How much ice do you carry with you for a days fishing? �I regularly see pic's of a cooler or hold full of fish and no ice.
� � �We rarely start a day without at least 60lbs of ice and this time of year it's like 80lbs or more and have been known to put more ice on the fish so they stay completely covered for the ride home.�
� � �While cleaning, fillets are kept in ice water between filleting, removing red meat, and final clean up/cut up. It can be a little trouble but the results are some primo eating fish.�

My live well keeps em alive until I pull the boat out of the water . Then the ice goes on top of them before they are dead. . Like you I use a lot of ice when cleaning them to keep em cold through out the whole process ( filleting and cutting the red out ). So Ice is a must

You need to start freezing some milk jugs with water and use less ice. The frozen milk jug will help keep your ice longer.

Bottles of ice are not comparable to fish in layered ice, IMHO. The way you care for your fish, after you catch them is the key to quality fillets. In tuna fishing, for example, it's the difference between Starkist and sashimi grade.

But, again, just my opinion.

Everyone has their own method, my goal is to keep every fish that is in the box in direct contact w/ ice, so i employ some of both methods mentioned above and recycle large styrofoam drinking cups from the conv. store or sonic, and freeze ice in them. it lasts a lot longer than bagged ice and it's easier to keep all of the fish in contact w/ ice... this time of year it's tough to keep em alive in the live well so they all go direct in the cooler, i use 8-10 large/ex-large frozen cups of ice in a 70qt cooler. sometimes it's milk jugs and frozen cups, just depends on how many times my wife has been to sonic!

Ive started throwing a couple handfulls of bait tank salt into my fish box after i add in the ice! The ice seems to keep longer and it makes the filets come out better!! I know that some of the offshore guys use ice+saltwater from the ocean. It makes sense when you think about it. You use rock salt and ice to make homemade ice cream. You sprinkle salt on your porch steps in the winter to lower the freezing point of water so that the snow doesn't stick and turn to ice. In layman's terms....salt makes ice colder! But i dont add so much that my fish are sitting in a "brine"! Just my. 02

Don't keep ice in the bag and then put fish on them. The bags make them slimy - dump the ice out of the bag onto the fish and keep the bags to put your fish remains in for easy transport to the trash can.

If I catch/clean fish back at the house on the weekend, I put the ice-bagged remains in another trash bag and stash it in a space reserved in my chest freezer out on the back porch. Trash pick up is on Monday and I retrieve said bag from the freezer Monday morning and put it curbside for pick-up.

If I'm going to be on the water all day (6a - 3p), 80 - 100 lbs of ice for me

Your right !! I didnt say not to layer your ice just having some kind of small block of ice in there will keep the cooler stay colder therefore you ice will not met as fast. I do the same thing when Deer hunting. It helps.

I'm with Keith.... I keep them alive until my knife melts into their sides.

Then onto ice the fillets go. My wife and I are very particular about having a clean, fresh taste to the fish.

Those fish are either iced down or breathing on our boat.

JMO,

JB

Same here, live well on the lake, then recirc water/live well in the boat on the road till home. Then live swiming fish straight under the knife and into the fridge.

+1

Nothing quite beats filleting fish that are lively enough to be thrown back in the lake and swim off. Gotta love the livewell systems in bayboats.

I've had a change of heart sometimes and turned some smaller ones loose from right on the cleaning table. Their big brother was willing to step up and take their place.