Bass rules livewell clarification needed

[Andy J]

Hi All

I am in the process of building a new bass boat but I may not have room for 1 full 60 litre live well but I will be able to fit (stratigicly) 2, 35 litre seperate ones which made me think the rules say you must have 1 60 litre but if there are 2 people fishing from the 1 boat you need a divider so would this be considered acceptable, just some back ground both live wells would be plumbed and have airators as per the rule.

any advice would be great.

Cheers
Andy

[JAS]

Hi Andy,
Unfortunately 2 x 35L tanks will be no good. You will need to somehow get a 1 x 60L tank in the boat. I think you will find most anglers that fish 2 out of a boat don't divide the 60L tank in the boat but identify there individual catch with different methods. I myself use a clip with a float attached and this clips onto the bottom jaw and is colour coded. They use this every were in the States. Hope this helps answer your question.
Regards,
Jesper

[BOZ]

a few people including myself just use a 70L esky that sits on the deck. i have a bla bilge pump/aerator thingy that i fill it up with and empty it with and it works well when i actually catch something....other than that its storage room for tackle boxes and lunch.

[Barry_O]

Just want to throw something out there, what is better for the fish 4 fish kept in 60 litres of water for the duration of the comp or 2 fish in 60 litres and 2 fish in 45 litres. Seems to me that the second option would be better for the fish. You have 4 fish in 105 litres against 4 fish in 60 litres of water.
To me that equates to more aeration and better quality water for each fish. Mathematically it would seem that the second option offers each fish better water as well.

Sorry Ian I'm stirring!!

Barry_O

[Andy J]

Barry

I know you are stiring the pot, but I have since checked the live wells (sized)and both are 45L which is my point mathimaticly there is more water for fewer fish. I know rules are rules but my theroy is if you can improve on the basic rules why not 4 fish in 60 litre or 4 fish in 90 litres.

Anyway I,m sure someone will quote a rule at me but if they think outside the square they will see mine and your way of thinking is above the minimum requirements and theyfore should be considered acceptable in comps.

Andy

[kfdu_slim]

Simon clarified the rules 2 years ago. Minimum size is 60L no exceptions.


by Simon Goldsmith » Thu Jun 10, 2010 9:03 pm

Here's what i'll do Ian, 60 litres minimum capacity for all boats, no exceptions. No judgement of discretion to be made. End of story.

[skin]

I don't believe the rules state you can't divide a 60lt well, I,m sure two 35lt wells would be adequate for the fish provided they had enough length. Many tournament boats are being used in tournaments with dividers to seperate boater and non boater catches, many of these wells are of less than 120lt capacity. If you want to open that can of worms then you will be making many livewells ineligable especially in locally built boats.
Maybe a bit of common sense should prevail. Sending someone home who's wells are obviously adequate and combine to more than 60lt seems a bit over the top to me.
Think of it from the fishes point of view.
You're cruising around chasing a feed when next thing you know you're ripped 30 foot to the surface, shoved in a net, laid on a deck, measured, a needle is jambed into your side and all the time you can,t breath. Then you're dropped into a dark room for up to six hours after which you're again shoved in a net or a thumb is jambed down your throat and you're dropped into a mesh bag and placed onto a set of scales again not being able to breath. Finally the whole ordeal is over and you are dropped back into the water miles from home.
But hey, at least you had a good sized livewell.
If you guys are really that concerned about the fishes welfare, don't catch em.
My two bobs worth
Mick Skinner

[Ian]

Hi Barry



There’s nothing like a good livewell argument to stir up this forum whether it’s 2 smaller 45 litre livewells or one larger 60 litres we need a place to start as the ABT rules currently state 60 litres minimum then that’s where we start. The 60 litre livewell has been around since the inception of the bass electric and may need to be updated.



Is 45 litres sufficient for 1 Wivenhoe 50 cm Bass? 50 x 30 x 30 = 45 l

Is 45 litres sufficient for 2 Wivenhoe 50 cm Bass?

Is 60 litres sufficient for 2 or 4 Wivenhoe 50cm Bass? 50 x 35 x 35 = 60 l



I have fished many comps at Wivenhoe and from my experience when Wivenhoe fires back up and bags of over 4.5 kg is the norm not the exception how are 2 x 50 cm bass going to fit in a 45 litre livewell. There may be some hope if there is only one angler in the boat and the 2 fish have there own livewells.



A 60 litre or bigger well undivided is the best scenario for 4 large bass, it will be interesting to see what others think? Is it just me or does it seem that a minority group of anglers who have small livewells are causing this rule to be looked at again and again and testing it at the comps?



I have recently looked at approximately 150 boats over the last 3 comps and all but one boat I inspected were within and over the 60 litre livewell limit. Well done to all the anglers who want to provide a livewell that will hopefully ensure a healthy fish is released at the end of the day.



Ian

[Tony Payne]

Ian, first off thank you for doing the live well inspection at Clarrie Hall for me. Even though you sat there and maybe even lost your prime take off spot for doing this. Thanks !

are any of you in this debate the ones I refunded your for at the Clarrie round ? Both of you were very polite and took it on the chin. I thank you for your understanding. We are volentry in this roll and only enforce the rules we have to go by.

My view is I would rather see 4 large Bass in one 60 litre well air rated live well laying side by side and relaxing in the dark of a live well.
than 2 smaller ones as they will not be filled as much as one 60ltre esky.
10 years fishing ABT bass comps and never had a Bass die on me.

