Where to keep fish? ? ?

[el_cheapo]

Agree with CN and Johnny on this. Pull them from water, throw 'em on ice. They taste a lot better that way-especially trout for some reason. Or that was my experience anyway. Haven't done it yet with crappie but I assume they're probably similarly better tasting when iced immediately after removing from the water. I like crushed ice better but I don't always have access, so cubes work just fine.

I just use a cooler and strap it down so it doesn't slide all over the place. Remove cooler and pull it out when you're done fishing. I use an older cooler. Blood and guts don't bother it but I do keep it clean, enough that the GF doesn't gripe when I throw a few cold ones in the ice before we go fishing. Once I get a couple fish, though, the drinks come out obviously.

Gators aren't just in Florida either. We have a few here too and same deal, on certain waters if you're dragging a stringer of fish around, you are gator hunting. Heard of a guy with a 14' tin boat hanging a few catfish on a rope stringer and gator found them-and turned the boat over trying to get the fish off of the stringer.

Good lord, I hope he wore his brown pants.

 

[DaleH]

Any fish I'm going to eat is gutted immediately (unless the bite is REALLY good!) before putting on ice. Freshest fish possible!

 

[jethro]

You gents that just use ice in a cooler, do you kill the fish or bleed them out b 4 putting them on ice?

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I don't, but I may try it sometime to see if they're any better that way. One particular waterway, the fish and game people frown on the practice for whatever reason.

The F&G people frown on putting them on ice or on bonking them on the head? Seems odd they would have a problem with either, but stranger things happen all the time.

Wow, that seems strange. Again, as I said, the Fish and Game around here make you kill your fish immediately to avoid culling. You wanna keep that fish you just caught? You gotta dispatch it right away. I usually use my fish lipper to beat the head a few times then it goes in the cooler.

 

[Jezreel]

Okey Doke. . . My boat is not completely finished. Still need to wire-up the new TT, and FF, but Saturday was such an outstanding day, I HAD to go out. Mind you, this was my first time fishing out of a boat. 40 years of stock tanks, and dock fishing. Wow! ! ! What a day. I caught over 30 Crappie, and 30 Sand Bass. I kept a few of each, and. . . I threw them in my ice chest. The ice chest worked out Great. Fish tasted great! I am gonna enjoy this boat fishing. Can't wait to get it wired for my equipment.

 

[Captain Ahab]

Put those fish on ice whenever possible. One thing is to try and keep the fish on the ice BUT OUT OF the ice water when storing. For small fish like crappie grab a few ziplock freezer bags and put the fish into the plastic bag 1st - you can probably fit 6 to 10 fish per bag (hopefully less because they will be so damn huge!)
The quicker you get them cold the better they are gonna taste

 

[TDobb]

For years I did a stringer over the side of the boat. Worked alright and the fish tasted okay. Then a couple years ago when I got really serious about fishing panfish in the boat I started carrying a 5 gallon bucket with a lid. I would throw a little ice in there and fill it about 1/2 full with lake water. It worked okay but the fish got warm and mushy and didn't taste very good. Late last year I started using one of the old school coleman flip top coolers. It fits perfect between my rod locker and the rod shelf along the side of the cockpit of the boat. I fill that with 5 lbs of ice before I go out and just throw the fish on ice. I wont put any water in at all until I get three or four fish, once I find em it is usually only a matter of minutes, but then I will put about a gallon or so of lake water in the cooler just so they can sit down in water and not all lay right on top of each other over the ice. When I am done for the day I drain the lake water out and thus far have always had ice left over in the cooler for the ride home. The fish have been extremely lively and very fresh when it is time to fillet them out. Nice firm flesh, no mush, no smell (you know the smell).

One other tip, for the old flip lid cooler like I have, the lid isn't insulated so I throw a white towel over the top of the cooler to give it just one extra layer of insulation and that extends the ice greatly. And the towel works nice to wipe the fish slime off the hands before the next cast.

Don't need a livewell unless you are fishing tournaments, and even then my cooler has worked for a couple crappie tourneys this spring. Bass tournaments though, you probably want a good functioning livewell.

 

[LDUBS]

Lately I've been leaving them in the lake.

 

[turbotodd]

You gents that just use ice in a cooler, do you kill the fish or bleed them out b 4 putting them on ice?

