Best way to transport freshly caught fish ?

[TCT]

What is the most effective way to transport freshly caught fish from the lake to home(for example)on day trips a couple of hours away?
I understand that there are legal issues with transporting fish in a lake water filled live well.
What is the best way to preserve freshness/flavor?
Will keeping uncleaned fish on ice for a few hours in a cooler work?

Thanks.
ToddT

[ETT]

Ice them down. I don't mean 1 7# bag on top of a cooler full of fish, I mean work the ice down through the fish, and cover them with ice. Chill them through and you can clean them the next day (in a pinch). Drain the melt water off when you get home, and top off the ice. If you let them sit in the water the meat will get soft, (not spoiled but it's not as good).

You can help the process, by having plenty of ice in the cooler to start with, and move some of the ice up as the cooler fills with fish. The sooner you chill them the better they are. Don't fish all day with your catch in 70 degree lake water and expect to have anything that's top shelf, when you come off the water.

[freespoolin]

I recommend bleeding them before you leave the lake and if you can slab them, rinse them and put the filets on ice. You can leave the skin on to abide by the law requiring easy id of fish species.
Bleeding them makes for whiter meat with less fishy taste.

[Bill Krejca]

If it is legal to transport cleaned, do so and place in plastic bag(s)in cooler. If not legal/practicable to clean, still put in plastic bag, but don't have a big wad of fish, e.g., spread them out.

Ice should be stacked in layers if you have many fish. Be sure to place a good layer of ice on top. I have had fish packed on the top of a cooler that spoiled even though they were sitting on ice, but had none on top of them.

As long as the fish are not getting soggy wet, the water in the bottom (melted ice)does not harm anything, but tends to keep the fish cold. Draining water replaces the water with air, which is warmer than the water. If there is so much water that it sloshes around and melts the ice, drain it and add more ice.

[orchard frank]

I've had pretty good luck using the blue ice packs. Get the biggest ones you can find, have enough to cover the bottom of the cooler and to cover the fish also. In a quality cooler, fish will remain stiff cold for several hours, no drain water to deal with. Good Luck

[jerry bark]

i do the same as all these guys: ice em down good.

my drive is 2.5 hours and i often take a nap for an hour or so if it was a long day and i'm getting tired. so you can easly go 8 hours with that arrangement siince i have yet to see and issues.

i use two blocks of ice in the bottom of the cooler and one bag mixed in with the fish. that works great for my five fish limit. i have also used milk jugs frozen with water.

jerry

[bumps2]

If I'm going to keep fish I use a Coleman Extreme cooler. It has extra thick insulation in the walls and the lid is insulated too. Bought it at Wally World for around $20. Does an excellent job of keeping ice (and fish) cold, even on 90 degree days. Also I lay a life vest over the top to insulate even further.

b2

[Kalimino]

I tried the bleeding method for the first time Saturday. That works pretty slick. I kept some fish iced down for 8 hours. As our water temp rise it will be harder and harder to keep fish alive all day(w/o special care which I dont have time for) The nice thing about bleeding fish is when I fileted them there was not a drop of blood on the table - so less mess and white filets.

Kalin

Ice them down good. I have waited a whole day sometimes before cleaning them and had no problems. Also, I think they are easier to clean when they are cold, the only problem is your hands might get cold depending on how many fish you have.

[Nainoa]

I recently had a "Light Bulb" moment...

When I clean a beef Tenderloin when I'm camping but want to eat like a king. (Much cheaper to buy a PSMO and clean it yourself, than to buy a bunch of pre-cut fillet Mignons.)

I borrow a Tip from "The Food Channel's" Alton Brown...

Take two shallow totes... Tote #1 has a bunch of holes drilled in the bottom of it... Not enough to weaken it... But enough to allow water to drain freely.

Cut a couple pieces of 2X4 so that you have say 4 small blocks of 2X2X4 wood chunks... Screw them into the bottom of Tote #1 (UNDER THE TOTE) So they're like little feet...

Then toss the meat (In my case un-cut and plastic wrapped tenderloin) into the tote #1... Cover with ice. And slide the whole mess ontop of Tote #2... As the ice melts is drains down into the bottom tote... So your Meat (In this case fish) Stays on ice... But doesn't have a bunch of melt water ruining the fillets... And keeps out that dreaded bacterial migration from the guts to the muscle.

It just occured to me this past weekend when I was cleaning a tenderloin that I could apply the same thing to the fish I catch... And just use the ice from that days cooler!