Insulated Fish Bag vs esky and boat contents review

[ranmar850]

Split lids are the go, I built my own boat fridge for just that reason--couldn't see a durable plastic cased fridge on the market with a good split lid arrangement.

I use a fish bag a lot. I live on the edge of the tropics, and regularly go right into them, hotter than you where we are, not so humid as FNQ. Name a type of fish storage, I've tried them all. Both amateur and commercial. You can shove your moulded plastic ones are far as I am concerned, none of them hack it here in real heat, you simply can't beat laid up GRP with 3 inches of foam. If you only want to day trip, the better quality fish bags are fine. There are cheap rubbish ones out there, just avoid them. I have used a couple of different sizes of the Madfish, settled on the medium, 140 cm inside. I've never seen a Madfish punctured by spines, you can even keep crayfish in them. I'd be confident on overnighting as long as you started full.

I'm all about getting the deck clutter off, as well. I had a divided compartment with two lids as standard on the Reefrnner. The divider was easy to get out, then you have a large fully moulded compartment underneath. I was initially getting the bag in through one hatch, then I had a shipwright make it into one big hatch.

[NAGG]

Split lids are the go, I built my own boat fridge for just that reason--couldn't see a durable plastic cased fridge on the market with a good split lid arrangement.

I use a fish bag a lot. I live on the edge of the tropics, and regularly go right into them, hotter than you where we are, not so humid as FNQ. Name a type of fish storage, I've tried them all. Both amateur and commercial. You can shove your moulded plastic ones are far as I am concerned, none of them hack it here in real heat, you simply can't beat laid up GRP with 3 inches of foam. If you only want to day trip, the better quality fish bags are fine. There are cheap rubbish ones out there, just avoid them. I have used a couple of different sizes of the Madfish, settled on the medium, 140 cm inside. I've never seen a Madfish punctured by spines, you can even keep crayfish in them. I'd be confident on overnighting as long as you started full.

I'm all about getting the deck clutter off, as well. I had a divided compartment with two lids as standard on the Reefrnner. The divider was easy to get out, then you have a large fully moulded compartment underneath. I was initially getting the bag in through one hatch, then I had a shipwright make it into one big hatch.

I think a poly esky with 3" of foam would be pretty good too

I certainly put my new Engel mackerel box through its paces at the Whitsundays - this box sat in the sun all day up the front of the boat .... 4 bags of ice would last 4-5 days which I thought was pretty good in a 158lt esky that sat in the sun .

Chris

[disorderly]

While an underfloor esky is a nice idea, there is no way I'm laying down on my fat guts to try and wipe down and clean up and sterilize all surfaces inside.....absolutely no chance...and how do you clean the fish..?..get up into the boat and take them out a couple at a time..? or transfer to an esky near your filleting station which then also has to be cleaned afte use..?

With my current 200l esky we take out almost all the fish and ice bottles and bags and place onto my stainless cleaning table in the shade beside the boat..then lift out the esky and repack the fish which i can then start to process while the fish remain chilled....this can take several hours or more after a 2 day trip..

I doubt I'll ever come up with a perfect solution ..its always a bit of a compromise between what you would like and what actually works for you.....and each trip can throw up more challenges..

Likewise I think underfloor kill tanks are a stupid idea...what person over 50 years of age wants to get down on their hands and knees to reach down in to get fish out of there and then also have to scrub it out and disinfect at home...to bleed fish I just tie a 20 litre plastic bucket to the rear bollard and poke spanish head first in there ...the missus got me a little mesh thingy that sits an inch up and its stops trout and reefies from sitting in their own blood whilst bleeding them..

[NAGG]

While an underfloor esky is a nice idea, there is no way I'm laying down on my fat guts to try and wipe down and clean up and sterilize all surfaces inside.....absolutely no chance...and how do you clean the fish..?..get up into the boat and take them out a couple at a time..? or transfer to an esky near your filleting station which then also has to be cleaned afte use..?

With my current 200l esky we take out almost all the fish and ice bottles and bags and place onto my stainless cleaning table in the shade beside the boat..then lift out the esky and repack the fish which i can then start to process while the fish remain chilled....this can take several hours or more after a 2 day trip..

I doubt I'll ever come up with a perfect solution ..its always a bit of a compromise between what you would like and what actually works for you.....and each trip can throw up more challenges..

Likewise I think underfloor kill tanks are a stupid idea...what person over 50 years of age wants to get down on their hands and knees to reach down in to get fish out of there and then also have to scrub it out and disinfect at home...to bleed fish I just tie a 20 litre plastic bucket to the rear bollard and poke spanish head first in there ...the missus got me a little mesh thingy that sits an inch up and its stops trout and reefies from sitting in their own blood whilst bleeding them..

