Bait Tank

Mar 8, 2014 at 9:30pm

    Spent Friday gathering parts and this is where I am so far. I am going to try Hobie's take on the pump (moving forces water up to the pump). If it doesn't work I will have to come up with another method for priming the pump. Worse case I will get the pump you throw over the side. I have a timer switch for the power and I still need to install that. I also need a more flexible hose for the drain. The one I have is too stiff to make the turns the way I would like. I also put a bubbler on the front rather than take up more inside space with the aerator pump I already had.

    A lot of the tanks I saw on line mounted the handles somewhere on this back area... I found that the curve causes the handle to sit too close to the tank to comfortably get your hand in there. Note the pump under the seat (in low position) leaves just enough room.

    Used the paddle clip idea again here to secure it to the support bar. I stole it from my box .. I will have to replace it In the picture above you can see the drain just below the bubble box. It will route to the scupper hole on the right. If you look close you can also see where I put the Scotty leash attachments (Look like a rubber 8") on the support bar to leash the rods while in the Driftmaster holders.

    Adjustable aerator head, bubble stone and the two drain tubes (one short and one tall, the short is laying on the tank floor).

    Two swivels, one on the tank and one on the lid with a clip for easy removal. I have some coated steel leaders I believe I will use here.

    Added rod holders. I was going to use the Yack gear 3 rod holder like the one I used on my box but it was a little too wide to look right.I used rivets and Goop, I hope they do not leak!

    Tube to collect water while moving to prime the pump... I may have to have something that has more of a bottom ... we will see.

Then....

Mar 9, 2014 at 8:48pm

    Worked on the electronics of my bait tank today. I got the 6v battery to slow the flow down. What I did not know was the timer will not let 6 volts through. I hooked it to 12 volts just to make sure that was what was happening and it worked fine. I will have to take back the 6 and get a 12 to fit the case. I should be testing everything on the water soon. The case contains the battery, fuse, a timer that is accessible from the outside and a female jack on the outside of the case to plug the pump into.

 Look far left of the case and you can see the 12 volt jack. Bottom center is the timer control knob.

    EDIT: After more than  a year I have only used the tank for one trip. It worked great! I imagine the battery pack has died from neglect by now. I purchased more connectors to allow me to plug into the main battery for the fish finder.



UPDATE: I painted the tank to match the new color ...