Fish in Coolers - How Long?

JayB

JayB

Life of the Party
On the rare occasions that I've actually caught salmon with my fly rod, I've always been able to put them in a cooler and then process them a few hours later (at most), vacuum pack the fillets, and get them right in the freezer.

I may go on a trip later in the month where I'd be camping out several days in a spot where there's an uncharacteristically high risk that I might catch some hatchery coho worth keeping early in the trip. I'll have a cooler that I can keep replenished with ice, but that's about it. It'd be nice to bring home some fish - but I wouldn't bother keeping any if I couldn't store them properly.

I assume that salmon will keep fine for a few days as long as it's on ice - but would 6 days be pushing it? If not - it there anything people like to do to keep the catch in good condition other than promptly bleeding the fish, gutting it, and removing the gills or any techniques that people like to use to keep their catch as fresh as possible when stored in a cooler?
 
I can remember commercial trollers packing their catch in ice for 3 days before delivery. They packed em with the bellys full of ice and covered head to tail. You can also lower the temperature in your cooler with the addition of dry ice.
 
Last edited:
One thing I've been trying is pre-brining fish that I intend to smoke. So far it's worked out pretty well.

This year I bought a stack of rectangular quart-size food containers. In camp on a day off between tuna trips, I sliced up all the fish from the first day into smoker sized strips (~1" thick), and used a 1/4 cup of 50/50 kosher salt/brown sugar mix per container. Then put them back in the cooler. All I had to do when I got home was lightly rinse, pat and air dry, then load the smoker. That concentration came out about right, but only through trial and error. I over salted fish on a previous trip but found I could resurrect the finished product with an ice water rinse, pat/air dry and another hour or so in the smoker.

I would think that if you didn't plan on smoking the fish, you could partially brine with less salt or salt/sugar mix. That way it would keep somewhat better without adversely affecting grilling or other cooking methods.
 
Last edited:
I’ve been on multi-day spear fishing/rod trips in HI many times…all of our fish were brined, then packed in ice with the plugs open to prevent the fish sitting in ice water…

But I wouldn’t eat fish sitting in a cooler for six days…
 
If you can keep temp the whole time, on properly bled and cleaned fish without letting them sit in water you might be able to swing it. Most fresh salmon you buy is at least 4 days from swimming.

Never done this but just had the thought, the large space saver bags and a portable vac pump might be of use. It would at least help with the water logging issue.
 
CRO said:
I can remember commercial trollers packing their catch in ice for 3 days before delivery. They packed em with the bellys full of ice and covered head to tail. You can also lose the temperature in your cooler with the addition of dry ice.
Click to expand...
Worked on trollers back in the day with some trips as long as six days. Add a couple of days to get them to market. We took care to bleed them well and belly iced. I assume they didn't taste as good as the ones we popped in the oven ten minutes out of the water.
 
SilverFly said:
One thing I've been trying is pre-brining fish that I intend to smoke. So far it's worked out pretty well. This year I bought a stack of rectangular quart-size food containers. In camp on a day off between tuna trips, I sliced up all the fish from the first day into smoker sized strips (~1" thick), and used a 1/4 cup of 50/50 kosher salt/brown sugar mix per container. Then put them back in the cooler. All I had to do when I got home was lightly rinse, pat and air dry, then load the smoker. That concentration came out about right, but only through trial and error. I over salted fish on a previous trip but found I could resurrect the finished product with an ice water rinse, pat/air dry and another hour or so in the smoker.

I would think that if you didn't plan on smoking the fish, you could partially brine with less salt or salt/sugar mix. That way it would keep somewhat better without adversely affecting grilling or other cooking methods.
Click to expand...
That's a great idea. I don't know that I'll need it, but that's the kind of info it's nice to have tucked away.
 
British distant water trawlers fishing off Iceland in the distant past used to do three week + trips - so some of the fish they sold was on ice for 21 days or more. As part of a study of historical commercial fishing practices, I got to taste fish stored on ice for various lengths of time, up to three weeks. It was still safe to eat, but I can tell you that it was not very nice! Interestingly though, a lot of the older people preferred fish that was iced for a week or two. Apparently the really fresh stuff didn't taste like fish to them…

That was cod, which is less fatty than salmon and will decompose more slowly, but six days if the fish is really well cared for, no problem with food safety. However, I wouldn’t do it. I don’t like any of those off flavors in fish that I am eating, and they would definitely still be there if you smoked the fish.

Plus, the rules around here are that you are only allowed to possess two daily limits of fresh fish, not sure what they are where you are going, but you should look into it.
 
