w1ll
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I'm driving down from NorCal for my trips and I have family members that want the carcasses of the tuna and also I want to keep the heads for crab bait. What's the best way to bring back a whole fish gutted and gilled? I have a 30x72 offshore edition reliable kill bag that I plan to line with plastic and throw the fish in. Should I just throw a ton of ice in there or salt the ice? What's the best way to preserve fish quality and keeping it cold. I'm heading down with multiple people so I don't think we have enough space to fit in a ton of coolers with our gear
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roadrunner
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- Tuesday at 10:54 PM
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San Diego Ice CO.
3412 Kurtz St, San Diego, CA 92110
near 5 star fish processing
sells bulk ice plus also dry ice. Dry ice is less volume for how cold it will get.
use it in kill bag with fish.
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w1ll
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roadrunner said:
San Diego Ice CO.
3412 Kurtz St, San Diego, CA 92110near 5 star fish processing
sells bulk ice plus also dry ice. Dry ice is less volume for how cold it will get.
use it in kill bag with fish.
should I put the fish on it or have like a towel in between it? Will the dry ice stay all the way up to SF?
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sickcat
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Ice it good including pack the body cavity. I'm a fan of salt slurry. 3/4 pound of salt for every 20lbs of ice. Mix the salt and ice before adding the fish.
You don't want dry ice against the fish at all.
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w1ll
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sickcat said:
Ice it good including pack the body cavity. I'm a fan of salt slurry. 3/4 pound of salt for every 20lbs of ice. Mix the salt and ice before adding the fish.
You don't want dry ice against the fish at all.
thats what i did last year with the fish all vaccum sealed before we left SD. Should I put the ice in ziplocks or protect the inside of the fish somehow? I don't want it just sitting in freshwater from melted ice
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sickcat
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w1ll said:
thats what i did last year with the fish all vaccum sealed before we left SD. Should I put the ice in ziplocks or protect the inside of the fish somehow? I don't want it just sitting in freshwater from melted ice
The added salt at that amount makes the salinity close to ocean water. If the fish is cold to start you could drain it off on your way north if you don't like it sitting in water but I never found it to be an issue as long as its kept cold - think how long fish are kept in RSW.
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jer dog
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If you put the coolers in the bed of A truck,
You need to put plywood down, because the heat from underneath is bad to
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jose caballero
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For many years I’ve done coolers and kill bags for all my fish, add as much ice as possible (including some below and some inside the fish), then roughly 4% salt by weight spread on top (4lbs salt for every 100lbs ice; ocean is around 3.6%). I buy ice and bulk salt at smart and final cuz it’s on my way to the freeway from San Diego landings. Fish will be right around freezing within half a day, for about two days, give or take. Jerry’s right, anything you can do to protect the coolers will in turn protect your fish (I have a couple layers of cardboard below my fish, and a camper shell with curtains over the bed, which I can kinda ventilate by cracking windows). I prefer to cut fish 1-3 days after docking.
I do NOT recommend dry ice (unless you’re putting a small amount over a huge amount of ice cubes to keep the ice frozen). If you put dry ice on your fish it will freeze the fish… there’s a fine point where you can add dry ice and let it sublimate to gas and lower the temps… but that’s a slippery slope as it’s starting at like -70 or something…
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HusbandFatherFisherman
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regular ice and saltwater solution in a kill bag will keep them plenty cold. pack as much ice as you can fit with the fish, if you don't have a ton of room you might have to stop once or twice to check on the fish and add more ice. I don't recommend trying to keep them from sitting in the water unless you don't add salt, sitting in freshwater from melted ice would not be good for them. but then you gotta drain it often, rotate the fish, add ice constantly, not the best way to do it.
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jurel hunter
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a high qual big cooler much btr temp regulation than kill bag. do a little reading, coolers have diff ratings. and one day that bag will inevitably leak (hopefully into bed of a pickup vs a van or suv).
if they will, ask crew to cut off heads n tails of bigger fish up to 90 lbs. any fish 100+ i’d send to processor. or i’ve also swapped with other passengers. most willing to swap an 80 lb fish for a 120 lb fish without realizing it’s higher processing fee n already more fish than they can eat. take what u can get back up north in gud condition n give rest away.
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w1ll
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jer dog said:
If you put the coolers in the bed of A truck,
You need to put plywood down, because the heat from underneath is bad to
we're taking a tesla down but we figured out how to line the car from previous trips to where it doesn't smell much at all and once removed it's like it was never there. thats sort of why I can't fit a big cooler in with 3 people rods and gear as well.
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w1ll
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jurel hunter said:
a high qual big cooler much btr temp regulation than kill bag. do a little reading, coolers have diff ratings. and one day that bag will inevitably leak (hopefully into bed of a pickup vs a van or suv).
if they will, ask crew to cut off heads n tails of bigger fish up to 90 lbs. any fish 100+ i’d send to processor. or i’ve also swapped with other passengers. most willing to swap an 80 lb fish for a 120 lb fish without realizing it’s higher processing fee n already more fish than they can eat. take what u can get back up north in gud condition n give rest away.
the thing is I'm trying to keep heads and tails as well. Great crab bait and my dog loves to chew the tail. I drive 16-18 hours total just to get down and fish I'd like to bring back everything I can
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wdlfbio
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If it’s routine, maybe buy a 1/2 or full tote. Use flake ice and mix in water softener sal. We buy a 40/50# bag from Home Depot for $7-$8 buck. 2 gallons of that salt mixed in a 1/2 tote https://smakplastics.com/fish-boxes/ that’s about 2/3 full of ice will freeze your fish overnight.
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stuman
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How many days is your trip? A 1.5 day trip with three anglers; 6x40= 240 lbs plus ice
Can the Tesla carry that load?
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w1ll
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stuman said:
How many days is your trip? A 1.5 day trip with three anglers; 6x40= 240 lbs plus ice
Can the Tesla carry that load?
July 2 day 2 anglers
August 2 day 3 anglers in an Acura MDX not the tesla
the tesla for the first trip is more what I'm worried about
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