Fish vacuum sealer suggestions

Does anyone else have a problem with their foodsaver melting the seal too much and allowing air to penetrate the bag? It seems to me that mine gets too hot after sealing a couple bags. I can actually see the bag slightly inflate after I release the lock mechanism. Sometimes I grab a fillet from the freezer and there is a noticeable pocket of air. 
I've got the costco model and buy my bags there or amazon as well.

Try buying some bags with thicker plastic and see if that prevents the problem.

Thicker bags are quite impressive.  Gonna look for rolls a touch thicker than generic food saver rolls.  Any leads?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CQ8IXIK/ are the ones I use.  I often give up on the vacuum cstage and press seal to start sealing despite liquid being present in the textured channels.  I have yet to need to double seal the way I did with the FoodSaver brand.  They're also less than half the price of FoodSaver brand bags.

Right on! Gonna check it out.

Paging pmmpete...

My first vacuum sealer is a Foodsaver, which is a suction type of vacuum sealer.  It does a decent job of sealing fish, meat, and produce, and it's still working fine after many years, although like Darius I had to replace the gaskets which press on the vacuum bag.  After several years and a lot of use, the heat from the element which seals the bag deteriorated the gaskets.  Replacing the gaskets is easy, if you can find the right gaskets.  I buy my bags for this sealer in rolls, which is more efficient than buying pre-cut bags, because you can cut off exactly as much of the roll as you need to vacuum seal an item,whether it be big or small.  There's no waste. The Foodsaver sealer is quite compact, so I can bring is with me on road trips.

My second vacuum sealer is a biggish Cabelas brand sealer, which I got for our cabin.  It's also a suction type of vacuum sealer.  While bigger than my Foodsaver sealer, it doesn't do any better of a job of getting air out of the vacuum bags. I also use rolls of bag material in the Cabelas sealer.

Because I do a lot of vacuum sealing, I bought a Vacmaster chamber style vacuum sealer.  Chamber style sealers tend to be big, heavy, and expensive, but they do an outstanding job of getting the air out of vacuum bags, a lot better than any suction style vacuum sealer which I've seen.  I love my Vacmaster.  Because it's real heavy, I store it on a wheeled cart, with all of my vacuum sealing supplies on the shelves below the sealer, so I can wheel it into our kitchen when I need to do some sealing.  See the first picture below.  The vacuum sealer is so heavy it made the top shelf of the plastic cart sag, so I cut a piece of plastic laminate covered kitchen counter material which was removed to install a sink, and used it to reinforce the top shelf of my cart.  I suggest that you not buy a chamber style vacuum sealer unless you have some disposable income, and have a place to install it permanently on a counter in your kitchen, or you have a plan for where to store it and how to get it in and out of your kitchen, like my cart. You could blow your back out humping around a chamber vacuum sealer.  Chamber vacuum sealers don't need to use the textured bags made for suction vacuum sealers; they use smooth bags.  I haven't found any rolls for a chamber vacuum sealer, and if you did, you'd need a way to seal one end of each piece which you cut off the roll.  I buy oversized bags, save the pieces I cut off the bags, seal one end of each cut off piece in my Foodsaver sealer, and use the stubs for smaller items, so I have very little waste.  The bags I use the most are 8" x 15", and I typically cut 4" to 6" off each bag and use those stubs. See the second picture below.  I'll use most of those stubs the next time I smoke a batch of fish.

I bought my Vacmaster a few years ago.   I still absolutely love the thing.   The only thing I didn’t enjoy was carrying it up the stairs to my kitchen.  Other than that, zero regrets on the purchase.

I've always wondered... do the chamber style ones risk affecting the texture of the fish due to their higher vacuum power?

I’ve never had an issue with the vacuum power on the Vacmaster.  You can set how long it sucks a vacuum before you seal your bag.  So, if your fish is super fragile, you can reduce the vacuum timer.   I’ve never had any issues damaging any of the filets that I’ve caught.  It’s actually better because it seals a lot better than the food saver type vacuum sealers, and it’s a lot better at getting all the air out of the bag. 

The big difference with a chamber vs foodsaver is that the food saver sucks moisture and air out of the bag but a chamber doesn't. A chamber just removes the air in the surrounding atmosphere, so you could theoretically vac bag a bag of water in a chamber, unlike a foodsaver which would try to drain the contents of the bag.
basically, a chamber sealer wont mess with the meat at all, and a food saver is much more likely to alter the texture of the contents due to it sucking both moisture and air.

