keeping fish alive?

how do you guys keep the fish alive. I usually like to stay at the lake for the weekend . How would you keep fish alive that were caught on fri till sunday? I have been using a long stringer , I believe its the the one for use on docks, to get the fish on the stringer but a little deeper in the water from the bank. It get to be a big tangled mess and the fish start to die off after about 8 hours. Would it be better just to throw them in ice for 2-3 days until they get filleted ?

I have never waited to fillet. It's too easy to clean, bag and put them on ice. Keeping them alive for more than a day is a challenge even in a live well. Stress, temperature and oxygen are killers.

Putting them on ice immediately will keep them fresh. I would imagine 1-2 days would be fine. I don't know about 3 or more.

Best practice if you don't want to clean them is to gut them and pack bellies w ice. This is what we do with fish caught offshore. Might be too much trouble for smaller fish though.

We had this same problem years ago when we use to slay the crappie at Tawakoni. My dad made a fish basket with chicken wire and pressure lumber. It was roughly 3x4 ft and it worked very well.

Just keep them on ice

I think there's some truth to the idea that keeping them stressed out on a stringer affects the flavor. I put them on ice as soon as possible, and clean them up to 24 hours later.

Ive had striper on ice four days. Then cleaned them. As long as eyes are clear your good.

just clean your catch every day. And put them on good shaved ice they will last the weekend.

Best advices hrre I really like the idea of gut fish and ice them, especially if you bring fish home whole, save a lot of troubles.

Catfish are pretty easy to keep alive on a stringer. Anything else I would clean daily. Personally I don't keep fish on ice longer than 24 hours.

Stuff them with ice cream and sweeten the meat. Doh!

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