How do you keep your fish fresh?

When your out on your yak, do you keep them on top, drag them in the water, or put them on ice? Does anyone bleed their RF?

What do people do when they're camping, just keep them on ice during the trip and freeze when they get back?

I've seen lots of different strategies but wanted to see what people thought.

Fish that will fit in the tank well I drape one or two large burlap sacks over them. Occasionally I will either splash water on the sacks or take the burlap sacks and dip it in the water then lay back over the top of the fish.

When back on land I have a cooler with a couple gallon water jugs previously frozen which I lay the fish on top in the sacks and if needed put a small bag of ice just on the top. This method keeps the fresh water contained in the jugs and off the fish.

As a personal preference I bleed out all my fish.

I end up using these square style gallon jugs as they fit in the coolers I have perfectly. Plus at a $1 each they are cheap and I get quite a few uses out of them.

I keep them alive on a stringer hanging over the side.

Freshwater- over the side on a stringer, salt- burlap sack method works great.  On the stringer if you pierce the stringer through the bottom of the jaw, rather than go through the gill, the fish will stay alive and fresh amazingly longer.

I used to use the burlap sack method but since ive been borrowing the tarpon 140 there is room for an icechest on back  Ive only kept my fish over the side once and it attaracted too many sharks for my liking.

Wet burlap sack. Keeps them cool and air flows through. Verms and cabs and lings can live a couple hours inside the sack if water is splashed on occasionally.

Bleed immediately and burlap sack. Keep the sack wet and cool. I used to hang over the side like I do in freshwater. Then a sea lion checked me out a little too closely.

I used to hang them over the side on a stringer, but a harbor seal at Van Damme knows about that and almost flipped me when he grabbed my fish.  Now I bleed them and put them in a big dry bag with some ice in it.

I think the harbor seals are worse than sea lions for that trick.  They can be sneaky little dudes.

Freshwater, if the water temperature is under 60 degrees: stringer, over the side, bled out immediately after capture.

Freshwater, if the water is over 60 degrees: I have a small cooler that sits behind me on my Revo, and the fish go in that after I've bled them in the water.

Saltwater: The wet burlap sack is nice.  I'll often take the sack of fish and dip it in the ocean every now and then to keep them cool.  The sack sits either around my feet or behind me.  I used to put them inside the hull, but got tired of washing out the stank.  I bleed ALL my fish before they go into the sack, then bonk them.  I've read that leaving the fish alive can cause them to excrete a lot of lactic acid into their muscle tissue because they're stressed out.  I'm not sure if it makes a difference in taste, but I do it anyway and prefer to put them out of their misery quickly.

The short of it is this: bleed them out, bonk them, and get them cold ASAP.

Bonk them, bleed them a couple minutes, then into a soft sided cooler with a couple frozen water bottles.  I picked up one of those 48-can Costco soft-sided coolers and it works perfect, it can either sit in the tankwell or sits up on my bow hatch.

Over the side, in the water when out on the water.  In camp, if I'm there for a few days, I bring my vacuum sealer and put them in an ice chest. The sealer keeps out bad stuff and keeps the fish smell out of the rest of my fridge food. 

I tuck this Sea Angler kill bag behind my seat with a little bit of ice. It's not water tight, so your catch doesn't sit in a puddle as the ice melts.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00ENLAEY4?pc_redir=1408742655&robot_redir=1

I bleed all my fish as soon as I catch them. Rockfish keep their guts until I filet them. Salmon get gutted before filleting to avoid any accidental gut juice spilling mishaps while filleting.

In general, leaving a fish to struggle half alive on the stringer is a bad idea. As fish struggle, lactic acid builds up. This lowers the quality of the meat. It might not be a noticeable effect, but it's real...

Once I'm off the water, the fish go into a big cooler with plenty of ice. Just make sure to drain the cooler frequently so your fish isn't sitting in water.

Wow, thanks for all the responses! I'm still such a noob to this forum stuff that I thought it would notify me when people responded. I do usually bring a small cooler but haven't usually bled the rockfish. I guess I'll start now!

So I take it when you guys bleed the fish, you guys move to a different spot in order to not attract sharks.. correct?

So I take it when you guys bleed the fish, you guys move to a different spot in order to not attract sharks.. correct?

There are no sharks in the ocean.  What's to worry about?