# Livewell Ideas on a 16' Jon Boat



## Georgiadawgs78 (Feb 14, 2011)

I bought a 16' jon boat the other day to use on small lakes like Bear Creek, Sandy Creek, as well as hit the Oconee River when the Crappie and White bass are in full swing. Its pretty much like I want it minus a livewell. Anyone got any good ideas on adding one to it. The middle seat is hollow but slap full of foam so I dont know if I can do anything with that. My dads has one in the middle of his with a lid and all but I dont believe its going to work for mine. Im really just wanting to keep crappie and white bass to eat. Maybe later on down the road I might fish some tx on electric only lakes with it but I doubt it. If anyone has any ideas im open for suggestions. Im going to add some pics to kind of give you an idea of what im working with. Thanks!

G-Dawg


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## Reminex (Feb 14, 2011)

I would buy a fishmate pro livewell.  They will build custom sizes. slap it in the front,back or middle deck.  If you are worried about the foam for flotation in the middle deck, see about adding some foam elsewere so you can utilize that space.


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## fishingga (Feb 14, 2011)

What do you want to keep alive?  If it is for crappie and white bass you don't need a live well just a cooler with ice.  
If it is for live bait like shad or herring you don't want to use the built in well.  Can't comment on tx fish keeping.


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## Georgiadawgs78 (Feb 15, 2011)

I will check them out Reminex. And fishinga I might eventually do some Jon Boat tourneys so I figured might as well go ahead and do it right and plumb up an aerator and stuff when I put the livewell in. I've read alot about people taking igloo coolers and plumbing everything in them. Its a good setup but I'm really wanting something that doesn't look out of place. I'm probably going to go through and re-deck it and try to make it a little lighter.


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## coachrollo (Feb 15, 2011)

Take a cooler and use 2 minnow areators and put in there fish will live all day


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## bassboy1 (Feb 15, 2011)

> I would buy a fishmate pro livewell. They will build custom sizes. slap it in the front,back or middle deck.



I wouldn't.  

Chances are, if you get it, it will be after a 10 month wait, and will probably be different from what you ordered.  Their customer service has been about nonexistent this past year.


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## russ010 (Feb 15, 2011)

Georgiadawgs78 said:


> I'm probably going to go through and re-deck it and try to make it a little lighter.



You can put a 120-150qt cooler in, cut it off to where it will be flush with a deck you put on top of it... then just cut you a few lids in the deck to be able to access the cooler underneath.

I have a fishmate pro livewell... and it took me nearly a year to get it. I didn't get frustrated with him like a lot of guys have because he already had my money. There are some other guys out there who are still Out of luck.


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## Jason Taylor (Feb 15, 2011)

I used a 120 qt cooler works great


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## Reminex (Feb 15, 2011)

I think the fishmate wait time was dependant on what kind of livewell, When I was looking i think they had the 25 and 30 inch in stock and ready to ship.  but that was before they got hammered by floods, bad weather stuff.  either way for that price its worth the wait!  But a cooler is cool cause you can have it self contained and take it out when not in use.


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## russ010 (Feb 15, 2011)

Reminex said:


> I think the fishmate wait time was dependant on what kind of livewell,



It wasn't dependent upon the type of livewell. Partly floods, but there was a lot going on behind the scenes as well. Too many broken promises resulted in a lot of bad business decisions.

It took me a little over 9 months to get mine, and this was before the floods - but got hit during the flood after he found my order buried on his desk.

Dan is a good guy and his products are outstanding. BUT - I wish I would have ordered a livewell deeper than 10" - it's hard to cover an 8.5lb fish in a 10" deep livewell!


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## Jason Taylor (Feb 15, 2011)

Russ
I wouldnt know I cant catch a 8.5


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## Georgiadawgs78 (Feb 15, 2011)

Yeah I'm thinking the cooler idea is probably best. Im thinking it could double as a cooler or livewell if i incorporated it into the deck. If I left it where it could be took in and out I would probably just use it for livewell purposes only. 

Does anyone know where to get some "L" angled aluminum at?


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## Twenty five ought six (Feb 15, 2011)

Georgiadawgs78 said:


> Does anyone know where to get some "L" angled aluminum at?



Home Depot, Lowes, Tractor Supply


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## bassboy1 (Feb 15, 2011)

Twenty five ought six said:


> Home Depot, Lowes, Tractor Supply



Or go to a steel supplier, and get an entire 25' stick for pennies more than the 8' stick from those places.


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## russ010 (Feb 15, 2011)

Jason Taylor said:


> Russ
> I wouldnt know I cant catch a 8.5



me either, but I can catch them 7-7.5lb and it does fine... Merrick caught that 8.5lb prefishing at Lathem a month or so ago and I had to put weights on its bottom fins to try and keep her upright


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## frosty20 (Feb 15, 2011)

I am in need of a livewell as well. Has anyone used the one in the Bass Pro catalog?


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## Fletch_W (Feb 15, 2011)

It looks like you don't have much room there because of the raised decking. You'll lose storage by closing it in, then you'll just have another problem to worry about. That bench looks skinny. I think you should go with the "portable" option by utilizing a Coleman, per tournament rules, even though it may seem "out of place" you said yourself it's not something you are into at the moment, and when you eventually get into the tourneys, you'll only have to deal with "out of place" on those particular days. That's what I'd do!


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## Georgiadawgs78 (Feb 15, 2011)

I got looking at it this evening and I believe decking out to the middle bench would look good and be okay but I'd have to fab up two more lids in the existing boat and then I could fab up my cooler in the extended deck but couldn't do much else so I think im going to leave it as is minus a little customizing to the back lid. I guess they built the deck around the gas tank because it isn't coming out. Not to mention it's all I can do to get a battery in it. 

So I believe the best bet is just to convert the cooler over. I was thinking I could use it for drinks or dry storage when not needed for a livewell but it may get a little fishy. Thanks for the help and opinions.


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## tsnider08 (Feb 15, 2011)

I had a toho live well from bass pro and loved it. worked great!! sold that jon to a buddy of mine and he loves it too. Look in the bass pro catalog or go to basspro.com. When I bought mine i believe they were like 180 bucks


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## Jim Lee (Feb 16, 2011)

russ010 said:


> Dan is a good guy and his products are outstanding. BUT - I wish I would have ordered a livewell deeper than 10" - it's hard to cover an 8.5lb fish in a 10" deep livewell!



Russ is right on here. I have two and I ordered them 12" deep. They will hold all that I can catch.  They make a fine product but you WILL wait.


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## Bugpac (Feb 16, 2011)

Brine used a 30 gallon water tank from an rv off ebay for like 45.00 and cut a hole in the top, put it i his bench seat.  Search Water tank rv on ebay.


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## Jason Taylor (Feb 16, 2011)

Just looked on craigslist there was a toho livewell for $80 great deal
it was on the third pg of listings


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## LipRipper45 (Feb 17, 2011)

Check out tinboats.net....I built my whole boat using that site...on the home page the left side there is a link that says boat projects...click on it and there is a lot of stuff on live wells..but the cooler idea is the easiest, cheapest, and plus if you dont catch ne thing you can pop some cold cans in there and catch a buzz


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## Brine (Feb 17, 2011)

Bugpac said:


> Brine used a 30 gallon water tank from an rv off ebay for like 45.00 and cut a hole in the top, put it i his bench seat.  Search Water tank rv on ebay.



40 gallon


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## sramagesr (Feb 17, 2011)

find a cooler that will fit the space, use a small pump to fill it and a areator


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