Sunshine/Grayline 30 Gallon Bait Tank Review
 

Well it's been a couple months since I bought my new bait tank and I promised to post a review with photos.

In summary, it works really well as long as it isn't over-filled with bait. I'm sure that's true of any bait tank. There is absolutely no doubt that the filtration system on the Ron Vest SB2 is better. However, the filter on my grayline does the job just fine. One drawback on the grayline is that it doesn't have a dedicated scale-box to catch scales. I made one out of a scrap piece of aluminum window-screen material and it works great.

2-3 weeks ago I camped and fished for 4 nights and 5 days on Priest with my Dad and two brothers-in-law. One of them purchased a 30 gallon Super Bait Tank 2 off Craigslist in "like new" condition for 200 bucks in Springfield, MO. I could kill him! ha... Anyway, on the first day of our trip we went up to Stewarts Creek to get bait. I was the only one of 4 guys that knows how to throw a cast net so for the next 2-3 hours I tested the endurance of my right shoulder. Caught about 30-35 shad with a mixture of 4 inch threadfin all the way up to a couple 12 inch gizzards and put them in my grayline. Then I hopped over to my brother in law's boat and threw for a while. His 30 gallon SB2 is bigger than my 30 gallon grayline, I don't care what anyone says. I caught 40ish shad for his tank of the same variety.

For the first few hours, I was highly attentive to the filter, cleaning it often. Before going to bed, I did a 30-40% water change and left the pumps plugged in overnight. The next morning I had 2 dead shad in my grayline tank and no dead shad in the SB2. The ones that were still alive were lively and healthy but I could tell that 30 shad is about the limit for my grayline where the SB2 appears capable of holding more than the 40ish we had in it.

The grayline works just fine and the tank itself is much better than the SB2 when it comes to strength, the way the lid and latch works, and the size/footprint for my 16 foot boat. The SB2 is just HUGE.

I ordered some LED strip lights and put a section inside my grayline. Here are some pix of it full of shad @ night.

Let me know if you have any questions. I'd be happy to let anyone that is looking at buying a tank come see mine if you're considering a grayline.

Take it easy!

-- Jason

Grayline !! .. <'TK><
 

I have had a 30 gallon Grayline for over 10 years and a Blue Water (similar to SBII) and both have worked well. The Grayline is rotary molded and is almost indestructible. I bought a filter unit from Creek Bait Tanks before they went out of business and adapted it to work in the Blue Water. It uses "panels" of filter material rather than cotton. This seems to be the best setup. Last year, I designed and built a filter unit for the Blue Water based on the Creek Bait Tank design, and it has worked fine.

The actual filter area for the Grayline is smaller so you will need to change filter pads much more frequently. The key to keeping shad alive in either tank is getting the water clean as soon as possible and keeping the water cool. When I fish JPP, I catch about three dozen shad and put them in the tank. Before heading down the lake to fish, I put one bag of ice in the tank along with the blue Shad Saver to block the chlorine and a some salt. Once I arrive at the fishing area, I add an additional bag of ice and keep the filters clean and have good bait all day.

You can keep shad until the next day as long as you keep the filters clean and the maintain the correct water temperature.

Oops! Forgot the pix... Here ya go.
 

i forgot the pix last night. here ya go...

Great review, sounds like you guys had a good time. I would be giving cast net throwing 101 lessons and having them catch their own bait, well at least "my" brothers in-law of course exercise could do them good.

When you do partial water change do you eye ball how much salt to add with the new water?

It's not an exact science. I add about 1 cup of stock salt for every 10 gallons of water. The salt helps the shad re-establish their slime coat, calm down, and stop losing scales due to stress.

Good info. thanks.

The tank looks good, and I really like the LED modification! Never thought to do that, but I bet it pays off in spades at night.

Does the light stay on all the time? Just wondering if that "aggravates" the bait more, since I've always been told to keep the lid on the minnow bucket to calm the fish down so they live longer. I figure the same principle would apply here.

I'm still working on my cast net technique, but I've been really enjoying practicing with it off and on over the past couple years. It adds a lot of fun to fishing trips. When I go to the beach, it's even better, since you never know what you'll catch.

Nice looking fish.



Regards

Thanks! Yeah the cast net is a blast. I have as much fun chasing bait as I do the stripers and hybrids. You just never know what you'll pull up in that net. If I ever catch a snake in it, I may just have to go buy a new net (and a new pair of underpants:eek:) As far as the LED light, I wired it so that I can unplug it easily outside of the tank so that it isn't drawing unnecessary power from my battery. I never thought about the light stressing the shad.

Thanks Alphahawk!