If it's big enough (150lt plus) then an in floor icebox would be a pain but I would still love one if it eliminated the need for a big esky .
I do like my 158lt Engel because it utilises that wasted space in front of my console ...... I actually went to great length to find the biggest icebox I could get that would fit up there - so I think i got it pretty right as I know I can fit fish that are over a meter laid flat & upto 1.3m in length when bent . The downside is that you need 4 or 5 bags of ice to make a decent slurry which could then last for days ..... thankfully I rarely go fishing for just one day .

Agree there is no perfect solution - size / long vs deep - I do say though ..... long boxes are the go in my opinion - long boxes with a split lid even better.

Chris

[Dignity]

While an underfloor esky is a nice idea, there is no way I'm laying down on my fat guts to try and wipe down and clean up and sterilize all surfaces inside.....absolutely no chance...and how do you clean the fish..?..get up into the boat and take them out a couple at a time..? or transfer to an esky near your filleting station which then also has to be cleaned afte use..?

With my current 200l esky we take out almost all the fish and ice bottles and bags and place onto my stainless cleaning table in the shade beside the boat..then lift out the esky and repack the fish which i can then start to process while the fish remain chilled....this can take several hours or more after a 2 day trip..

I doubt I'll ever come up with a perfect solution ..its always a bit of a compromise between what you would like and what actually works for you.....and each trip can throw up more challenges..

Likewise I think underfloor kill tanks are a stupid idea...what person over 50 years of age wants to get down on their hands and knees to reach down in to get fish out of there and then also have to scrub it out and disinfect at home...to bleed fish I just tie a 20 litre plastic bucket to the rear bollard and poke spanish head first in there ...the missus got me a little mesh thingy that sits an inch up and its stops trout and reefies from sitting in their own blood whilst bleeding them..

I'm sure you can set up a pulley/gantry to remove the eskies. A mate did that, worked well.

[Lovey80]

Icy Tek are by far the best ice holding Esky I've ever owned. Incredible.

[NAGG]

What's everyone's expectation on ice holding ability in days ? (bagged ice) ....... Yeh , I've seen the claims by some brands that ice retention is up to 10 days ( in your dreams I say) - not unless you have 50% ICE , dont open it , store it in a cool place & the temperature doesn't get over 20 deg C .

My real world experiences would limit the time to 3-4 days without any special treatment (20% ice)

If I want longer , then I make up the big 10kg blocks of ICE & put it in with the bagged ice

Chris

[NAGG]

Icy Tea are by far the best ice holding Esky I've ever owned. Incredible.

What size do you have & how much ice do you typically use ...... how long do you get ?

I've had the 75 split lid for a couple of years now & I think it's great - but more for the split lid & where it lives ( in the kill tank) . We used it up at the Whitsundays recently as the camp esky & it would hold ice (2 bags) for about 3 days .

Chris

[disorderly]

I'm sure you can set up a pulley/gantry to remove the eskies. A mate did that, worked well.

Thats a bloody great idea Sam...I'll have a think on it...

Chris the ice holding/cooling capability will also be determined by the proposed use...A well packed esky full of pre-cooled stuff for camping should last longer then an esky thats used for a day or 2 of fishing where hot fish are constantly added to it and its regularly being opened and closed...which makes comparison a bit difficult..

Meanwhile this is the one I really want that came up for sale yesterday....

esky motor.jpg

[ranmar850]

Well, I'm now 69 and have no trouble getting down to clean out out? The idea with the fish bag is that the in-floor area doesn't actually come into contact with the fish, it is all contained within the bag. If the bag is full, a few of the fish get lifted out first, otherwise, it all comes out as a piece. So no scrubbing of the underfloor is needed--just a quick squirt with the detergent dispenser and a wipe with a soft brush. This is where the whole thing intersects with Disorderlies disdain for underfloor kill tanks--not a great fan of them myself, unless you have a way of draining them straight out through the hull without them going into the general bilge area first. If you actually bleed them in there, then that has to drain into the hull --pooh. Hard to keep a stink from developing over time. My underfloor space does drain directly into the general bilge, which is why I'm not keen on putting in fish directly. We always kill into a 40 litre tub which slides under the well, keeps the blood in. As well as the general problem of the fish just moving around too much. It's big space under there, extends well to each side of the lid. Pic below is with the floor panel which holds the lid, removed.





So I don't want fish sliding around inside there on that nice gelcoat surface, beating themselves up. Even with no direct draining of much fishy content into the bilge, it can still start to smell stale, so a squirt of Domestos down the hole, transom drain plug in, and some fresh water takes care of that. As to the bag, I've seen people complain about " me mates' fishbag got real stinky, had maggots in it, not as good as an esky" unquote. Well, if yer bloody mate had the brains to scrub it out, it wouldn't happen. Just make sure you soft brush along the seams, including the ones inside the zip.

