bait tanks
 

Hello yak fishermen,

I'm looking for a bait tank for my prowler 15. Based on my searches on the internet it appears that I have a choice of three tanks.

The tanks are:

1. The Thresher by Liquid Fishing $125.00.

2. The Kayatank by the Yak Shack $269.00

3. The custom tank sold at La Jolla Kayak Fishing $250.00

I'm looking for the pros and cons of each unit. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I'm fairly new to kayak fishing, fished Mission Bay a lot last year but nothing yet this year. Hope to hit San Diego Bay and La Jolla kelp this summer.

Have been checking out all the kayak fishing web sites and am really impressed with the great community of kayak fishermen. Looking forward to meeting some of you in the near future.

Thanks in advance for any info on the bait tanks.

Larry

bait tanks
 

LIQUID BAIT TANK IS AWESOME FOR PROWLER 13 HOLDS AT LEAST 10 TO 12 MACS. PREFER BLUE COLOR, VERY SOOTHING FOR BAIT

Re: bait tanks
 

:lol: :lol: I am gonna be getting 1 of those soon.. I'll make sure I get the blue :lol: :lol: :roll: :lol: :lol:

i've got the thresher tank by liquid also and it fits PERFECTLY into the back of my drifter. the only cons i can think of for it is that it's not round. this gives the bait the opportunity to swim into the corners and get banged up a little more than a round tank. other than, i love it. and i love having a built in storage place for the battery for the tank.

BAIT TANKS
 

IT SEEMS TO ME THAT THE BAITS DON'T MOVE AROUND AS MUCH IN A BLUE COLOR EVEN WITH SQUARE CORNERS. PLUS, THIS IS NOT OPEN OCEAN 'TRAVLING TO THE FISH GROUNDS SENARIO. LA JOLLA AND ANY BAY ARE MOSTLY FLAT ANYWAY

I just made a bait tank from a 9 gallon poly water storage tank that I got at West Marine. I have the same concern about bait going into the corners and getting injured. My solution is to cut a large diameter PVC pipe lengthwise into 90 degree segments. I am going to install the quarter-round section of pipe in each corner using 3M 5200. I'll wind up with a roughly oval shaped tank, but will not sacrifice much of the internal volume.

There are good tanks to choose from...or make your own. Hook1 sells the Retrofish instructional dvd. :wink:
I got a custom proto tank from Jason Morton for my Tarpon T160i and I am stoked with it. It's a light weight, low profile & high volume tank...and the hatch is HUGE so getting bait out is easy. No corners so the bait doesn't get worked. (Kept my baits healthy and happy!)
What ever works for you!

Bait Tanks
 

I have a Prowler 15 with the Kayatank inside. The low placement adds to stability and does not take up any space on deck( full use of tank well).
I can still store my rods below deck when the waves are up and the landing may be wet.
Also when catching bait I can drop bait directly into the tank without touching them(the hatch is between my legs when seated).
The tank comes with a battery,battery case and wiring harness for your fishfinder. Get the timer switch and the 7amp battery will last all day powering your finder and tank.
Since it is built in it is real nice to not have rig and unrig the tank each trip. I just flush it out with fresh water.
The cost is a bit more than others but all of the parts are quality and put together the right way.

John

check this out http://www.kayakfishingstuff.com/art...ak_Articles=15

There's really only two choices. Buy an internal tank from Kayatank or build your own. Internal kayatanks are the best bait tank for a kayak. The design and concept are leaps and bounds ahead of anything in the yak fishing community. I have owned buckets, tupperware, custom poly, to drop in poly tanks for 8 years. My internal tank is the best tank ever. There's not a person on this planet that has had one and didn't love it - that's right love it. There are a some doubters, but there were doubters for the automobile.

If you think the prowler is the yak your going to keep for 3 years plus. The cost of a kayatank is minimal. If you want an above deck tank for the prowler...
box, battery, switch and pump - build it. Macs can deal with corners, they are bait - not pets.

Also; when you buy any bait tank whether external or internal, you are paying for the years and years of experience, trials, errors and tweaking the manufacturers have put into their products. Making the right decision the first tiime will save you time and money.

AC

quote of the day :lol: :lol:

I'm another one that loves my kayatank. Apart from all the benefits Art described, the guy that makes them is absolutely first class and stands behind his product. All of the workmanship is absolutely top notch. Any of the options out there will work, but I'd never go back to any other.

Brad/AC,

I have a ? regarding the Kayatank. I just bought a FF with battery, did you add a second battery, or do they reduce the cost if you have them hook it up to an existing one.