Another thought is using salt ice if you can get it, or add salt to plain ice. That will drop the temp and reduce softening effects of contact with fresh water if you have a bag leak.
 
There is a big difference if the fish is caught in salt water or fresh water. A fresh water fish, Iin a river, will deteriorate much faster and 6 days on ice is way to long to expect something really edible and that includes smoking. Smoking a "bad" fish does not make it good.

If you do keep those fish for 6 days they will most likely end up as fertilizer.

Dave
 
I was fishing at Sekiu once and the two guys moored next to me had brought a Coleman stove and a pressure cooker and canned their catch daily right on their boat.
 
I use this stuff called techni-ice. Through em in vacuum bags to keep the fish juice out.

Dry Ice Packs – Gel Ice Packs | Techni Ice USA

Most government and private organisations worldwide have used our reusable dry ice packs for over 30 years. They are perfect for coolers, pain relief, food transport and more!
www.techniiceusa.com www.techniiceusa.com

I just bought a second set... bought the first set... gosh... maybe 15+ yrs ago... they still work fine, but the outer layer has been beat through out the years. Saved a lot of money on ice in the meantime.
 
JayB said:
I assume that salmon will keep fine for a few days as long as it's on ice - but would 6 days be pushing it?
Click to expand...
Six days is usually fine on commercial salmon trollers, but it's a lot different down in the hold, than in a cooler. The ice is shaved salt ice, that's so cold it gives off frozen water vapour as it comes out of the chute from the ice plant. That's one thing. Another thing is there's a huge mass of ice in the hold, so it's basically a small commercial cold room. Then there's the technique. Salmon are gilled, gutted, and bled ASAP, before being placed into the hold, where they are placed on their backs, with tons of ice under, around, and on top of them. Salmon large enough have their belly cavities stuffed with more ice. Foam blankets are placed on top of the ice and fish, to help slow down the melt.

Being on their backs is critical to keeping the fish in good shape. As soon as a fish dies, it starts to decompose, albiet much slower when it's chilled. And of course, the ice melts. The V-shaped channel of the belly cavity up against the backbone, channels the meltwater containing decomposed fluids and bacteria out of the fish via the gill cavity and mouth. That helps keep the fish clean and unspoiled. The meltwater slowly flows down into the bilge, where it's pumped out.

Personally, I've never attempted to keep my sport caught salmon longer than a couple of days in a cooler. If I had proper shaved ice, that surrounds the fish much better than cubed ice or "freezer packs", and if I had a very large and super insulated cooler, I'd maybe try for longer than 2 days, as long as the cooler regularly drained out the bad meltwater.

Hope this info from an old guy helps.

P.S. Coho need to be gutted ASAP, more than other salmon species, because their stomach acid is incredibly strong. Gotta get those guts out fast, otherwise the acid will dissolve the thin membrane lining the belly cavity, and then start to eat away at the meat. You can see it. It's called "belly burn", and those fish will be rejected by most buyers, at least for the the top grade that troll caught salmon are designed to meet.
 
Last edited:
Aufwuchs said:
I was fishing at Sekiu once and the two guys moored next to me had brought a Coleman stove and a pressure cooker and canned their catch daily right on their boat.
Click to expand...
I don't know where Sekiu is, but here in B.C. that's illegal. Canning is not allowed while away from your home. The reason that law was written is because of abuse of the resource some years ago, by canning on the fishing grounds like that. You can only possess two days' catch limit away from your home. By canning on a boat like that, or in campgrounds, people were possessing many days' catch. It got really bad, with quite a few out of towners setting up non-stop canning operations for the whole summer at their RV campground, often taking regular trips to the the post office to ship the canned fish to their homes.
 
JayB said:
On the rare occasions that I've actually caught salmon with my fly rod, I've always been able to put them in a cooler and then process them a few hours later (at most), vacuum pack the fillets, and get them right in the freezer.

I may go on a trip later in the month where I'd be camping out several days in a spot where there's an uncharacteristically high risk that I might catch some hatchery coho worth keeping early in the trip. I'll have a cooler that I can keep replenished with ice, but that's about it. It'd be nice to bring home some fish - but I wouldn't bother keeping any if I couldn't store them properly.

I assume that salmon will keep fine for a few days as long as it's on ice - but would 6 days be pushing it? If not - it there anything people like to do to keep the catch in good condition other than promptly bleeding the fish, gutting it, and removing the gills or any techniques that people like to use to keep their catch as fresh as possible when stored in a cooler?
Click to expand...

I don't think the cooler is your biggest problem. But for that, if you have a good cooler and good ice, you should be able to store cleaned salmon a day or two..
However, remember your possession limits and all the other regulations regarding having your catch in the field..
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top