Where to put fish

I have a WS Ride 135. My tankwell is large enopugh for me to put an office crate behind my seat and still have room for a 26 guat Igloo icechest. The problem is, I have to get out to put my fish in the icechest. This isn’t bad in the winter, but I don’t like leaving my fish in front of me in warm weather. Anyone know if Walmart carries a fish bag? There are no places around here that would be close to buy any of these items yet. Anyone use anything else for their fish?

stringer…
simple stringer if your catching pan fish (crappie,etc.) Garbage bag works too for larger ones…cheap and simple.

Ozark Trail cooler
can be had at WM for about $12; zippered with shoulder strap. Just remove the hard plastic insert and the result is a soft, slightly insulated cooler. I usually toss a small freezer cube inside vs ice.

Sams Club has 'cold bags’
It is basically a soft sided cooler. My father uses one with a few blue ice things in it. Seems to work well for him.

my girlfriend uses a canvas bag.
we have several. the best ones are heavy canvas from ll bean, but they arent cheap

Rouse, in cooler months most of us

– Last Updated: Dec-01-07 4:41 PM EST –

just string them and swing the fish into our kayaks when underway. Some buy the net fish bags that have a Styrofoam float ring..think they are called donut bags. As I fish for catfish a lot, in the summer, I use a a set up I made myself. It consists of 1/2" PVC pipe, hot water pipe works best. I thread a large replacement fish net onto the pipe, bending the pipe into a circle as I go. Every so often, I push on a pool noodle for flotation. After my circle is complete and the net is on the pipe, I use an inline coupler to close it, glueing with PVC pipe glue. My fishing partner copied my set up, except he put had a double round of pvc connected to one another with T connectors. On top of that, he placed a round lid made of plywood hinged with cable ties. For fish that tend to jump, you may want to put a lid of some sort on the contraption.

Cabella's also sells a fairly expensive fish bag that is in the shape of the bow section of a kayak. Its long, but works very well according to owners. Its also expensive. Others buy a rectangular bag that Sam's sells. It's inexpensive and seems to work as well as the expensive one, just maybe a bit more clumsy. Don't shop at Sam's so don't know where in the store it is located. With both bags, most use either blue ice or frozen bottles of water.

Personally, I like to keep my fish alive as long as possible. They seem to taste better.

Why
dont the mfgs address the problem of fish storage on fishing kayaks? My Dorado has a fish well accessible from the center tunnel. My other boat has a rear hatch which I have insulated to take fish but it was not designed to be a fishing boat. The tackle goes into the center hatch in small boxes. The Ride is pretty typical as far as layout. Is there any way you could reduce tackle or boxes to fit in the small center hatch and put a cooler or fish coffin in the tankwell?

I’ve looked at the Dorado. Nice boat
well thought out and the fish well concept is a good one. Maybe the kayak builders here are more concerned with the extra cost or maybe they also build the kayaks to appeal to non-fishermen.

You could eat them as sushi imediately.

Or buy an electric fish poacher.

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Fish bags
Thanks for all the great ideas guys amd ladies. I may need to rethink my arrangemments in my boat. One of my concerns is that I’ve seen a bull shark on the bank where I put my boat in. I have used a fish stringer once before I saw that carcass. I have been mainly fishing for red drum. The limits here in NC are between 18 and 27 inches. I hope to catch a large one to take home for dinner. I’ll need a fairly large bag for them. The time I did use my stringer, the drum kept running into my boat. That one was only 19 inces, so I was trying to keep it from schrinking incase i was checked. That one was my 1st, si it had to come home with me. Is the bag from Sam’s large enough for these fish. A heavy duty garbage bag may do it until I find something.

center hatch
is small and used to put my watch and cell phone in.

look here
http://www.kayakfishingstuff.com/

Homemade fish bag
Yak.canfish, thks for the directions on how to make that floating net. Actually, I made something similar to that about 3 years ago to fish on one of our ocean piers. I used it for a drop net to retrieve flouder and other larger fish that didn’t need to be lifted 20 feet. U have given me more ideas on how to make another of these for other uses. On the one I made, I used the black ABS plastic pipe. I used a SS pipe nipple to close it up and used SS pipe clamps on that. Making one of these with the 2 PVC rings sounds good to me. I would put the pool noodle on the bottom ring to hold it up a little.

Dorado
Who makes it?

Sam’s bag
sounds like something I need to look into.

Kaskazi

– Last Updated: Dec-03-07 9:54 AM EST –

They are out of South Africa. There is an importer in Florida. Roughly $1800 plus any additional shipping from Florida. I bought mine direct since I am on the west coast but I would not do that again. The new ones have been improved and now weigh about 56 lbs in fiberglass.

Burlap Bag
I’ve had great results using a burlap bag. Dunk it once and the evaporation keeps the fish surprisingly cool for hours. I’ve tried canvas and other materials, but burlap seems to work the best, (must be the weave)

They can be found pretty cheap at many feed stores, and they are biodegradable.


agree
agree with burlap. You can also try bags that potatoes come in, laundry sacks, etc.