How to Store Fish on a Boat
Fish, like all living things, begin to deteriorate as soon as they die. A lack of oxygen leads to decay. To slow this process, organic tissues can be frozen or kept on ice. Your home refrigerator functions on the same principle. Food will stay fresh longer when it is cooled.
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Instructions
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Storing fish on a boat
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Place ice bags in the cooler or fish box where the fish are to kept. Wait to open the bags until you need them. Make sure you have enough ice to fill the cooler without fish in it. Ice will melt throughout the day, and not having enough ice is a much bigger problem than having too much. Without ice, the fish will spoil.
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2
Pour a small amount of water into the cooler or ice box. Open enough bags of ice to have a 3-inch-deep layer of ice to place the fish onto. The number of bags will vary because of the differences in size and shape of the fish box or cooler. Most recreational fishing trips will use about 50 to 60 pounds of ice in a day. Charter boats will use bout 100 to 150 pounds of ice in a single day.
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Catch your fish and add it to the ice box. Cover the fish with a 2-inch layer of ice. This will keep the fish cold and allow for more fish to be stacked on top. Wait until the fish stops thrashing and remove it from the box. Put on your gloves and gut the fish by inserting a knife into the belly of the fish and removing its organs. You should also cut off the head behind the gills and return the fish to the ice. Repeat the process for each fish you catch. Make sure that ice is surrounding the entire fish and stays covered. As the day progresses, add more ice to cover the fish.
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Check on the fish every hour to adjust the ice levels. Add ice from the bags to the fish by pouring the ice over top of the fish as the day progresses.
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