Live well

[ROLAND]

Hey guys... got a question about a live well.. since I never owned a boat until I bought our pontoon less than a year ago, I know nothing about live wells.. today we were catching some decent size perch and decided to put them in the live well. I hit the live well switch on the console, hear a "whine", but no water was entering the well.. when I went over to the live well, I noticed 2 things, the first was an over flow / drain pipe.. pvc plastic pipe that screws into the floor of the live well... then about 3/4 ths up the side of the live well, there was a plastic pipe sticking out ( inside the live well itself ) with a black valve on it. I tried opening the valve and nothing... finally I just pulled the plastic pipe with the valve on it out of the hole and water started pouring into the live well... also noticed that when the well was filling up, I heard water dripping... looked over the side of the boat and there was a small stream of water coming from under the live well, running down over the side of the pontoon... At first I thought the live well had a leak... but after I shut the pump off, I noticed there was no more water leaking out, and the live well water level stayed the same all day... to drain the well, I just unscrewed the pvc drain pipe and completely removed it from the well... so, did I incorrectly fill the live well by pulling the plastic pipe with the valve on it? what about the water running over the side of the toon when I was filling the well, and did I drain it correctly? I got no clue.. I appreciate your help.

[Heatman]

Did the piece with the valve look like this? http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/store ... 00_225-3-0

If you turn on the valve and nothing came out until you took loose at the valve something must be blocking the inside of the yellow part. I always keep the valve open, not sure why it would ever need turned off.

When I have fish in the livewell I keep it running constantly so there is water going thru the overflow all the time.

[lakerunner]

Sounds like you water line is leaking or you broke something pulling on it.

[Allan70]

It's supposed to leak. It's the water irrigating system with the pump on. The overflow goes through the pipe you unscrewed to dump it.

[smlranger]

I suspect your livewell is set up like most pontoon boats. Water enters thru an overhead diffuser type of pipe and exits thru the top of that vertical overflow pipe. What escapes via the overflow usually drains out and down over one of the pontoons. Unfortunately, most of these 'underseat' livewells don't have any filtering or recirculating ability, which makes them less than great for keeping fragile bait fish alive. Good insulation and a good recirculating aeration system are key to keeping bait alive, especially in warm weather.

I've really been spoiled with my previous fishing boat that had two outstanding, insulated livewells/baitwells that could keep bait frisky. I am expecting to either modify the livewell on my new pontoon or perhaps purchase a separate bait tank.

[ROLAND]

thanks for the replies guys... i do appreciate it.... Heat man, the water inlet looked something like that, except the one on my boat is straight, no 45 degree turns... at the very end of the piece of pvc pipe is a yellow cap, was unable to remove it... the valve is located about 2 inches or so from the end of the yellow cap... as for the leaking water running over the pontoon, the water leaked over the toon on two occasions.. the second time was pretty much what I expected, when I unscrewed and removed the verticle over flow pipe.... i'm pretty sure thats normal.. what I was concerned about was while I was filling the live well, I noticed water running over the side of the toon... but the water was not high enough in the live well to reach the top of the overflow... so I'm wondering if there's an issue there.. somebody replied saying it was normal, just wanted to make sure I explained it clearly to give you guys the true picture of what I'm talking about. If nothing else I'll be getting my boat out of the storage place next weekend, I'll take some pictures of the inside of the well so you can see what I'm seeing... thanks again guys...