As an ex pro here is what we did .. iki the fish ( this causes the muscles to contract and force the blood into the liver and stomach areas .. place fish in a ice slurry (3 part ice to 1 of salt water) if you want to bleed your fish as well then just a small cut at the base of the gills but not needed ... fish will now be fine as long as its filleted that arvo ... if keeping them whole in a esky you'll need to empty the whole lot .. place a few bags of ice on the bottom .. place in fish belly down .. then cover with more ice ( no water ) .. in this way you can change out the ice and keep whole fish fresh for about 6 days

yeah hear alot about the iki but its hard to find the right info about it, all a bit 50/50 when you know what i mean

fish only in the esky for the day, fillets off every arvo

iki is good but as soon as you open the fish up as in gutting bleeding etc you are exposing the fish to stomach contents acids bugs etc that are normally contained inside the cavity.

If you have a real good ice slurry going there is no need to spike your fish because the shock of going in to near freezing water is enough to do the same job, sending all the blood back to its vital organs.

Leave them in the slurry for as long as it takes to bring their temp down to close to slurry temp then do as Feral [Clint] says and pack them in crushed ice, laying them on their belly, head to tail with a good covering of ice between each layer of fish and remember to leave the drain plug open so what juice there is can drain off.

Hey buddy,

Here's a bit of info on Iki Jime, might help also the last link is a previous thread on cleaning/storing fish. Good luck

http://www.lovefishing.com.au/blog.php?user=LoveFishing&blogentry_id=38

http://www.bogagrip.co.nz/iki.jimi.aspx?print=Y

http://www.fishingkites.co.nz/cleaning-fish/cleaning_fish.html

http://fishwrecked.com/forum/dispatching-storing-caught-fish

If going for that length of time i can't see why you would be trying to keep fish on ice. Having tried to doing it before myself, a huge amount of ice was used and we were at that time keeping whole fish. Honestly unless the family only eat whole cooked fish i would be vac packing fillets in the same quality bags. Sure pros use a slurry but hey they have bloody great freezers on board. Pros use good wax lined cardboard boxes and layer their fillets so that fillets can then be removed individually. Restaurants have used this method for years.

Remember you are only allowed 10 kgs of fillets per trip per person, i am not a fisheries officer but knowing the rules may stop the heavy fines being dished out for excessive catch. 2 travellers in our area last year were fined $1000 per fish over the limit.

hey faulkner fam, yeah thats right, its a proposal not a law, and yeah even pinks keep very well in good bags

hey twict, no im not keeping whole fish mate, would be a waste imo, fillet every arvo and vac straight away, my family loves fish but not whole, they are a bit too spoiled for that :)

  Fair enough about trip allocation, that is what is allowed on the upcoming charter i am going on. 5 day charter 10 kg fillets max per person. It is proposed that up my way fingermark are to be reduced to 2 per day 4 per trip per person.  I will need to update as the rules do need to be kept up with, ignorance is not an excuse according to fisheries. Does the iki really make that much difference ? I bleed into a tub of water until bleed out and fillet on board straight on ice until home. The vac packing is probably an option to explore, what price for good vac pack ?

vac is mint mate, your fish will smell like ocean after 12 month or longer, no freezer burn and and and :)

good one will cost you 250-300 bucks, plus i think it was something like 50 cent per bag on average.

worth every cent.

we spend thousands and thousands on boats rods trips and so on, so dont save at one of the most important parts.

10kg? hm why they half it? what charter is it?

We do all of the above, in adition we always bring back a big bucket of fresh clean seawater. We hav found that most of the water supplied at cleaning stations is normally bore or artisian based. We clean the fillets with the supplied water then rinse them in the salt water, this tends to get rid of the bore taste. Just before you vac pac your fish, pat it down with a paper towel to remove excess water, it all helps maintain the great original taste.I hope this helps.

cheers & be safe   Rob

You can get cheap bags on ebay.

they are exactly the same as in shops.

 try this one out. after filleting the fish, dont even wash it, wipe off the fillet with a knife or rag. freeze it in vac sealed bag and when you thaw it just before you cook it wash down slightly. you wouldnt believe the taste diff. we first tried this a few years back and wont go back now. we used to wash in clean salt water from out deep , not any more. try a fillet done both ways and you will notice the difference in the taste. we gave one guy a fillet of pinkie up in shark bay and he swore it was red emp, he said he never tasted pinkie so nice 

yeah we do the same, fillets off, then yst dry with some paper towels bevore vac and thats it, washing them with fresh water or even bore water is bad