21' Trophy fish holds

fish brain

fish brain

Crew Member
Does anyone have advice for the fish holds on my 1996 21.5' Trophy?
As you know they fill with water every time it rains and are a PITA when you have to clean them.
What I"m wondering is, has anyone disconnected the drain/pump system and just let them drain into the bilge. I figure that I can just use rubber plugs when I have ice the the box, and pull them for storage/cleaning. I also figure that this might be better when I moor the boat, as the fish holds can drain to the bilge and be taken care of by the bilge pumps.
Is there any reason why this might be a bad idea?
Thanks for your help,
Dave
 
I have the same boat same year. I would not do that myself. If you do your bilge will smell after time and you will not get it out/ also pretty sure that water can get from stern to bow. I do not use the holds that often my self for the reason of cleaning. we put a cooler on bow and I tend only to use holds wen Halibut,and bottom fish, fishing. Another reason for not doing what you ask is that the bilge pump is not near as good for pumping blood and other heavier products that come from having fish in the holds.

Just my 2 bits for what it is worth.

Ray
 
Do you have a bilge pump for the fish wells? But when it rains they fill up with water because the pump is not automatic? Why not do as you say and drill a hole into the bilge with a plug. You can remove that when off the boat so rain water drains to this bilge and is automatically removed. When fishing put the plug back in.
My Campion fish wells drained into the bilge and it was a big mess. Thought about hooking up a pump to them but as Jencourt says the bilge pump would not handle all the coagulated blood. Maybe a macerator pump?
 
Same problem with my 1992 trophy. For same reasons as stated, pluged run off drains and drain to bilge and try to use cooler for fish. If water gets in fish holds while cleaning deck the shop vac does a quick number. Lucky boat does not sit out in rain with covered shed.
 
The wells in Trophy just drain into the bilge. I have these screw on mesh screens that prevent most of the blood from draining. I just fill the wells at the end of the day with water and scoop the blood clots out. I leave my boat in the water year round and have very little issue with too much rain water building up. I use 2 automatic bilge pumps in the rear bilge area. Works fine. I flush with fresh water once and a while to keep it clean.
 
I too have a Trophy 1999 2002ff. Two big fish holds one per side, independent pumps with screens as mentioned . They work great, I use them all the time, that said, yes rain water can fill them up when sitting, any over flow goes out my scuppers ...... My scuppers sit 5 inches above water line, I know of guys with 95/96 models where the scuppers let water in as they are below water line. Fix and attach proper pumps, it's a good feature, I only need to scoop out final dismal sludge that the drain into the pump does not remove. I would not recommend draining to your main bilge ....... That will get Nast after a while.
Keep us posted on how things work out for you.
HT
 
Here is what I did when I owned my Trophy...I took this from a post I made last year regarding the same issue.

The fish wells and scupper location were a BAD design from the beginning. Any water that would end up in the cockpit ended up in the fish wells, and very little actually went out the self bailing scuppers. The pump for the fish well was also a bad design, and were constantly clogging with gunk from fish even though there was a filter. Ended up not ever using them, and instead put a large cooler across the top of the motor well which I bungied down…worked very well. The pump in the fish wells worked well if I didn't store fish in there.

The fact that the water from the entire deck of the boat ended up in the fish wells did stress me out she I left the boat moored at the dock, especially with heavy rain. My worry was that the fish wells would end up full, then the weight would force the scuppers under water and this would cause the boat to fill up with even more water, before there would even be a drop inside the bilge where the bilge pump was located. Once the water actually got into the bilge, it would be too late to save it, and would end up like the pic of the Trophy above. THis is not the first time that I had seen this happen to one.

The way that I easily dealt with this problem, is that I rigged up a small temporary bilge pump with a built in float switch that I could put into one of the fish wells (they were connected by piping). I then had the bilge hose run over the stern of the boat to drain and plugged the unit into one of my Scotty down rigger plugs. When enough water went into the fish wells, the pump would turn on and drain both of them because they were connected. Worked REALLY well…the only downfall is that I had to leave one of my batteries on. Definitely a piece of mind during heavy rainstorms in the spring.
 
For the amount of rain water that gets in, I just spray in some lysol when I wash it out. Than before you put any fish in just rinse it and you will never have to worry about bad germs and fish well water in bilge.
 
Sounds like they did different things depending on years of these trophys……
My 1992 2002 had both F/B drains plumbed to a common cleanable strainer then to a pump then a thru hull.
IMO the system worked marginally at best, once the screen plugged there were no shut off valves upstream to stop the F/B from draining into the bilge if you unscrewed the lid for cleaning.
I fixed the system by adding shut off valves on each outlet line and tying the two together with a Y fitting then into a macerator pump then out the original thru hull.
A good macerator pump will set you back a few bucks but then your done messing with the silly screens, they a designed to pump out trash like scales and blood globs.
I would not be comfortable draining the water in the bilge on a boat that was moored, one bilge pump failure or dead battery and your going to find out just how strong your mooring lines are while they try and hold your boat off the bottom.
With the boxes full of water my scuppers were above the water line while moored, enough to handle rain water anyway.
One
 
Thanks for all the thoughts and advice everyone.

hmmmm
Sounds like my great idea wasn't so great after all. Like Sr SQ my holds are plumed together with a plug in one and a screen on the other.
My boat has to sit outside for another year until I can build a boat shed. The fish holds always have water in them.( well not right now with the drought) My pump has calved and I'm trying to decide whether to replace it or just do something different. Right now I just use a bucket and a sponge if I need to empty them.
I was going to leave the plugs out for storage and put them in for fishing. I was thinking about a quick washout by hand and a rinse with fresh water and soap after having fish in them.
one thing I should verify, is that my scuppers are well above the waterline when the fish holds are full. It's a new to me boat this spring, and I haven't had to worry about mooring it yet. I plan on taking it Moucha bay in August and I'd like to have my problem resolved before I go.
Thinking logically about it, there are probably hundreds of these boats moored year round and they don't sink because the fish holds are full of water. Though I am on the same page as fishwish about them being full of water while I am moored
 
I added a rubber D seal that had 2 sided tape on that I used to install around the rim of the hold this really helped keep that water and junk out of the holds
 
JAC. Your rubber D seal sounds interesting. where did you find it?
Thx
Dave
 
This was a number of years ago it was a marine seal and maybe made buy taco I could be wrong
 
Marty, do you have a link to the pump that you installed?
Can you provide details of the install please, pics?
 
I have a trophy 2509 with the same set up, my big plan is to just seal the boxes off outright.i have a big marine cooler from Costco that I'm plan on using for fish
 
Turns out that my problem was a failed impeller that jammed the motor, as the pump got weaker I assumed it was dying. My new impeller should be in today.

Where would you put your cooler Dirtguy? There doesnt seen to be room in my boat for one. I have an idea about how to make a fish cleaning table that will go over the motor well. I will post some pics when I get it built next winter
 
I have a 2402WA and there is no room on my back deck for a large cooler as well. We did it once and never again. My holds fill with water as well and I just live with it. Couple cups of bleach at end of year and wipe it out.
 
I was gonna put the cooler where the bench seats normally sit, should be enough room. For a fish table I ordered a magma Table with a swivel mount that I will put between the hatches on the back of the boat. I have only fished on the ocean about half a dozen times and never in my own boat so I may Infact be completely wrong
 
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