How do you keep your catch when on the water?

[Reelist]

Question for you guys...how do you keep your catch when on the water. I fished back river the other day (and did rather well by the way). In a couple hours ended up with a nice flounder, 2 specs, and a decent roundhead. I have been running them up a string when i catch them, and just letting it dangle in the water. When I'm paddling I drop the stringer in the boat, and then redeploy when i anchor or stake back in. With the warmer air and water temps i'm always a little leery about how long i have the fish out. when i get to the truck i put them on ice in a cooler. room is a premium obviously so i've been avoiding a cooler on the yak. was wondering how other folks keep their catch "fresh".

[Tom Powers]

I use a sacrificial soft insulated cooler bag with a frozen two liter bottle of water. I say sacrificial because they do not last all that long. I roll them up, tie them off and store them in my "5 gallon" bucket One could also store them in a milk basket, or such if that is what you have on your boat.

The problem with keeping them in the water is that when they die they are sitting in 85d. . . .I guess it is better than 95d air but all the same they would be better on ice.

[BBCroaker]

I sacrifice my space in the Prowler tank well if I think I'm going to keep any fish.I have an old Igloo 20"x12" cooler. I 've never filled it up but If I do I'll have to boogie on back to the truck quit fishing and /or dump the fish into a bigger cooler.
I learned my lesson on keeping fish in the water had one die in a live well on my boat a few years back. Still circulating water and didn't think he was dead about an hour but something made me feel ill after I ate fish the next day.

[SteveL]

Dead fish need to go on ice (they should be buried in ice and not in ice plus lots of water) as soon as they die in the summertime.

[ictalurus]

I use one of the freezer totes Tom Powers mentioned. A ten pound bag of ice works well. I'll throw a wet towel over it on really hot, sunny days. I fish from a Hobie Revo and keep the cooler bag between my seat back and my crate. I put the ice in a trash bag in the tote so I can keep my catch and my lunch/dinner and water separated. The bags seem to last 2, maybe 3, seasons at most. The bag is the silver thing behind my back:

[fishon81]

I use a small canyon bag filled with ice.

[Capt.Nick]

Nomatter how you do it,cooler or bag,fish taste alot better if burried in ice,crushed preferably,that way the whole body is cooled evenly.You might as well release them if you're going to keep them in hot water.

[BayDaze]

Paddle a Malibu Stealth-12 or 14 and you can keep them alive in the built-in live well all day long. Otherwise on a stringer and hope they stay alive, unless it's a sharkey area.

[Shooterdiesel]

When Striper fishing, I catch one and head in. They are to big to fit in a cooler on a yak, I just tie it to the front.