how in the world do i keep shad alive bank fishing with a 5 gallon bucket and aeriator

I don't even try to keep em alive anymore, i just use bluegills, they are much easier to keep alive

here in iowa we have no choice if you play by the rules. state law says they must be killed as soon as they are caught in a cast net. the best way ive found to keep them "fresh" even though they are dead is to use a medium sized cooler and lay about 3 inches of ice in the bottem. then lay a layer of tin foil on top of the ice and bend the edges of the foil up kinda like a pan. the tin foil does a good job of keeping them cold and they dont get mushy near s fast. it keeps them out of the water from the melting ice as well and is an easy way to transport them.

i havent tried it yet but howabout getting a wire fish basket that floats and keep them in the fresh water it may just work

Wire baskets help but I have found that a big mesh bag placed in the water works pretty well.

i do all these things.....  i like to get a bigger container...round (as jim stated) because if you get  something with a corner in it..they will just swim against the corner and eventually die...they need to have the water pass their gills to stay alive... i will take bottle of water and add table salt to them..just a lil bit it lowers the freezing point therefore making it a lil colder.... and put them in the tank to help keep the water cooler....the cooler the water the less the fish will poopy in the water  and that means less ammonia....which is a must for any fish..  the less you handle the fish the better...also the reasoning for the bottled water is to keep the chlorine out of the water thats effects the fish..i add some shad saver also... it helps with the stress and hardens the scales..in which usually fall off anyway.... a small power head works great for keeping the water moving in a circular motion...and an aireator is a must with a bubble stone for high levels of o2 and the cooler the water the more dissolved o2 can get into the water.....hot water will take hardly no oxygen levels in it...something to remember......don't over crowd the tanks or buckets....  these fish are very easily stressed and keep and eye on them... one way to tell if your shad are getting stressed is to look at their faces. if they are turning pink or red around the nose area watch out cause their stress levels are really getting high.one stressed fish will effect the whole tank... i have keep shad alive for over 14 hours.......i know super dave can even do better than that.....   so if all this is a lil much ..try gold fish or isrelli carp they are very hardy and can with stand low levels and high ammonia levels also and dont get stressed as easy.. hope this helps... 8)

well at procats camp this year this is on of the specific things that I wanted to try to get more info on becasue i knew that some of the good flatheadders around here were catching flatties on live shad. as we have already talked about keeping them alive is the TOUGH part which until this weekend i couldnt due either. the sad part was is that i didnt realize how simple it really was. yes thats correct i said easy!! :: If you aready have your cooler with the aerator in it then your already half way there. the only other thing you need is a good old five gallon bucket. fill your bucket with he water that they are coming out of. fill your cooler with the same. im not sure what size you all catch in your parts of the woods but were getting shad from 3" all the way up to about 12-14". the small delicate 3-4 inchers wont live very well but we were getting 6-8 inchers on sunday. they tend to be a little more hearty and can handle the stress better. Once you get some caught  put 10 to 15 of the bigger ones in your five gallon bucket of water. the reason its so easy to kill them is because they puke and the belly acid in the water after they puke is what actually does them in. So when you get your 10-15 in the bucket leave them there for 5-10 minutes and keep a CLOSE eye on them. now im sure everyone has seen the water get dirty shortly after you throw them in your live well and this is what is happening. You can see the water almost turn "slimey" (for lack of  a better descriptor) and the water needs to be changed on them and change ALL OF THE WATER not just some of it. to do this obviously youll have to move them to the cooler for a minute or take two buckets to swap them back and forth while your getting new water. after a couple of water changes (10-15 minutes) put your 10-15 baits in the cooler. DONT put to many in your cooler or you'll kill them all in a hurry. if you notice the water is getting a little "gooy" in the cooler after awhile use your five gallon bucket and get most of the water out and add fresh. We caught some on sunday at 1:45 pm and did this with them. I had about 15-20 baits in my cheap walmart styrofoam cooler (that is rectangular) with a battery operated aerator in it. we used several baits throughout the day. I also would pull out the ones that did die (which was minnimal) and had some great freash cut bait. When i backed the boat into the garage and cleaned it up it was shortly after 10 pm and 7 of the 9 baits still in the cooler were still swiming lively. The 2 other ones were swimming on their sides but were still alive. Im sure the lid blowing off on the way home and the aerator coming out didnt help their matter any. What im trying to get across is with a little work when you catch them is that it can be done as i found out on sunday keeping them alive for over 8 hours with a bucket,a cheap cooler,   and 5 dollar aerator. I purchased a 48 qt wallyworld cooler yesterday for a whopping 13 bucks and will have fresh lively baits from now on!!! I hope this helps a few others scratching their heads as i was until nowabout keeping these little critter alive!and i gotta thank cattmatt and tim for the help and insight on this one!!![smilie=a_goodjob.gif]  :thumbsup

When I have had to keep shad alive I have put them in a 48qt rectangular cooler added rock salt and after 10 minutes or so like lisaanjohn mentioned get rid of ALL of the pukey water and add fresh water and a little more rock salt and a cheap aerator. After that I check them every half an hour or so, when I start seeing them at the sucking air on the surface I will take out most of the water and add more fresh water. I have kept shad alive this way all day on fishing trips. Also I try not to over crowd them, in a 48qt cooler I feel safe with about 15-20 5-6inch shad.