Kill bag questions

I'm planning on getting a kill bag of some sort.still debating what one.the question is what is the best way to cool your fish?loose ice, frozen water bottles or frozen PVC tubes?having never used one just looking at what you use.thanks

Easiest is a bag of ice.
Most Cost effective is soda bottles
Coolest DIY is PVC pipes


Personally, I throw a bag of ice in the KoldZone and have another bag waiting in the truck inside my Orion.  But I also have to drive 2 to 4 hours for salmon. 

I used to do the soda bottle routine, but buying ice is cheap and doesn't eat up freezer space at home.

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doesn't eat up freezer space at home.

Seriously! That's the biggest prob with all the ice replacements.

Thank you Lee and Zee.

The best way to preserve the quality of your fish (aside from returning them to the water unharmed) is to immediately bleed them and put them on ice in a cooler or kill bag.  Plastic bags and water degrade the quality of dead fish.  But bottles of frozen water and freezer gel packs melt more slowly than ice cubes or crushed ice.  So sometimes I put a couple bottles of frozen water in my cooler, throw ice cubes on top of the bottles, and put my fish on the ice cubes. An advantage of this technique is that the frozen water bottles hold the fish up out of melt water on the bottom of the cooler.

I started with frozen water bottles, but they don't stack well in the freezer.  A couple years ago I switched to frozen sponges.  Mine are like 5"x2" x8" (complete guess on size without going out to the garage and measuring).

Start by putting a new sponge in a gallon ziplock bag and add water.  Massage all of the air out of the sponge so it soaks up as much water as possible.  Burp the bag of excess water by carefully rolling the bag/sponge combo over until you can seal off the bag.  Add to freezer for a day.

Take the sponge out of the freezer, then out of the bag (you may need to hit it with hot water a bit first), and run warm water over the corners where ice formed a sharp point. 

Drop the now frozen brick into a food sealer bag and seal it up tight. 
Put this sealed brick back into the ziplock bag as secondary puncture resistant shield. 

Now, with a quality insulated kill bag they will stay frozen solid 6-8 hours, and then still provide the powers of ice upwards of 24 hours.  When done just rinse off fish slime and blood and stack nicely back in the freezer for another day. 

My other go to method when I won't be able to refreeze my sponges on multi day trips is with a dry bag. 

I cut the bottom out of 20L Walmart dry bag.  Scuffed the material, applied AquaSeal glue to the newly cut and scuffed opening, rolled over and pressed the bag shut.  Do this two to three times to assure it is water tight. 

The point of removing the bottom of the bag and resealing it, is to make the bag lay flat in the kill bag. 

I break open and pour in a 7-10lb bag of ice and roll up and seal the dry bag.  This will lay pretty flat in the bottom of my kill bag and keep my fish cold all day.  Usually still have ice (with some melted off water) in the drybag to pour back in the cooler at camp, no free flowing water in the kill bag that can ruin the quality of the fish.

I use the Sea Angler Inshore Kill Bag with 5-7 lbs of loose ice cubes in it. The ice stays frozen all day while I'm on the water.

I like to bleed and gut my salmon while I'm on the water, and the loose ice allows me to pack the body cavities for maximum chilling. (Slide salmon into the bag with its slit belly facing up, then just grab a few handfuls of ice from beside the fish and drop them into the body cavity).

The zippers extend all the way down the sides of the bag, so any melt water just runs out on its own.

The kill bag fits nicely behind my seat.


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A good way to keep the ice in your cooler or kill bag frozen is to buy a couple of the "Tundra" model of "Arctic Ice" freezer packs.  See http://www.arctic-ice.com/.  These freezer packs freeze at 5 degrees F, which means that if you get them down to 0 degrees F in your freezer, it will take a lot of calories to get the pack from 5 degrees, where the contents of the pack are frozen, to 6 degrees, where the contents of the pack are melted.  As a result, they are a good way to keep crushed ice or ice cubes frozen in a cooler or kill bag.  I put a couple of these freezer packs at the bottom of my cooler or kill bag, and put a bag of ice cubes on top of the freezer packs.  They actually freeze the ice cubes in the bag together, and keep the ice frozen all day on the water and until I get home.

I used to buy dry ice, put it on the bottom of my cooler, and put a bag of ice cubes on top of it.  Disadvantages of using dry ice are that it can be hard to find, it's expensive, and it gets the ice cubes so cold that it can freeze your fish solid.  Now I use a couple "Tundra" Arctic Ice freezer packs, which aren't cold enough to freeze my fish, and are reusable. 

Arctic Ice also manufactures the "Chillin' Brew" freezer packs, which freeze at 28 degrees, which is the lowest temperature at which you can store beer without it freezing, and the "Alaska" freezer packs, which freeze at 33.8 degrees, which means that they will keep your groceries cold without freezing and damaging them.

Those Tundra packs sound interesting, but most freezers don't get anywhere near 0*F. Even with a "deep freezer", you're lucky to hit 5*F.


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Those Tundra packs sound interesting, but most freezers don't get anywhere near 0*F. Even with a "deep freezer", you're lucky to hit 5*F.

I don't know about that.  I just pointed my thermometer into my chest freezer and it's reading 2°F and the freezer isn't dialed to the coldest setting.

Those Tundra packs sound interesting, but most freezers don't get anywhere near 0*F. Even with a "deep freezer", you're lucky to hit 5*F.

I don't know about that.  I just pointed my thermometer into my chest freezer and it's reading 2°F and the freezer isn't dialed to the coldest setting.

I've never had any problem getting the refrigerator/freezers in my kitchen or the upright freezers in my garage to maintain 0 degrees F.

I haven't checked the temps myself, but I was in the market for a chest freezer that could achieve "safe sashimi" temps and only found a couple options. Maybe I just want looking in the right place...


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Went back and looked. Maybe I'm having a dyslexic moment... Was thinking minus (-) 5 degrees F....


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If you have friends with illnesses, and who receive medications via mail, ask if they come packed with ice packs. I have a diabetic friend who gives me a small styrofoam cooler and 2-3 ice packs every couple of weeks. They are about 4"x6"x1", and so perfect for packing around fish.