How do you keep what you catch?

[PudgyPrawn]

Having only been out twice on my kayak and planning to fish mostly for bass, I always catch anda release. That was until now.

Having caught the bug to fish the lower Potomac; I find myself wondering how the hell do you keep fish while fishing in a kayak? In particular, bigger cats and snakehead?
A simple answer im sure.I know I am showing my green and inexperience, but if I land either of the above, or ( in my dreams ) a nice stripper or puppy drum; what do you recommend?
I am in a Ascend FS10.


Thanks,
Pudgy Prawn

[donkey fish]

i usually have a medium size soft cooler with me i keep drinks and snaks in and i just toss the SH i catch in a heavy duty contractor trash bag tie it shut and toss them in with the drinks. keeps the fish slime off the beverages.

[Southerly]

i think it's important to ice immediately especially in hot weather but don't always have the large soft-side with me.

but i try to always have my stringer. nothing fancy - just a regular old poly twine stringer with ring on one end and skewer on other. i'll skewer a thin part behind lower jaw to put the fish on, give them a short leash and they tend to be alive until i get back to my vehicle where i'll have a larger plastic cooler with ice, and extra drink.

it is some extra drag from pulling fish around but it's so easy to keep a little stringer onboard, at least for use as a backup.

[nay_sayer]

... but if I land either of the above, or ( in my dreams ) a nice stripper or puppy drum; what do you recommend?...


Thanks,
Pudgy Prawn

I think you should rethink trying to keep the nice stripper, she only wants your $$$

[Southerly]

I think you should rethink trying to keep the nice stripper, she only wants your $$$

probly best deal you'll find. wall street guys will clean you out if given 1/2 chance, real estate guys will clean you out, even aluminum siding salesman would like to get a chunk of your bank acct. i say its money well spent. you know - fishing tackle and such,...

[Memory Maker]

Soft side icechest .......... I like the 1's that have a canvas type outside because it keeps things very cold if you wet the outside and keep ice on the inside. The evaporative effect helps keep the outside cooler so the inside stays cooler longer.

[jsquare]

The soft side cooler is a good idea. Do you keep it on deck or stuff it inside the yak? I usually use a stringer, but I'm usually only keeping small fish like white perch.

[ronaultmtd]

the Grocery store brands of soft side cooler bags are relatively inexpensive- they don't work as well as I would like them, but eight pounds of ice will keep some ice frozen the whole day in the bag- I do both- keep fish on a stringer and carry the ice bag- SH goes in the ice bag after I smack it a few times with my billy club to control it. Big cats i usually release, but ones 24 inches and under I usually keep- I release all LM Bass...the soft sided bag is in the tankwell right behind my seat so I can grab it when i need it but out of the way otherwise. I have a really big soft sided bag and a medium size soft sized one too.

[Memory Maker]

on deck

[RavensDfense]

http://kayakfishinggear.com/freshfishbag-3.aspx

Check this out. Might be what your looking for.

[ILV2F5H]

I think we are all referring to the same thing but Harris Teeter or Wegman's sells insulated bags you can zip. I think they range from 10 to 20 bucks. Google Wegman's thermal tote for a better idea.

[Shady]

I have the fish bag in the link above and use it sometimes. It keeps the ice and fish well. I got it with a gift certificate from last year's CBKA tournment, but probably would not have bought it without the gifts certificate. I got the medium sized one, it looks like they are only carrying the small one now on Hook 1. This is probably because the company that makes this is moving out of North American sales, however you can find the larger sizes on Amazon.

When I have the room, I just bring my medium/large hard cooler as it fits just right in my sternwell on my Outback.

[surfdog]

I think you should rethink trying to keep the nice stripper, she only wants your $$$

i like my strippers hot!!

i put my fish on a stringer and keep them in the water until i get back before landing i throw them in the yak so they dont get smashed by the
kayak. just bought an insulated 54 can cooler bag going to try it out saturday

amazon has some on he cheap for .85 apiece. might get a few trips out of 1, insulated mylar bags

[mango]

I took a small coleman hard cooler that fits in my sternwell and thru bolted a (3) count rod holder to it. Siliconed the stainless steel thru bolts and thus far seems to work pretty good. With this set up, I loose my crate carrying my goodies. This trade off works best for me when I know what species I am going after, so my gear is limited and I stuff my LV pouches with beetle spins and jig heads and so on. With more gear, I would go back to a soft side and stringer combo as mentioned above.

Just my 2 cents

[WetHen]

i have one of those cheap rope stringers with loop on one end and pointy thing on the other and then I untwist the top a little bit and slip a carabiner to it to hook it to kayak. makes for a quick release so I spend less time stringing up the keepers. However, I'm rethinking that plan after watching that marsh shark video in other thread. yikes!