What is the general rule for cleaning and eating catfish if they die before you get them cleanded?

Keep em one ice and you can wait a full day if you have to.

I keep them on ice until i clean them .

if the gills are white or pale pink they are spoiled

I usually have to walk a ways to my fishing spot and some of them die on the stringer before i get done fishing?

Take an icechest with you if you can. Don't use a stringer, put em straight on ice. That's what I do.

We slit the tail to bleed out, put on stringer and let that do it's do and once stop being feisty then put them on ice...

Seemed to work okay?

as long as they are on ice they will last awhile.

Then lugging ice may not be an attractive solution if you hike in a ways.

Catfish are pretty tough and can breathe air. An old time method was to keep them in a wet burlap bag (feed sack; aka tow sack). You might try that, not as heavy as an ice chest or ice.

If you want to go the ice route then look at the hand carts surf fishermen buy/build... rod holders, tackle trays, ice chests all on wide rubber tires.

http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/6386097/Gear_cart#Post6386097

like that one.

I have been using a fish basket as opposed to a stringer simply because a long time ago as a kid I had several fish rip their lips to get off the stringer. I forgot my ice chest the other day, go figure, and the 8 cats I had caught survived the 45 minute car ride to my house and were still flopping when I started to clean them, they are very hardy fish.

i just bought a basket last night, gunna start using it.

I should also mention that our cooler is one of the 'cube' jobbers with wheels and a handle. I run our chair bags through the handle, strap the tackle on the top and then wheel the lot down with poles in hand. Not TOO gangly that way.

Ice wise I cheat. I take 2 liter bottles we're done with and fill them mostly full (since water expands when frozen) and throw them in our upright... reusable, way cheaper than buying ice and no need to drain the cooler and make a mud pie.

+2 on the basket. Stringers are IMO the worst fishing invention ever for any fishing trips longer than an hour or so. They're too hard on fish too boot. If you just invest 7-10 dollars in a wire fish basket you'll stop losing so many fish before you're ready to clean them.

If you put your catfish in a basket cut off the 3 fins before you do and it will help the fish and you later when you pull them out. But like Tom said, look at the gills and make sure they are still red. If they are white or really light pink then the fish has spoiled.