Thanks,
Jim

Re: Bait Tanks
 

It seems like my 7' rods would need to slide under the tank on a prowler 15, is that how it works? I was interested in these tanks before but that kind of spooked me. Thanks, Dave

I've always used seperate batteries no matter what tank I had. I use a 3amp bait short day, 7amp bait long day. With the Kayatank bait switch it saves a lot of juice. For my FF and GPS I use a 1.5 amp short day and a 3amp long day.

AC

Dual batteries for kayak
 

It may cost and weigh a little more, but using two seperate batteries / circuits can eliminate some problems. Having the bait pump on a seperate battery pretty much eliminates any chance of electrical interference affecting your fish finder or GPS. The pump will generally draw more current than all other loads combined. With a seperate battery for the pump you don't have to worry about killing all of your loads by running the pump too long. This could be important for those who use a combination fish finder/GPS for navigation.

No problem with the 7' rods. I can store 4 ea 7' rods and reels inside.
You just need to turn the rods so that the guides are toward the hull not the tank. They slide right in.

John

I was going to run seperate batteries for the kayatank and the FF/GPS, but Jim assured me the circuits were clean and so far I have had no problems with them both on the same. I usually take two 7ah batteries for a full day on the water, but that's mainly because my color GPS sonar sucks juice like crazy. The pump would last all day and then some on one battery.

Thanks for the info. I plan on getting the Kayatank soon and will probably stay with one battery and only upgrade to 2 if I have problems. Good to know others are running on one without issues.

Jim

bait tanks
 

Great info thanks for the advice,

See you on the water, olive green prowler 15, 60ish ex san diego firefighter, rookie yak fisherman, you guys have been a great help.

later,

larry

One more vote for the kayatank - I'm crazy about mine, and have had no trouble running on a single battery. Jim put a lot of effort into the circuit design to prevent interference. It's not just a branch circuit like I would have cobbled together, he's got a board in there to clean up the power. I am actually noting better reliability than when I had my own goofy wiring harness.

If your going with seperate batteries save yourself some weight and hassle and run your ff off of rechargable AAs. It will run it all day, and weigh a fraction of the weight of even the smallest gel cell. You can also use regular AA's if your in a remote area where charging isn't possible. I ditched the gel cell a while back and there is no going back. If you are interested in trying AA's I wrote a short tutorial on making an AA power supply here...

http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/in...d=29&Itemid=42

That's a good write up and a cool idea Scwafish! I'm gonna have to give it a try.

Glad to help. When you buy your rechargables try and get some with a 2500 mah capacity or higher. I got mine on sale for about 16 bucks for 4 with a charger at a local home improvement store. Kinda hurts at first but they are so nice to have around. Between my kids toys and my digi I was going through AAs like wildfire. The $s where bad, but I felt really bad about throwing all of those dead batteries away.

Hey Larry,
Why dont you just put a 5 gallon bucket with a bilge pump and 6 volt battery on it. This will cost you less than $30.00

OR you could drill big old holes in your hull and install a baggie in your storgae area, or you could put a completely bullet proof "square" tank that weighs 20lbs on your yak...... Gee those sound like better ideas. (all for under $300)

Good luck. You can come over to Thunder Chickens house and he'll install your rod holders for you for only $25 an hour labor....
Right T-Chicken?

Then.... you put on some waders and install a trolling motor and..... oops.

Kidding.

Bing

Good idea,Bing!
 

Hey Bing, Glad you're still around! Long time no see!
I built my bait tank with a 6 volt 12 amphour battery from batterymart .com It cost around $30 for battery and charger delivered. Used a 5 gallon bucket from home depot, an attwood pump, and a few connectors(Hose clips, male female wire connectors). Put on an outboard motor gas primer bulb so I don' have to suck to prime it! It works great. Went out for 6 hours last Thursday, 1 sardine died! It cost under$30 to build. You only need a drill. It took less than an hour to put together!

http://momentoffame.com/photopost/da...Bait_tank1.JPG

Save some bucks and keep it real! Piranha out! :wink: :lol: 8)

Hey Bing,

Learned something in the past 60 years. Work hard doing what you know how to do and pay others for what they know how to do. Everybody wins.

Life is too short, do it right!!!

Hope to see you on the water after Mo installs his bait system in my yak.

Met Jim/Mo today when I dropped my yak at his house. Nice guy, old time yak fisherman. His system looks real solid and sits low in the boat. keeps the center of gravity low and wll hopefully keep me from dumping during my fledgling surf landings. Odds are I'll dump anyway but it's gotta help.

Larry

Right on Larry! I am the same way.... Hope you laughed at my post a little. And Mr. Piranha, thank you for saying hello. Back atcha Stud. Yes I am alive and fishin'. Been to Mex, Hodges, few times to Dana you know the usual. I try to go weekdays when all you 8-5ers are grinding it out.

