Fish cooler

Anybody have tips on getting fish home fresh.  I was fishing with anchovies last year and kept them in a rock salt and ice brine - it was remarkable how cold they stayed all day. 

I am considering adding rock salt to crushed ice in my big cooler for mult-hour transport back home.  Is this something that is commonly done?

Dry Ice.

As long as you have cleaned your fish, putting them in fresh cold ice is the way to go. If you put a layer of ice on the bottom, then fish and more ice--they will be good for days, as long as you drain the cooler regularly and replace the ice as needed. I used to salmon fish commercially and we kept salmon on the ice for up to 10 days before delivering to the packers.
T2

I get my ice from the local Ice Plant at the Port, it is a saltwater ice that keeps the cooler colder. I believe the brined ice freezes at 26* or so. Lasts longer, stays colder, and at $2.00 a 20# bag......the best buy in town. 
 

with cleaned fish, make sure you fill the body cavity with ice.  especially effective if you're using shaved ice.

Thanks for the help guys!

  OK, I know that salt is added to roads I thought to help melt it so that the road is safer to drive on.  Now, someone wants to add salt to his cooler of ice?  Won't doing that help melt the ice faster?

 OK, I know that salt is added to roads I thought to help melt it so that the road is safer to drive on.  Now, someone wants to add salt to his cooler of ice?  Won't doing that help melt the ice faster?

Have you ever made ice cream?

It will melt the ice a little but the resulting slush will be colder than pure freshwater ice alone. 

Hmmm... I might have to try that. (especially since my cooler sucks)

Salt in your ice causes it to freeze at a lower temperature.  Since it had to get to a lower temperature to freeze, the ice you now have is a much colder product than plain ice.

Rock salt is currently on sale at Safeway!  Their generic brand is .79¢ a box.  Or buy a big 50# bag of water softner salt.

rock salt is the best to use here. Water softener salts have .....water softeners added in.
As a construction worker in Texas, we would buy the "hot beer" from 7-11 and ice it down and add a handfull of rocksalt, by the time (15 min) you get back to the job, the beers are very cold and workers are very happy.
 Just be sure to rinse the top of the beer off before consumption, as most rock salt has a lot of grit and sand in it as it is unrefined.
 

Water softener salts have .....water softeners added in.

Actually, typically it is just rock salt (or solar salt or evaporated salt).  Yep, plain salt.  The salt is used to recharge the water softener resins in a typical softening system.

-Allen

As long as you have cleaned your fish, putting them in fresh cold ice is the way to go. If you put a layer of ice on the bottom, then fish and more ice--they will be good for days, as long as you drain the cooler regularly and replace the ice as needed. I used to salmon fish commercially and we kept salmon on the ice for up to 10 days before delivering to the packers.
T2

T**2 is right.  Commercial fisherman use a simple ice slurry and it keeps the fish fresh for days.

Water softener salts have .....water softeners added in.

Actually, typically it is just rock salt (or solar salt or evaporated salt).  Yep, plain salt.  The salt is used to recharge the water softener resins in a typical softening system.

-Allen

Thanks Pole2! I guess I just figured they had something else in there. Good to know!