Which ice chest for chinook fishing?

[micaheli]

Historically, we are bringing one of those gigantic 120something quart white "fishing style" igloo coolers. It's not the best, but it's big AF. The big AF part is actually becoming quite a negative for us.

1) It's too big in the boat. Takes up too much space and we find it in the way a lot.
2) Takes a LOT of ice to keep stuff cool enough. There's usually only 4-5 fish in the box at the end of the day, so we are finding it silly that we got such a large box.
3) It's hard to get in and out of the boat at the beginning/end of the day.

My question is... what are you running? We've actually been thinking about getting a more square shaped box for the bow of the boat rather than having a box in the back of the boat at all. We're in a 19.5' North River style boat/closed sled.

I'm open to suggestions of whats working for you guys.

Thanks!

 

[C_Run]

I have a Silver Horde Katch Cooler kill bag with ice packs but I don't think it would hold five fish. Our buoy 10 guide had a bigger kill bag that held several fish but I don't know what brand it was.

 

[micaheli]

I've never tried those kill bags... Are they the way to go nowadays? I could definitely justify throwing a couple of those in the bow for sure...

 

[NKlamerus]

I've never tried those kill bags... Are they the way to go nowadays? I could definitely justify throwing a couple of those in the bow for sure...

We have used them for years for shark, Marlin, and tuna that wouldn't fit in the box. They have really come a long ways in efficiency, price, and durability.

We just used space blankets to keep the Florida sun at bay

The only downside is cleaning them, simple clean and bleach and a pressure washer

 

[micaheli]

That’s some good info there. Thanks! I’ll definitely pick up one or two of those. We can keep the big cooler in the truck!

 

[jamisonace]

Kill bags are the way to go 100%. I've practically stopped using the fish box under the seat in my drift boat and I've never used the fish box in my sled. It's so much easier to carry the kill bag to the cleaning station in the kill bag than the fish box and I find the bag easier to clean than my fish box. Most of the time I'm cleaning fish on the boat ramp so I put a little lemon joy (always carry a bottle in the boat) on a scrubber and scrub it down and rinse.