Ok, I'm getting tired of filling up my cooler with a bucket every time I want to use it, not to mention heaving it over the gunwale at the end of the day to dump it out.

The cooler I have is and Igloo Quick and Cool 100qt and I'm trying to think of a way to pump water in and out of it as effectively as possible. I like the looks of the ' Rule Transom Mount Livewell/Bilge Pump' on Cabelas because it mounts to the transom. I have already owned one leaky aluminum boat and I have no interest in drilling 3/4" holes in my boat below the water line. The problem is, how to pump water back out of the livewell when you want to add more? If there are two way bilge pumps, I haven't been able to find one. My ideal scenario would be to have a transom mount bilge pump that I can attach/detach easily. Then run a switch to the bow to turn it on/off and control the direction of the water. If I could flip a switch, fill it up, then when I want to replace some of the water, flip the switch in reverse for a bit, then fill it back up, that would be totally ideal.

I've thought of running two pumps, one to fill it and one to empty it, but I don't really want to have to buy two of them if I can avoid it. I have enough wires running around the boat as is :) Any thought on this? I'm sure someone has a great system out there and I would love to hear about it if you do.

Does the Ice chest stay permently in the boat?

I used to use an ice chest for the small boat tourneys I would participate in. I would just lower a bilge pump with a hose attached over the side and fill the ice chest that way. When in use as a live well the bilge pump was put into the ice chest with the hose hooked onto a spray bar. To empty the ice checst we just pulled the hose out of the spray bar and drain it back into the lake. It worked well but my partner and I eventully biult a coustom biultin live well. We used a thru-hull live well pump for that and it did not leak. In that live well it had a drain plug at the bottom wich we would pull at the end of the day, it drained into the boat but because it had false floors nothing got wet. The coustom well also had an overflow (another hole drilled in the boat) which allowed us to run the livewell pump for long periods of time without overflowing the well.

Lotta ins, lotta outs, lotta what have-yous

The cooler doesn't stay in the boat, although I've considered a strap system to keep it in place there so I have one less thing to take back and forth from the truck when I rig the boat.

An overflow that is above the water line but below the brim of the cooler is a good idea. Maybe I'll try that... At least that way I only have to empty it once at the end of the day. Thanks for the thought.

I am setting up an Igloo cooler as a live well and am considering draining the cooler into my false bottom boat as well. I would then drain with my bilge pump. Do you see any problems with this idea over the long haul?

I run a transom mounted pump to fill my well and a second pump inside of the well which recirculates the water. I've installed a y-valve in line on the internal pump with a second hose off the y over the gunnel to pump out the water. When I want to pump the water out, I simply close off one port of the valve and open the second which empties the live-well.

Tight Lines