We have rules to abide by and that's it.

Great discussion though as it brings up how passionate you Electric fisherman are, i love the banter and smiles on all your dials when i run these tournaments so lets keep it polite and look forward to seeing many more smiles.

cheers Tony

[Andy J]

Hi Tony

I agree its a good debate, lets face it we are all on here because we love fishing, getting back to the original question (I am building a new bass boat) so if it means modifying the boat to meet with the rules I am OK with that, just though I would ask before I decided on a final design and fitting 2 45l tanks in was going to be a lot easier than one 60L tank.

To answer the other question I did not compete in the event you are referring to.

Cheers
Andrew

[kfdu_slim]

If a kayaker like me can deal with a 60L livewell, then a boat sure as heck can.

A huge thanks has to extend to Ian for the effort he put in at Clarrie and to Tony Payne, those two blokes who were disqualified clearly had no clue what the bass electrics rules were. They seemed ok with that and I dont think any hard feelings were taken. Abusing fellow competitors, now that is a whole different can of worms.

[DaveW]

Simple solution - Put a joining pipe or hose between the two, adds to over 60l

[skin]

Dave it would seem thats not acceptable, though if you wanted to be really technical, the wording in the rules is " livewells" not livewell must be at least 60lt capicity, but thats enough of that.
It seems due to the hype surrounding the livewell rules that we will be checking down here at Danjeera ( even though our fish rarely measure more than 380mm ). Being that I normally help out at these events we need some clarifiction.
Are the measurements taken on the overall size of the livewell or to the overflow. Obviously a 60lt cooler with an overflow 150mm from the top would be less than 60lt capacity, most guys using coolers are probably using 60lt ones.. If this is the case then there could be some problems on Saturday. How have you been measuring them Ian ? Maybe you could clarify this for us Simon. I know it sounds picky but I know it will come up.
I agree with you Ian, the livewell rules do need upgrading so we don,t have have this debate every year.
Personally I believe everyones own interperatation or the rules as to whether 60lt means one or two livewells confuses the issue.
I built an electric boat a few years ago with twin 45lt wells because of how I interperatated it and that boat has been to many comps and two conventions without a question ever being asked. Also never lost a bass in the wells.
That boat now has a new owner who likely won,t fish this weekend because putting a 60lt cooler on the deck is not practical due to the layout of the boat.
At the end of the day we all fish these comps to enjoy ourselves and enjoy the company of likeminded others. Sending anglers away from comps should be a last resort. I understand that a large livewell at places like Wivenhoe is important, but at dams where the average size fish is much smaller a bit of commonsense could prevail and advice offered especially for a newby. I would hate to see a new ABT angler turned away from Danjeera down here because his well was 5lt undersize.
I would like to say than none of my coments are aimed at anyone for turning anglers away in recent comp as I have no knowledge of the curcumstances ( for all I know they could have showed up with buckets ).
Finally, if anyone feels abused ( I feel that was aimed at me Slim ) I am sorry, that was not my intention, but really, if anyone thinks putting a 50cm fish in 50cm long well is the worst thing you can do to it then read my previous post again.
cheers
Mick Skinner

[kfdu_slim]

Mate you didnt abuse me...it was another bloke at Clarrie Hall, got up myself and Joey.

I really thought all of this livewell stuff had been done to death.

[skin]

no worries Slim
no one deserves that, but I fear it won,t be the last time someone cops an earfull.
Over it myself

[Barry_O]

Ian,
Mate I can't follow you on the 2 Big W fish in 45 litres of water.
As I said it would appear mathematically to me that they would have more water per fish (and better aeration) then 4 fish in 60 litres of water.
That is 60/4 = 15 litres of water per fish
45/2 = 22.5 litres of water per fish
I understand that the size of the fish is going to mean less water in the esky but doesn't that apply to both sizes?

I might tell you when two of us fish Big W together we have a 60 litre and 75 litre live wells for our fish.
Totally agree that you need to give them as much as possible but my point is that if you are putting 4 Big W fish in a 60 litre esky would it not be better for the fish to split those fish up over two eskies of 60 litres and 45 litres. As I have shown above each fish has more water (and therefore better aeration) than 4 in one 60 litre esky.

How this came up for me was at Clarrie Hall, when we decided to run with just a 60 litre esky because of the rules. We did have the 45 litre as well but did not take it and it got me to thinking what would have been better for the fish. 2 in each esky (if we had caught our limits!) or 4 fish in the one esky.

Barry_O

[Simon Goldsmith]

Is it just me or does anyone else have a sense of deja vu?

In short the rules state 60 litres, insulated and aerated or reticulated. You're open to analyse, speculated and dissect the situation all you want. But if you tick the boxes of those three requirements your fish will be fine 99.9% of the time.

Them the rules, that's what you should have. It's not hard.

Now lets get back to catching bass.

[bass111]

will done simon

[Barry_O]

Hi Simon,
So do the rules stipulate that each live well on a boat must be at least 60 litres or do the rules only deal with one live well being 60 litres minimum? The way your statement reads it could be taken either way.

Promise that's it for me no further comment, as I said to Ian I was only stirring in the first place and I thought you guys would be happy at least it created activity on the site!

To Andy J my apologies mate for hijacking your thread it wasn't intended that way. I do hope though it has made your job a lot easier in figuring out what you need to do with your live well.
PS I sent you a PM regarding design of a livewell to fit your boat did you get it?

Barry _O

[Simon Goldsmith]

One livewell, 60 litres minimum.