I have an odd question, but a little info to help clarify first.

I grew up going up to Ontario for a couple weeks every year to fish.  We'd bring home LOADS of filleted panfish and walleye, but the fishing camp we stayed at had an excellent fish cleaning house with plastic wrap, butcher paper, and chest freezers available.  We'd fillet the fish, wrap a pile of fillets in plastic wrap and they'd be frozen into a solid block that we could pack into coolers with ice for the trip home.

Here at home we keep a lot of panfish for the table but they get tossed into a cooler with ice immediately upon being caught, then immediately filleted at home and either fried or vacuum sealed and put in the chest freezer.

Now for the part I'm not sure about - in June every year we go to Lake Erie and catch monster channel cats.  It's an absolute blast, catching them until our arms are tired of fighting.  We occasionally fry up a couple on shore for lunch, but I've been wanting to take some home for the freezer.  The complicating factor is that where we stay has no freezer available.  We normally don't stay up there for more than 3 or 4 days, and have a 2 hour drive home.  What's my best bet for keeping a few dozen fillets safely until I can get home and get them into a freezer?  I have a couple Yeti-type coolers available.  There's electricity available so I can haul my vacuum sealer up there with me.  Access to ice is not an issue.  

Fillet them, vacuum seal, and just bury in the ice? Drain open so they don't wind up submerged in water? I'm probably grossly over-thinking this, but I'd hate to kill some of these fish only to have the meat spoil due to improper handling.  How long can I keep the fillets sealed up in ice before they have to be frozen in a freezer?  Buy a small chest freezer, generator, and turn my truck into some sort of mobile fish-monger's shop?

Thanks for any help/opinions!

Get a freezer from Walmart or Kmart or some place like that for 2 hundred bucks.

I would put the ice in the bottom of a good Artic cooler, and the fillets on top out of the water, maybe in onion bags like clams or such.
Drain off water.  If cooler is not staying cold enough (I doubt it), don't keep fish on the first day or two.
June is hot.

Now, where are them big cats?

I have a freezer at home, I'm asking about the keeping of the fish for a couple days BEFORE I get home to the freezer.

Thanks for the advice!  

As far as where them big cats are, head to Sandusky bay!  Fish on either side of the railroad bridge.  20 pound channel cats are not uncommon.

I suggest what we do for multiday  offshore trips.  

Dry ice (blocks) in the bottom of the cooler then regular ice around the fish.

You can keep fish (especially vacuum-sealed filets) fresh for a week in plenty of ice.

Well maybe I don't read that well.

Oooh, I hadn't thought about dry ice.  Thanks!


Thanks for the tip!  I feel pretty stupid asking this at age 39, but it's just really never come up for me before.  Going to stock that freezer next summer!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B088FDTTY4?tag=arfcom00-20

OP not gonna fit 4 days worth if fillets in that though.

No, but poking around on Amazon now, there are some pretty good sized ones (35ish quarts) for under 300.  Hmm...

But a 12v refrigerator/freezer like a bodega or bougerv.

they work great and can get down to -4 F

get one with wheels and you'll find all kinds of way to use them.


eta - i have the bougerv 59qt fridge/freezer.

If you're vacuum sealing them, why are you draining water? Ice cold water is still ice cold, and conducts heat away from the fish better than dry air would.

Adding salt to the cooler lowers the temperature.

vac seal fillets and throw on ice.  Don't over think it.
I keep fillets in the fridge at the cabin for 2-3 days before traveling back home.  Not a big deal.
Make sure you follow your state's transportation/possession laws though.  Here in SD, each piece of meat counts as one fillet, and fillets need to be able to be counted i.e. no frozen blocks of fish.