receiving any fish.
The water should be kept moving via bubbles or whats called a wave maker which is better and cheap.
They do not need feeding as to do this would require filtration.
Check the stock regularly and remove any fish the are struggling taking a close look at fins.

I have kept coarse fish in tanks as pets for approaching 50 years and in the time have only had one bleak to survive more than a few weeks and that the one I have now, had it over 18 months now and its perfect. They are very difficult to keep unlike very hardy species like gudgeon, chub, roach and dace.

Cheers, Alan