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I don't, but I may try it sometime to see if they're any better that way. One particular waterway, the fish and game people frown on the practice for whatever reason.

The F&G people frown on putting them on ice or on bonking them on the head? Seems odd they would have a problem with either, but stranger things happen all the time.

No, one of the many little rules that they have in that area is that you may not clean fish from the boat. Rule states that you cannot possess any part of a fish while fishing, except for bream smaller than 4" length and shiners under 4". Having been checked in the past, they look for cleaned or gutted gamefish specifically. They're kinda anal about stuff like that, but I'm sure they have a good reason, whatever it is.

 

[turbotodd]

For years I did a stringer over the side of the boat. Worked alright and the fish tasted okay. Then a couple years ago when I got really serious about fishing panfish in the boat I started carrying a 5 gallon bucket with a lid. I would throw a little ice in there and fill it about 1/2 full with lake water. It worked okay but the fish got warm and mushy and didn't taste very good. Late last year I started using one of the old school coleman flip top coolers. It fits perfect between my rod locker and the rod shelf along the side of the cockpit of the boat. I fill that with 5 lbs of ice before I go out and just throw the fish on ice. I wont put any water in at all until I get three or four fish, once I find em it is usually only a matter of minutes, but then I will put about a gallon or so of lake water in the cooler just so they can sit down in water and not all lay right on top of each other over the ice. When I am done for the day I drain the lake water out and thus far have always had ice left over in the cooler for the ride home. The fish have been extremely lively and very fresh when it is time to fillet them out. Nice firm flesh, no mush, no smell (you know the smell).

One other tip, for the old flip lid cooler like I have, the lid isn't insulated so I throw a white towel over the top of the cooler to give it just one extra layer of insulation and that extends the ice greatly. And the towel works nice to wipe the fish slime off the hands before the next cast.

Don't need a livewell unless you are fishing tournaments, and even then my cooler has worked for a couple crappie tourneys this spring. Bass tournaments though, you probably want a good functioning livewell.

This is exactly how I do it as well, at least when trout fishing. I'll try it with Crappie sooner or later. I'll add that in my rig, I'll sit on the cooler from time to time as well. It's nice to just pull the entire cooler from the boat and then drag it to the "fish cleaning station"-wherever that may be. I have a hole dug out in the back yard for it, keeps the neighborhood cats busy and by morning it's all gone and what's left gets buried. This way the cooler can be taken out if you don't plan on keeping anything, or if you're using the boat for hunting or whatever, where it's not needed or may end up being in the way. I've taken it out before and left it on a sandbar while fishing the river nearby just because it was in the way if left in the boat.

After owning a tournament style bass boat, I saw a LOT of neat things that it had, such as recirculating live wells, bait wells, built in coolers, radio's, dual graphs, etc. But you know, one thing I learned about having all that stuff is that there is ALWAYS something wrong. It may not be major but there's always something that needs attention. Livewell valves. Aerator hoses, filters, lines, switches, livewell drains, wiring of all sorts and in places that are nearly impossible to get to, mold/mildew rock lockers and storage boxes, trying to get slime and blood/guts out of carpet, etc etc. That was a contributing factor in my decision to go back to a tin; using the "keep it simple" idea.

 

[Spoondragger]

I fish mainly salmon and mine get a smack on the head and put on ice. I have noticed no difference between bled filets.

 

[LDUBS]

No, one of the many little rules that they have in that area is that you may not clean fish from the boat. Rule states that you cannot possess any part of a fish while fishing, except for bream smaller than 4" length and shiners under 4". Having been checked in the past, they look for cleaned or gutted gamefish specifically. They're kinda anal about stuff like that, but I'm sure they have a good reason, whatever it is.

My state has a similar law that you cannot clean a salmon or steelhead/rainbow trout in inland waters to the extent the size or species cannot be determined until you get it home or are about to toss it in the pan if camping, etc. Also cannot disguise existence of adipose fin or scar. For practical purposes I think this rule is aimed at filleting.

 

[Ttexastom]

When catching crappie, bream, or catfish, highly recommend previous posts recommendations on putting fish directly on ice. Livewell fish just can not compare in taste, to putting them directly on ice, makes a huge difference. Warmer the weather the bigger the change.