Low tech/low coast fish cooling

[Rosstnfound]

I have a scupper pro and previously when I caught a Yellowtail or White Sea Bass, I would put my fish in the tank well and hope they would stay cool in the hot sun. Bringing a catch cooler is great but you will not drop the temperature of the fish (water/fish temp 70 degrees) unless you also bring ice too. That just seems like too much hassle. A few times, I tried keeping a wet white towel over the fish to keep the fish cool. It definitely worked better than nothing.

I came across these cooling towels a couple months ago that are specifically designed to cool (up to 20 degrees lower than ambient temp) by water evaporation. They work a whole lot better (colder) than a wet white towel, are light weight, compact and give me the piece of mind knowing my fish is not cooking in the sun. Plus they have a durable case that comes with it.

There are several brands available. I got a light colored (yellow) Frogs Toggs Chilly pad cooling towel. 27"x17". It covered and cooled a solid 27lb Yellow Tail (except for the tail and nose). I was surprise how cold the fish felt.

I think you can find these on ebay for around $10. If you don't use it for fish, they work great to keep you cool (what they were actually designed for).

They work best in hot/dry climates. They do not work well in humid climates as they rely on efficient evaporation to cool.

[KILLIAN]

check out a product called Nu - ice. It is precisely in a deep freezer or conventional freezer (2 types) and it will keep your catch ice cold without taking up any space or weight. They were originally designed for the medical transport of organs

[KILLIAN]

I intended to say Pretzel chilled and not use the word precisely

[KILLIAN]

Damn auto correct! pre chilled!!!!

Good luck

[Rosstnfound]

Originally Posted by KILLIAN

check out a product called Nu - ice. It is precisely in a deep freezer or conventional freezer (2 types) and it will keep your catch ice cold without taking up any space or weight. They were originally designed for the medical transport of organs

Sounds like a good product but how do they not take up space or weight? They sound more manageable than ice.

[kwtony]

This is a silly idea. Those wash cloths are covered in alcohol and when THAT evaporates off your skin it feel cooler. If youre too lazy to carry ice on your fish i dont know what to tell you. But you can always carry a small amount of ice, and sprinkle it with about a half dollar sized amount of morton salt. That'll keep it colder then cold.

[Rosstnfound]

Originally Posted by kwtony

This is a silly idea. Those wash cloths are covered in alcohol and when THAT evaporates off your skin it feel cooler. If youre too lazy to carry ice on your fish i dont know what to tell you. But you can always carry a small amount of ice, and sprinkle it with about a half dollar sized amount of morton salt. That'll keep it colder then cold.

Absolutely no alcohol on these and they work well. Just get them wet and the evaporation does the cooling. I agree it is definitely not a whole day solution to cooling a fish but good to buy you an hour or two. I would rather not deal with ice and a cooler on a kayak. After I do get a fish, I usually head in unless I really want another.

[mc diver 36]

I've gotta have the real thing, as I'm out 4-6 hrs usually. I carry about 10 lbs ice in a small igloo behind kayak seat for the smaller fish and food drinks etc, and about 15 lbs ice Still in bag in a soft cooler in the front hatch for the groupers and muttons. This way, when I get home, the catch is ice cold and easy to fillet, also I know that my catch is chilled as soon as it's dead, which will definitely preserve the quality and make it stay fresher longer. Yeah, it's a lot of xtra weight, but well worth it in my opinion. Good luck with your towels

[growingupninja]

When space is a concern i have had good results with a large canvas laundry bag plus a couple frozen water bottles. Just keep the bag wet and roll the fish up inside it with the water bottles. The frozen bottles take a very long time to melt, wet canvas provides some insulation and evaporative cooling...

[Tyson Brown]

Originally Posted by KILLIAN

I intended to say Pretzel chilled and not use the word precisely

Well, I had intended to say "ladle modulated hippopotami", but you covered it pretty well.

[Tyson Brown]

Originally Posted by KILLIAN

check out a product called Nu - ice. It is precisely in a deep freezer or conventional freezer (2 types) and it will keep your catch ice cold without taking up any space or weight. They were originally designed for the medical transport of organs

neat - I had heard about this stuff before, but I didn't know it was reusable. "Up to 5 years".

You have to pre-freeze the pack down to basically 0 deg F, which is what I keep my regular freezer at anyways.

These things look pretty handy.

http://icealternative.com/recreational-uses/

$20 for 5lb bag:

Amazon.com : Nu-Ice PC16-5 5Lb Marine Series : Camping And Hiking Equipment : Sports & Outdoors

Amazon.com : Nu-Ice PC16-5 5Lb Marine Series : Camping And Hiking Equipment : Sports & Outdoors

[mc diver 36]

Originally Posted by KILLIAN

check out a product called Nu - ice. It is precisely in a deep freezer or conventional freezer (2 types) and it will keep your catch ice cold without taking up any space or weight. They were originally designed for the medical transport of organs

Damn that stuff looks pretty interesting. Says it will last up to 96 hours that's pretty good. I may have to order some of that. Thanks for passing it along

[KILLIAN]

Nu-ice works as described. The true zero degree type when placed ina cooler along side a bag of ice will keep it drip free for days in my own tests. The 32degree version is good for drinks and sandwiches. The concept us to keep the ice you have from melting. Thus you bring less ice with you and will be carrying less load for those mentally disabled few that can't connect the dots.

A buddy of mine is a distributed here in FL and he turned me into the product. It can be punctured and destroyed unfortunately so go easy. But the contents are non toxic so don't swqet it if you do. Unless ur poor since these things aren't cheap

[kwtony]

Ive used that stuff, its cool and all...but i dont want to have to get a new bag of nu-ice every time i want to go diving.

Rock salt (or even just cheap morton) and ice....colder then cold. I use it on my beer cooler at the rental(which is obviously the most important use for this) and will often freeze the beers. or get the so cold, Ill actually get a brain freeze...

For what its worth, I used to buy a bag of ice daily for my business, beween 3 bucks, but usually 250 from the ice machine nearby. My FREE BEER gig does cost quite a bit of money at the end of the month, hell look at the anual costs of just ice and its kind of crazy. We also use that two store the lunch we bring along with the non beer liquids..

I keep one of those BS 5 day coolers from igloo locked up in one of those plastic boxes they sell from home depot that open from the top, meant for garden tools. When i started using rock salt, my ice consumption literally got cut down to 1/3...

Nu ice = $$$
salt + ice = cheeeeeeeep


Its all a pain in the ass for kayaking...but if you are going to carry ice in a container, and want to make it last....try throwing some salt on it, be prepared for very cold temperatures

[mc diver 36]

Cool i'll give this a try as well Tony .if I can cut down on the amount I spent on ice I'm all for that,