Note to Larry: Piranhas tank is an inexpensive way to go and it will work very well for yak'ing. But DAMN Piranha that is one UGLY looking bucket you got there. You could have spent another 5 minutes and drove to Walmart and got yourself one of those prettier paint buckets or something.

Hah, I could'nt resist! Hope you all are doing well. Ah, spoke to Thuder Chicken and hes pissed that I noted his labor charge as only $25 an hour. I have been duly informed that it is MUCH higher than that.

Nuff Said

Bing

As for the AA solution, it's been beaten to death on KFS.com. It all depends on your ff. As Madscientist noted that color machines will draw much more juice, a combo gps ff unit will probably draw more than 2.5 mah will get you for a full day on the water.

As great an idea it is, and depending on your unit, changing out 10 AA batteries after 3-4 hours is not as efficient as the weight of hauling a 12 v 7AH battery that will last for 10. Tried it and loved it with my X-47 (10+hrs), but it wouldn't cut it for less than half a day with my DS400.

Yah that bucket tank is phucking ugly, but since bait is no big deal in mafia land - why bother. :roll: No sorry, the bait is the catch - gotta keep those smelt alive for the fryer. :twisted:

Agreed. I see this bucket, and worse yet the "quietman" tank all over the web, but I have seen much nicer versions in person. I will post some pics of mine this evening, nothing special, but at least some craftsmanship was utilized.

As to 10 AAs, they should run any ff all day. I run a Matrix 67 ff/chartplotter/gps on mine for a solid 10 hours, a regular ff much longer. Be aware that the first 2 or 3 charging cycles will be much shorter than the fully developed battery. The first outing with my 2500s only lasted about 3-4 hours.

I have been pretty happy with the "tuna tube" bait tank lately...
...cheap and cheerfull 8)

quietman
www.roenation.com

Bait Tanks
 

Why don’t the manufactures just build a bait tank into the mold??? They can mold in rod holders, and that all so important beverage holder. Why not a tank with a horizontal scupper to manage the level, and a vertical scupper to drain at the end of the day??? They are targeting the kayak fisherman.
Why not build a kayak with a bait tank.

Anyway the mack tubes work great, as long as you don’t load them backwards!!

Ooops,

Boz

The same reason why you spend $30k-$130k for a boat then spent $500-$3000 on a bait tank. Making a good hull and making a good bait tank are apples and oranges. Si?

I for one believe that it is all what you are comfortable with. I don't feel comfortable with 5 gallons of water inside my kayak, I do think that it is very neat looking though and easy to get too, just not for me. Before I became friends with Jim Sammons I use to make my own which worked out fine. I use Jim's Bait Tanks now and I love them...It's easy to get bait out and the toggle switch is very easy to reach, I of course endorse this product, just like some others endorse the other products. I also love the extra rod holders attached. I have had mine for two years without any problems. It really depends on what kind of $$$$$ you want to spend...MY 2 CENTS!

TL-Matt

Larry;



Congrats on your Kayatank. It is the future in yak bait tanks.

Always with you, never have to bungee it in your tankwell. I use mine for storage in route to the landing and to the fishing grounds. I store sharp and heavy objects in the bag without a worry.

I was talking to Brad and he was concerned about putting lobster in the tank. I tested the material and here's what I found. First, this is a personal test and not a Kayatank approved test.

I took a rapala and puntured the material. Needed a lot of force to do it, but was able to push it thru. What I was not able to do was to TEAR the bladder from that point. The nylon reinforcement and the cement seam held the treble in place.

What can you draw from this? The hysteria, paranoia and myths are unfounded and illogical. Unless Brad stores a fish with utility knives for claws and hydraulics for arms... get the point. When I cut the material for my bladder, it will dulled a utility blade pretty damn quick.

This construction is used by the Navy, Sea World and the Coast Guard in similar applications... this accordinig to the makers of the material and chemical sealant.


Hey Matt 5 gallons is not a lot of water... launching thru the surf with your center hatch open... that was a lot of water. 8)

AC

I'm basing it upon 5 gallon os soup and that will feed a lot of people :D I just thought that someone needed to stick up for Jim and mention his bait tank as well. He does a really good job on them and he doesn't really make too much money on them for what he spends to make them. I'm sure that all these products are top notch.

TL-Matt

Jim's tank were the first that I know of. Solid tanks, rod holders and a turn key product. I see LJKF tanks all over the water, there's no need to stick up for Jim, his product is well proven.

Bro'
You want a tank buy the hardware I"ll help you build one, I have a 3-4 Gal clear bucket that I will give you and will show you how to build your own for about 40 bucks for the hardware not including battery.
Regards,
chris

why can't there be a kayatank for fish n dives? They have the round hatch that seems perfect for a tank.