Keeping fish

Saturday I'm hitting the White Salmon for some whitewater fun and after that I'm heading up to Lake Chelan with my GF for some fishing.  We plan to be out on the lake Sunday and Monday, hopefully camping at random locations on the shore of the lake.   

My question is, if I catch a fish on Sunday, how do I keep it from going bad through mid-day Monday when I get back to the cooler in my car?

If I keep it on the stringer, it will be alive, and 'fresh', but the meat will be loaded with lactic acid and taste bad.

If I bleed it right after catching it, how can I keep it cool?

Bring ice or eat it on the beach?  You can fillet it to cut down on the volume.  Solid blocks of ice last much longer than crushed.  You can freeze your own appropriately and conveniently sized blocks.

Pick up a quality soft insulated cooler and put a few frozen water (Gatorade) bottles in the bottom. 

Bleed your fish and toss it in.  Splash the exterior of the cooler off and on and it will stay plenty cold throughout the day.  I have found that my Gatorade bottles are still nearly frozen at 430pm, after being pulled out of the freezer at 5am, and my coolers are black/red, black/blue in color.  Lighter colors are even better at shedding the sun's heat, so look for something like that. 

Soft sided cooler with 5-10lbs of dry ice and crumpled newspaper - keep the dry ice wrapped up and insulated as best as possibly in the car before transferring it to the smaller cooler.  Bleed and clean your fish, store at the bottom of the cooler under the paper.  This puts them in the coolest part of the container, and bathes them in CO2, which should reduce spoilage a tiny bit more.

Ok, now I have a question about this as it pertains to being out on the ocean.  What do you guys do with fish while out there to bring back the best possible fish quality?  I've been out and kept blacks on a stringer and alive (stressed?), and also out for a long time (7.5 hrs) and kept fish in the hull due to forgetting everything possible to hold fish (doh!).  I'd love to bleed them immediately, but i think i have very justified worries about critters that are bigger'n me laying claim to my catch or possibly my boat.  Thoughts?  Experiences?

For the best table fare stun then rip a gill to bleed as soon a you can. When fishing the ocean,  I keep mine in a dry bag to limit blood in the water. Ice or no ice depends on the conditions.  If its cloudy and in the 60's or less, on the salt I don't think you need ice. Above that I bring frozen bags of "vacum sealed water" which are re-freezeable and just the right size

Ok, now I have a question about this as it pertains to being out on the ocean.  What do you guys do with fish while out there to bring back the best possible fish quality?  I've been out and kept blacks on a stringer and alive (stressed?), and also out for a long time (7.5 hrs) and kept fish in the hull due to forgetting everything possible to hold fish (doh!).  I'd love to bleed them immediately, but i think i have very justified worries about critters that are bigger'n me laying claim to my catch or possibly my boat.  Thoughts?  Experiences?

I just cut their gills, give them a good rinse and throw them in a wet burlap sack.  Splash some water on the sack once in a while and ignore the scent trail I'm leaving.   

Is it all fish that you put on a stringer that will taste bad or just certain ones? 

When i go trolling for trout once i catch one i put it on a stringer on the side of my Yak. Is that wrong?

Depends on the water temp... in the summer months I definitely wouldn't put any fish on a stringer in lowland lakes with warmer water temps on the surface.  A burlap bag that is semi-frequently moistened will do you much better due to the evaporative cooling.

I recently purchased one of the insulated deck bags that has a removeable dry bag inside at Joe's during their fire sale.  I believe it is the Seattle Sports Catch Cooler.  Hook1, Surf-to-Summit, and Native also make/offer a version that will work too.  It won't work for a long weekend on its own, but it works for while you are on the water before transferring your bounty to a more efficent cooler on shore.

Thanks for the comments folks.  I think I might try and add a step my dad used to do on the rivers to keep people from finding his fishing holes: After catching a fish, he'd stun it and then slice a gill with the head in a gallon ziploc bag to bleed out.  Once done, rinse the fish and seal the ziploc.