Overnight fishing trips

ZENYO

Active Member
What do you fishermen/ladies do with day 1 catch on an overnight trip? Do you just gut the fish and store in cooler with ice or do you store the fish intact? Any other methods/tricks that you may use? how do you keep the ice ice? Second cooler?

Thanks,
 
Gut, head off and stored in crushed ice if you can get some. Blocks would likely work in the cooler just for overnight.
 
As soon as possible bleed them, gut them and pack them on ice. We buy the salted ice from the ice plant and it will last 4-5 days. We carry 2 coolers with us 1 full to the top with ice and the second to put the fish and ice in. Drain the coolers twice a day so fish are not sitting in water and have never had any problems. The trick is getting salted ice and not store bought ice, it lasts way longer.
 
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Bleed em and cut the gills out at the least, couple ice packs on bottom of cooler to keep fish up out of melted ice, drain open on cooler and cubed ice on top as it melts it "washes the fish", if they're long enough to be legal without the head then I fillet leaving tail intact on both sides for ID and I lay it on top of ice skin down. This saves allot of room with bigger fish. I think as long as you keep em cold and out of water you'll be fine
 
do not leave yer fish in salt ice water!! overighter with regular ice works great!!
 
Great info and tips... thanks!

Just to be clear... cutting the head off is a no no if it doesn't masure legal without head...
 
I think they keep better leaving the heads on, gutted & gilled and belly iced as well as immersed in ice. Drain often or just leave the drain open
X2 The less open flesh the better. It's a protective layer
 
Just one night? they get bled gutted and put in the cooler or eaten... Multi day trips vac packed labeled and either into the deep freeze or into the salt ice cooler. After Nootka the bulk of the fish gets dropped at St. Jeans in CR :)
 
Bleed right away. Gut head on and pack in ice. Drain off excess water. I overnight all the time
 
I'm out for 2 to 3 nights on the hook. I take a 162 qt cooler filled with block ice I make myself using the rubber feeders you get at princess auto. When fish come on-board they are bled, then after an hour or 2 at most gutted ,gilled --head on. Packed in ice we smash; then stored in a special cooler below decks which drains to the bilge. If the below decks cooler is filled then the last morning the fish are laid on the remaining block ice in the large cooler. Been evolving the process over the last 20 years and never had a fish that didn't arrive home in peak condition!! I agree wholeheartedly with keeping the fish from being stored in ice water. Make sure it(fish) is well drained.
 
Gut them and gill them (princess dressed). Pack them in ice and belly ice them. Cool them off quick and keep them cool. Keep the cooler drained, don't let them sit in water. They'll be good for a couple days. It works - That's how we did it when I commercial fished 25 years ago.
 
I think they keep better leaving the heads on, gutted & gilled and belly iced as well as immersed in ice. Drain often or just leave the drain open

^^^^^^^^ This!!!! ^^^^^^^^^^

Leave the head on, take guts and gills out, take care to massage all the blood out of the blood line and the belly meat of each fish. Before your trip, freeze water in plastic water bottles. Place a frozen water bottle in the belly cavity of each fish, fill in the space around the bottles and the space between each fish with salt ice (best) or cubes/block ice, then open the drain of your cooler.

If stored on your deck, aim the cooler's drain hole at your scupper then take a stud-end (2 x 4) and wedge it under the opposite end of the cooler so ANY melt water immediately drains out of the cooler into the scupper or into your bilge.

Melt water carries off bacteria (and residual warmth of your fish). NEVER allow any fish to swim in melt water. IF you don't have a drain in the cooler, you can put plastic baskets (like what strawberries come in) and line the floor of your cooler with several of them before adding ice and fish. This is a short-term solution to keep fish from swimming in melt water.

If you're in the sun, soak a bath towel in salt water and cover your cooler with the wet towel. Keep wet as necessary.
 
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