Fishing Victoria Forum

Hi all,

I’ve been looking at getting an esky/live bait cooler for LB fishing. Engel’s and techni ice models keep coming up but unfortunately techi ice isn’t making theirs anymore and the importing fee on engels doubles the price!

I was wondering is anyone had any recommendations or any they were willing to sell? Is it reasonable to expect an esky with a hole drilled in the lid for an aerator hose to have some amount of insulation capacity left? … I’m just trying to avoid ruining a perfectly good esky.

Cheers,
Leo

You can get a floating aerator made by rapala . That way no need to make any holes in the esky.

Alternatively, buy the esky that has option to store frozen ice pack compartments in them, usually the compartment is located on the inside of the bottom of the lid, you can modify and use one of the ice pack compartments to house the aerator. I have done this to my one and works well. It's a willow brand from bcf from memory.

Ill take some pics if you need.
Cheers

From what ive used in the past a square or rectangle unit is not what you want,The livies get into the corners and die.
Use a round unit so the livies swim around it all day

purple5ive wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 01, 2021 10:40 pm

You can get a floating aerator made by rapala . That way no need to make any holes in the esky.

I was never great with science, so please help me to understand - assuming the esky is air tight and you’re using an aerator inside it with no external intake, wouldn’t it quickly run out of air supply? Or does the air oxygenate from the water?

Kimtown wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 02, 2021 8:43 am

purple5ive wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 01, 2021 10:40 pm

You can get a floating aerator made by rapala . That way no need to make any holes in the esky.

I was never great with science, so please help me to understand - assuming the esky is air tight and you’re using an aerator inside it with no external intake, wouldn’t it quickly run out of air supply? Or does the air oxygenate from the water?

Leaving an air gap in the esky (aka not filling it all the way up ) will.provide enough of oxygen until it's opened again which will replenish it with fresh air.
If your still struggling, then leave the lid open or propped up.
At the end of the day, it's the dissolved oxygen content in the water that will keep them alive.

Hard rubbish pick up a esky drill hole run tube through hole silastic hole one end of hose battery powered aerator other end aerator stone mullet if that,s what your using are pretty hardy

Have a look at the Techni Ice Soft Coolers - They have a zip lid - You could install an Aerator and a a small water pump to Aerate as well as continually circulate fresh water without damaging it.