How to Keep Fish Fresh on a Boat
Few things taste quite as good as a dinner of fresh fish that you caught yourself. But it is important to keep the fish you catch fresh for the duration of your trip. Fish left in a warm environment are prone to spoiling and multiplying bacterial growth. Keeping fresh fish properly stored while boating is a task that requires little more than a knife, a cooler and plenty of ice.
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Instructions
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Storing Fish in a Live Well
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Fill a large cooler with ice--Kentucky State University recommends using four pounds of ice for every two pounds of fresh fish. Use the cooler as the storage bin for the ice, if you will be keeping the fish in the boat's live well. You can never have too much ice onboard when storing fish, especially in warm weather.
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Fill the live well with equal amounts of water and ice before placing the fish into it.
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Kill the fish when you catch it by slitting its throat or hitting it over the eyes, if you will not be gutting it right away. The longer it takes the fish to die, the more stress it suffers and stronger the odor the meat will have.
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Gut the fish and remove the gills as soon as possible, then rinse it with water. Removing the stomach and gills slows down decomposition--the meat is less likely to take on a fishy smell. This also slows the spread of bacteria to the meat.
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Place the fish in the ice as soon as you catch it or after gutting it. Cover the entire fish with ice to slow the speed of bacterial growth. For proper cooling, space fish evenly in the ice and not on top of each other.
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Add more ice to the live well as it begins to melt. Keep the live well as cold as possible for the duration of the trip and until the fish are home. Finish cleaning and refrigerate the fish as soon as possible to cut down on the chance of spoilage.
Storing Fresh Fish In A Cooler
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Fill a large cooler with ice--use four pounds of ice for every two pounds of fresh fish, according to Kentucky State University. Use two coolers if necessary, with one storing fresh ice and the other to hold the fish on ice.
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Kill and gut the fish as soon as possible, as you would when using a live well.
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Fill the cooler with equal amounts of water and ice. Spread the fish evenly inside the cooler and cover them entirely with ice.
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Add more ice to the cooler as it begins to melt. Keep the fish as cold as possible for the duration of the boating trip and on the drive back home. Finish cleaning the fish and refrigerate them as soon as possible, once home.
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Tips & Warnings
Properly stored fish will have clear looking eyes, even after being stored on ice for hours. If the fish has cloudy eyes, overly slimy skin and a mushy fee, toss it because it has more than likely gone bad and can make you ill.
References
- Photo Credit fish on ice image by Shaun Meintjes from Fotolia.com
