adding a live well

5string

Petty Officer 3rd Class
Joined
Oct 25, 2001
Messages
75
Anyone add a livewell to a boat? I have a 96 Polar Skiff and want a live well and wonder what the best option is.

5string
 

peacekeeper6

Senior Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Apr 25, 2005
Messages
765
Re: adding a live well

i am doing this also, i am thining of building a box out of marine ply, and covering it in poly, then painting it white on the inside with some kind of epoxy paint or something like that. Should hold water and be very durable. or you can get a large gallon bucket and put a bilge pump on the outside of your boat and run atube to it. either one works.
 

Chris1956

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Mar 25, 2004
Messages
28,076
Re: adding a live well

If you want to make the livewell removeable, how about this idea.

Install a raw water washdown in the boat. That would be a thru-hull water intake, a pump and a bulkhead fitting for a garden hose connection, likely in the side of the splashwell. Now for the livewell. Create one out of a cooler of the proper size. Install a thru hull fitting near the top for the water to get in. Install another thru hull with a grating about 1/3 way down for the overflow. Run a garden hose from the washdown fiting to the water in thru hull and a hose from the water out thru hull to the splashwell for the drain.

Now use a bunjii cord to hold the livewell in position, near the splashwell. You can close the lid and sit on it if desired, as well.
 

jtexas

Fleet Admiral
Joined
Oct 13, 2003
Messages
8,646
Re: adding a live well

Livewell fill pumps have a threaded intake that is a thru-transom fitting....drill your hole, coat the intake with 5200, put more 5200 on the inside & outside, then a nut goes on the outside holding the pump to the transom. Wipe off the excess 5200 and cut off the excess pipe with a PVC pipe cutter or hacksaw or whatever you have. The pump discharge usually has hose threads, might have a barb fitting whatever, you can find plumbing adapters to make what you want. My boat has regular garden hose, been that way for 28 years.

The livewell, you can build it in just like snake described, that's how mine was done by the dealer back in 1980. There's a 3/8" hole in the bottom of the boat, so unless I put a plug in it, the livewell always fills to the waterline. Also a overflow hole in the side of the boat a few inches above the waterline. The more empty space above the waterline, the more oxygen will be available to the fish in there. The fill pump discharge should flow through a sprayer bar or some other kind of diffuserto maximize oxygen content.

A pump-out pump was added to my livewell, just a submergible pump with the discharge pointing out the overflow hole. Better for the fish as you can pump bad water out and good water in.

If your livewell doesn't sit on the floor of the boat and you don't want to drill an overflow hole in the side, many boats have a standpipe overflow tube, with plumbing under the livewell leading to a thru-transom drain hole. You just turn on the fill pump and let it overflow, to keep fresh water in the livewell.

Even though my overflow hole is above the waterline, when cruising in high waves enough water comes in the overflow to overflow the top of the livewell and fill the boat, is another reason I need the pump-out. Not a malfunction...more of a design flaw...or misapplication - my boat maybe was meant for calm water.
 

kalla man

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Oct 5, 2006
Messages
100
Re: adding a live well

by the way the foam is xtra light and acts as a great insulator...when you have more beer that bait
 
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