I've tried a lot of different setups on rec boats--iceboxes tied to one side, feet glassed into the deck to stop them sliding around, mounted crosswise, mounted lengthwise. My personal preference is to be able to move across the deck without having to go around/trip over something. We typically mix our fishing up, quite common to be both deep dropping demersals over 300m deep and trolling for sails or marlin on the same day. So the setup has to be versatlie, yours , depending on use, can be more specialised. So, to each their own.

[disorderly]

Sorry ranmar..i dont quite understand..

Are you saying you use a fishbag inside that underfloor cavity as your primary fish storage or is it just a backup and you have a main esky on the deck or under your seat..?

I would love all that underfloor space you have as storage..

[Dignity]

Thats a bloody great idea Sam...I'll have a think on it...

I probably have some strapping you can have to make a sling, we used to use them to carry pallets off the barge on North West Island many years ago.
Might need an excuse to head north, found another boat up in Cairns that I like the look of, just need to sort out some details, fingers crossed.

[ranmar850]

Sorry ranmar..i dont quite understand..

Are you saying you use a fishbag inside that underfloor cavity as your primary fish storage or is it just a backup and you have a main esky on the deck or under your seat..?

I would love all that underfloor space you have as storage..

Sorry if I was unclear, the fishbag is the primary fish storage, and it fits into the underfloor space. I originally had the Large Madfish bag (1.75m, IIRC) and used it on the deck of a couple of boats, would leave it along one side. Madfish didn't originally have a medium size, and I pointed this out to them in a customer survey. They actually responded to me directly, said they were getting that a lot, so inside of a year, they had a medium size model. Which co-incidentally, fitted perfectly into that underfloor space. So I sold the big one.

Yes, that underdeck space is very useful. I've gone to a lot of trouble to create underdeck space in boats previously, and to have that built in was gold. However, it is not insulated--gelcoat moulded and quite thick, all one piece with the deck, but no insulation, divided into 2 sections, just intended for wet storage. I've seen them used for fenders, ropes, water bladders---- but remove the divider, which is easy, a whole other set of uses come in. It cost me $400 to get a shipwright to modify the panel containing the lids from two entries to one, with a new Starboard lid, worth every cent.

Since my previous post, I've been out fishing, and it has been hot. We've been over 40 deg max every day since Tuesday, was 42 the day we fished, strong, hot dry nor'easter. I dumped a 15kg bag of crushed ice into the bag before we left before we left. We are limited to 2 snapper each nowadays in this zone, so a 5.5 kg and 3 smaller fish went in, and we were headed for home by 8.30, trolling for mackerel. ( different fish class, we can have 3 each of those in addittion) An hour of that produced one good strike and a nasty set of teethmarks on a new lure, but no fish.Got in at 11.15, hot at sea, even hotter on land, left the fish in the bag under the deck until near 3pm, did the boat clean up, had lunch. etc. Dragged the bag out, tipped it up to drain out excess water, carried them out to the cleaning table. I estimate I still had about 70% of the original ice left. So, an overnighter in those temps? I'd certainly start with 2 x 15kg bags. 45 degrees forecast for here today.
I can hear some of you saying--only two snapper each? we can load up on nannys, red emperor, etc. And this is probably where we diverge. It's all horses for courses. If you are fishing 4 blokes who can kill 30kg of fish each, you just need a 400 litre icebox. Period. Or maybe one of the large bags for a daytrip. We've had our bag of demersals and 4 mackerel in that bag, day tripping, room for more. Or six big Rubies and a couple of large pelagics. Works really well for us fishing up to three, daytripping. Your useage may be different to mine.

[disorderly]

I probably have some strapping you can have to make a sling, we used to use them to carry pallets off the barge on North West Island many years ago.
Might need an excuse to head north, found another boat up in Cairns that I like the look of, just need to sort out some details, fingers crossed.

I might not actually need to make up one Sam...

If they are thinking of closing down both the Spanish and Nanni fisheries entirely, I definately wont need my 200 litre mackeral box if this turns out to be the case...

and be sure to drop in for a cuppa if you ever find yourself this far north...

[NAGG]

Just on these insulated catch bags - I wouldn't mind one to use at the cleaning table to reduce the need to lift out the bulky 158lt Mackerel box ..... a total pain in the back - specially if full of ice / fish .... or just on my own

I was thinking that a catch bag might be good to use ...... transfer the fish to the bag- take to the cleaning table - clean the fish . The fish can stay in the catch bag for the trip home or to where I'm staying . It's also probably good to keep the fish cold rather than sitting on the cleaning table .

So which ones are worth considering - how big ?

Madfish seem to get great reviews - but are also expensive & limited in sizes .
Chiller are another well regarded bag with a big range - still pretty expensive though .

Then there are a raft of others ........ which are good & which are the ones to avoid ?

Interested on hearing your thoughts .

Just on the size of these things - for me it's likely to be used on snapper , jew & mackerel ...... so a 1-1.2m bag will probably suffice . That said can also see these bags as great dry storage if a overnighter is planned ..... a place to keep sleeping gear dry .

Chris