The big difference with a chamber vs foodsaver is that the food saver sucks moisture and air out of the bag but a chamber doesn't. A chamber just removes the air in the surrounding atmosphere, so you could theoretically vac bag a bag of water in a chamber, unlike a foodsaver which would try to drain the contents of the bag.
basically, a chamber sealer wont mess with the meat at all, and a food saver is much more likely to alter the texture of the contents due to it sucking both moisture and air.

I should add- this is why a lot of people "Pre freeze" their food saver contents. It keeps the crystalline structure of the frozen fish intact before its put into the vac bag and given the chance to be destroyed.  Basically, water in the flesh freezes normally instead of being sucked and collected unnaturally.   

I've been using the foodsaver, one of the specials from Costco for about 10 years, no issues with it, use if for all sorts of foods if I think it will be in the freezer for a bit.

Before that we had a cheaper model from Walmart, did the same thing, but manual setup for the sealing - which had pros and cons.

I often put the packs on a sheet tray in the chest freezer so they freeze flat (ish).  With the foodsaver, I've had very few seal fails.

The idea above of pre-freezing then vacuum sealing is interesting.

The big difference with a chamber vs foodsaver is that the food saver sucks moisture and air out of the bag but a chamber doesn't. A chamber just removes the air in the surrounding atmosphere, so you could theoretically vac bag a bag of water in a chamber, unlike a foodsaver which would try to drain the contents of the bag.
basically, a chamber sealer wont mess with the meat at all, and a food saver is much more likely to alter the texture of the contents due to it sucking both moisture and air.

I should add- this is why a lot of people "Pre freeze" their food saver contents. It keeps the crystalline structure of the frozen fish intact before its put into the vac bag and given the chance to be destroyed.  Basically, water in the flesh freezes normally instead of being sucked and collected unnaturally.

I don't know what advantages there may be to freezing fish before vacuum sealing it, and hope a food scientist will offer some authoritative information about that issue.  I think that if you vacuum pack fish while it's still flexible, you'll get a good seal between the vacuum bag and the surface of the fish, and I think that if you freeze fish before you vacuum pack it, you're more likely to get air bubbles under the vacuum bag because frozen fish is rigid.  If you want to freeze fish before you vacuum pack it, you can improve the seal between the vacuum bag and the surface of the fish by dipping the frozen fish in water before you vacuum pack it.

Costco / LEM Chamber Sealer
$600

I went through so many "commercial" model food savers I finally decided to get a Vacmaster like Pete has last year. Fortunately for me I found a used one at half the retail price. The weight 80# lbs. is an issue, you are not going to want to move it.
But I really got back into gardening and food preservation so it's the bomb.
I really like the fact that doing liquids and being able to change the vac. time at will according to what your packing...

I went through so many "commercial" model food savers I finally decided to get a Vacmaster like Pete has last year. Fortunately for me I found a used one at half the retail price. The weight 80# lbs. is an issue, you are not going to want to move it.
But I really got back into gardening and food preservation so it's the bomb.
I really like the fact that doing liquids and being able to change the vac. time at will according to what your packing...

I still smile every time I vacuum seal any left over soup or chili in my Vacmaster. 

The big difference with a chamber vs foodsaver is that the food saver sucks moisture and air out of the bag but a chamber doesn't. A chamber just removes the air in the surrounding atmosphere, so you could theoretically vac bag a bag of water in a chamber, unlike a foodsaver which would try to drain the contents of the bag.
basically, a chamber sealer wont mess with the meat at all, and a food saver is much more likely to alter the texture of the contents due to it sucking both moisture and air.

I should add- this is why a lot of people "Pre freeze" their food saver contents. It keeps the crystalline structure of the frozen fish intact before its put into the vac bag and given the chance to be destroyed.  Basically, water in the flesh freezes normally instead of being sucked and collected unnaturally.

I don't know what advantages there may be to freezing fish before vacuum sealing it, and hope a food scientist will offer some authoritative information about that issue.  I think that if you vacuum pack fish while it's still flexible, you'll get a good seal between the vacuum bag and the surface of the fish, and I think that if you freeze fish before you vacuum pack it, you're more likely to get air bubbles under the vacuum bag because frozen fish is rigid.  If you want to freeze fish before you vacuum pack it, you can improve the seal between the vacuum bag and the surface of the fish by dipping the frozen fish in water before you vacuum pack it.

Not frozen solid, just firm. Deffo do not coat your fish in water unless you want to freezer burn it 

I've got a FoodSaver FM2000 or something or other, was like $100.  It's been excellent for pretty much everything, but you definitely need to coax the settings a bit and as others have said, prep makes a big difference if you're planning to keep anything frozen for awhile.  A quick prefreeze to at least get things a little firm allows you to be pretty sloppy.