After you remove the hook how do y'all recommend keeping the fish? Do y'all gut then put into cooler with ice? I've heard some people remove the gills and head then ice. I'll be fishing from the bank and all I've ever done is throw them in my yeti with ice.

They will stay alive even in an empty cooler for almost a day, cats are tough as diamonds. When I was little we would sometimes (if we felt like freaking out my mom) catch a cat at the river, even with it being on a stringer for 6 hours, bring it home in a cooler on an hour drive, and put it in the bathtub and fill with water. It would come back alive in a few minutes and be swimming around. So much fun.....

Eric

Just ice

Ice or a stringer.

We fill milk jugs and 2 or 3 liter soda bottles with water and freeze them, works good and you don't have to stop and buy ice. Spray them off and toss em back in the freezer... works best if you have a beer/garage frige/freezer.

If only we didn't have 60 pounds of elk and half a deer in my freezer I'd definitely do that trick.

I have 2, a chest freezer is invaluable to an outdoors man.

I've thought about it and want one so badly. We just got married and are in a little apartment but it's on the I want list for sure!

I just throw them straight in the cooler with frozen bottles of ice. Just like redchevy. I have extra Fridge and a deep freezer in the garage. Life saver. I can hold two deer and much fish. To get me through hard every days. LOL

I'm a bank fisherman and stake my catch out in a toad sack at water's edge. When I fillet them, I put the meat in a Ziploc bag, then toss it in the ice chest. I learned many years ago not to put uncleaned fish in with my beer and ice.

It's illegal to dress any fish that are going to be transported by boat.

Fish blood tastes bad to some people. They would cut the gills and let the fish bleed out in the holding tank or cooler.

De Horn them and put them on Ice. Without fins they don't stick together

I pier fish and boat fish but not bank fishing. My favorite is a wire fish basket from Academy. Cut horns and drop in top. Cut bleed tails in a 5 gal bucket for 10 min, hose off the blood, take them inside to the kitchen and fillet them up with an electric knife, bag em and freeze em.

If you have an abundance of otters on your lake like we have at Conroe, you never want to leave you basket alone if you have fish in them.

Stringer while at the lake. Then on ice in the cooler. If any die on the stringer while you're still fishing, go ahead and get them on ice.