These tuna tubes are a rather popular development in the offshore fishing world. They are basically a tube that you place a live tuna into face first. They are filled with water or put inside another container with salt water and connected via a pump of some sort. The pump constantly pumps water into the fishes mouth and over its gills simulating it swimming.

Depending on the brand and their configuration, some are self contained in their own containers. while some are a bit more mobile. Two popular configurations include live wells or buckets. Some live well configurations are a bit more rigid in nature. While bucket configurations are more specifically portable.

Our Tuna tubes are designed to be used in either configuration. They are not bolted together. They can easily be removed and taken apart to put them into a different configuration. They are almost exactly like a set of Lego’s. We wanted them to be modular and mobile so one configuration we focused on is a standard 5 gallon bucket. Three tubes can fit in ANY standard 5 gallon bucket (at least every bucket we have tested and seen. If you find one that is not standard let us know – challenge accepted.)

The three tubes each individually have a pump on the bottom. They sit in a bucket filled with salt water. The water gets pumped through the tube and will overflow over the top and back into the bucket.

The boat live well configuration can be the same as the bucket configuration, or they can be arranged in a linear fashion or a combination of either. Again they will generally each have their own pump. Depending on how many you would like in a row or the size of your well, there is no limit to how many can connect side by side. We generally sell them as a set (3 tubes, pumps, and other mounting accessories included).

Some captains like to have their tubes mounted on the back of their boat (the transom). The biggest draw back is that these usually need some sort of connection to a live well hose that pumps water, and we engineered a perfect solution for this one. Once again our tubes can easily be attached to the transom, but mainly in the linear configuration.

So the whole reasoning behind the tube is that Kyle specifically wanted an ovular shape rather than using circular PVC tubes. He also wanted it to have some sort of ‘harness’ in the bottom that will keep the fishes mouth and nose from ramming into the bottom of the tube. Easy enough to create and design. I was adept at additive manufacturing (3D Printing) so this seemed like the best and perfect way to easily test his ideas.

Once that was created Kyle asked me to see if there was an easy way to attach an off-center pump to the tube that will then enter the tube from the middle. This is where the real challenge began.

The easiest way to design an off-center to center issue is just a small bent pipe shape right? One of the main problems you will then run into is that will cause the water to possibly swirl and the fish in turn will be rotating. This is not natural and will stress the fish out leading to unhealthy bait.

So I instead designed a calming chamber in the tube. The chamber takes the incoming off-center inlet and after a bit of magic, it calms it and then evenly distributes it upward preventing any kind of swirling or spiraling motion. You now have a nice relaxed tuna.

Remember how I said that the transom configuration has a wee problem most people have issues with? Well the biggest problem is that with the limited space and how the hose connects to a splitter, there is generally an uneven flow of water. Kyle asked if there was a way I could design a splitter.

So I designed a box that can connect a set of tubes. It takes a live well hose and evenly divides them creating a uniform flow of water at the outlets. When tested, it was able to take the full power of a live well hose no problem. The box not only split the flow evenly, but in tandem with the calming chamber, we had some happy bait fish.

After the splitter, Kyle (my god he is so needy LOL) asked me if there was a way to create a longer tube. So it was back to the drawing board for me.

So what I ended up designing was a tube extension. This could be attached to the top of the tube. We have different sizes, obviously to fit different size bait wells, to fully submerge the tuna. The extensions can also attach to themselves creating an easy way to reduce the footprint of the set for storage purposes.

Yes we do sell these Tuna Tubes. The base price for them is $750. That includes:

• 3 Tubes
• Mounting Hardware (two each of brackets, wedges, bracket extensions, Sea Sucker mounts and equipment to attach)
• Includes 15ft cord with alligator clips (50$ if you want a custom plug instead)
• Depending on which configuration you want it will come with either 3 pumps, or the manifold box.

Contact us and let us know what you would like. They are made out of ASA, a material that is UV and salt water resistant and is perfect for outdoor use. We can make them in many different colors. Generally its one color per set, and our normal desired colors are Dark Blue and Grey. If you specifically want a different color than those two, then we require a bit of a lead time and usually we have a $100 upcharge. If you truly want each tube itself a different color (possible as well) we consider that custom as well.

The extensions also have a general size we make them, however they can be adjusted based on the size or depth of your live well. When you contact us and we determine what you would like, if we need to adjust extension size then it is easily doable. adjusting extension size is NOT considered custom so is part of the base price.