# keeping fish fresh on a trip



## wilkins26 (May 19, 2015)

Hello all I will be going on a 3 day fishing trip and was wondering what is the best way to keep the fish fresh after cleaning them? I'm hoping to bring back some bluegill and some crappie. Thanks for all of your help.
Mike


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## Insanity (May 19, 2015)

I alway just iced then down when camping. 
A good thick styrofoam cooler will hold a bag of ice for two days. I've got a ton of coolers but if I want to make sure my fish don't go bad I opt for a Styrofoam one. 
No way cam I afford one of those 100,s of dollors coolers.


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## lugoismad (May 19, 2015)

Double ziplock the fish, then put in a slurry of ice and water with salt mixed in. The salt will help drop the ice temp below freezing.


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## Johnny (May 19, 2015)

X2 = a slurry of ice and water with salt mixed in. The salt will help drop the ice temp below freezing.

coarse rock salt - much like the ice cream churn system. I have never thought of the mix ratio.
I guess it would be one cup of rock salt per 8 pound bag of ice with one gallon of water ??????
Some parts of the country use only table salt, some only Kosher salt, some only Rock Salt. If you have never
done this before, it might be a good idea to experiment with _your_ cooler BEFORE you go on your trip.
Find a safe place to drain off some of the excess salt water. Keep in mind that it does kill vegetation.
You must keep a slurry or slush going..... if you use only ice and rock salt, the ice will
most definitely become one frozen mass and will be hard to work with.
Different methods for the fish are used around the country. Some remove the innards, some don't.
some completely clean and bag the meat, some don't. I guess it is the way we 
learned from others in different parts of the country.
Personally, I do not clean the fish away from home. I ice it down whole like Lugo said
with the ice/salt/water slurry and clean them when I get home. and I pour the salt water around weeds.
Good Luck on your trip !!!


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## Tinny's Dad (May 19, 2015)

Coleman has Xtreme coolers that allegedly keep ice for 5 days


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## JMichael (May 19, 2015)

lugoismad said:


> Double ziplock the fish, then put in a slurry of ice and water with salt mixed in. The salt will help drop the ice temp below freezing.


The salt actually melts the ice, but the cold that is stored in the ice has to go somewhere as the ice melts(physics).

I like using block ice when I go on a camping trip. Block ice will last longer than cubes no mater how good or bad your ice chest is. And I've never worried about cleaned fish going bad over 2-3 days if I keep it refrigerated/cold. But I'd get it in the freezer or eat it as soon as possible when I got home from a 3 day trip.


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## lugoismad (May 19, 2015)

Tinny's Dad said:


> Coleman has Xtreme coolers that allegedly keep ice for 5 days



I have one. Last month I came home from a 3 day camping trip with half a case of beer and some waters still in the cooler with ice. There was STILL chunks of ice floating around in the cooler for ANOTHER 5 days. We came home on Sunday. Friday evening I opened the cooler to get a beer expecting to have to put them in the fridge, and they were still ice cold.

Open your cooler as little as possible. Keep it in the shade. Don't drain off excess water unless you have to. You don't want to lose thermal mass. 

And yes, for icing fish, bag them and put them in ice / water / salt slurry.


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## jethro (May 19, 2015)

You are not camping for a long time. When I go camping it is usually 5-7 days and we bring dry ice. You really have to be careful with dry ice as it can burn you real bad and can ruin a good cooler by cracking it, but you can have cold storage for a week long. If I camp for any less than 4 nights I will bring block ice and as long as we aren't talking super hot weather then it lasts quite some time. Block ice will last much longer than cubes. Like said, use a different cooler for your normal use like food and beer or whatever, so the cold storage doesn't get opened a lot. One of the average sized Coleman 100qt coolers that you can get at Wally World for about $40 should hold 3 blocks of ice and 3 bags of cubes and have room for a big ziplock freezer bag full of meat. 

Good luck, I love crappie and gills!


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## lugoismad (May 19, 2015)

I use those plastic containers you buy lunch meat in at the grocery store.

I have 10 that I use, fill them with water, let freeze, then after a day I pop the block into a box in my chest freezer and refill the containers, then do it again.

50 of them will keep my 100 qt cooler iced for a 4 day camping trip.


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## BassAddict (May 19, 2015)

I carry one of these around in my fish bag https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000...lar+fridge&dpPl=1&dpID=41O-5UzVtIL&ref=plSrch


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## jethro (Mar 23, 2016)

I've been remote camping since before those fancy coolers came out and we always used dry ice. You can keep ice for 5-7 days easy if you use dry ice. No one seems to use it anymore camping? I'd lead groups into the Boundary waters of Minnesota for weeks at a time and dry ice was the only way to go.


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## sunshine (Mar 23, 2016)

If just a day or two, just keep them in an ice slurry. If it's going to be longer than that, gut them first. If you are short on ice, gut and bleed your fish before icing them. This is how we handled it on the offshore boats I worked on.


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## PsychoXP18CC (Mar 23, 2016)

We have taken ice cream camping with us in July, in Texas, using dry ice. The problem with it is having to thaw out your food before you can cook or eat it.


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## AllOutdoors (Mar 24, 2016)

Carry a good cooler. Keep your fish on ice. For crappie and bluegill I would just fillet and put them in a gallon jug with water. Bury the jug in ice in the cooler and drain the water from the cooler. Remember if there were such a thing as ice water....it would be ice. This is where a good cooler comes into play. You can drain off the water and still maintain the the temp of the ice within the cooler. No longer than you will be out you can keep your fish on ice and dress when you get home. Or you have a good livewell and keep it going.


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## jethro (Mar 24, 2016)

PsychoXP18CC said:


> We have taken ice cream camping with us in July, in Texas, using dry ice. The problem with it is having to thaw out your food before you can cook or eat it.



Yeah, and don't burn yourself! Done that before.


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## mirroman (Mar 25, 2016)

I've had my best luck by making sure to gut and remove gills to bleed my catch. Ice down well as suggested, cover cooler with moving blanket.


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