I count myself quite fortunate to be in the company of of a very knowledgable partner this past trip. I learned quite a bit and am a better canoe country camper for it.

One of the tips that was driven home had been discussed several times on this forum but never really sunk in. Anybody else like that? Finally the light bulb went on when he pulled into camp holding a small wet canvas type bag. Inside was a ziplock bag of fish filets. Dinner anyone?

I was a bit surprised at the evaporative effect (yes I know we have talked about it at length already).....the bag and the fish were quite cool to the touch. The idea is to wet the small canvas bag, tuck the filets in a ziplock and keep it out of the sun.

The benefits are self evident. First off you don't have to clean fish in camp. That in itself is a big plus. Secondly, you don't have to pull a fish around on a stringer which not only causes you to work harder but the filets are continually degrading in quality.

Remember to keep the bag wet and it must be of a material that retains some water so the evaporating process takes place. Don't let the bag dry out. I have a hunch that the hungry camper could keep fish filets for at least a few hours this way, maybe substantially longer if conditions were right.

I try and pay attention but sometimes things just don't sink in until you see it in practice. I have contacted my R&D department and the bags may soon be available at MT enterprises.com in standard and custom colors (camo is extra). Give it a try if you haven't already, it will certainly be standard procedure for me in the future.

It always helps to see things in practice. You can easily keep fillets you bagged in the morning and have them for dinner. I have no qualms about 24 hours with day time temps at 89 and night time at 69. They don't quiver when you bread 'em but they still smell and taste fine.

I do bring along a little bottle of bleach for the gauzy towel I wrap fish and/or filtered water in and my water bottle cozy. After a few days they get that sour dish rag odor so I boil/bleach whatever bacteria that causes that smell away every few nights.

Cleaning fish in camp was never a good idea anyway - even when there were enough gulls waiting... and fish never did portage well hanging from a stringer.

I use a canvas coin bag I got from my bank.
I've done it for years.
While in military, I saw a Sgt, sleeve his metal canteen in a old green wool sock and soak before marches in hot weather.
A cool drink of water is a real treat after a 20 mile march!
I started doing it with my backpacking water bottles and continued into my paddling trips.
I caught a small LT on Jean, early morning heading for the east end of Sturgeon lk.
I cut it's head off/gutted and put in gallon ziplock then bank sack and secured with Bungee Bob.
By the time I hit Sturgeon it was in 90's, no wind.
I just kept wetting bag and storing under seat out of the sun.
End of day, the fish felt like it had been in a cooler all day.
I think the effect would even be greater on smaller fillets.
IF you haven't tried this method, I think you'd be pleasantly suprised convenient/conveinent it is.
I've also left fillets in wet bag, and hung with food pack overnight. Fresh fish for layover day breakfast is hard to beat.
A little care packaging them will reduce the odor to near zero so I never had a worry/issue with Yogi being attracted to the combination.

ive heard you guys discuss this method in the past but ive never done it myself. we found a method that works for us so its hard to stray from that.

we basecamp, so its not as big of an issue of keeping fillets.

the method we use is 4 nylon bags, they were designed as sand holders for pop up canopy legs. for the trip in, they serve as wraps for the pan/kettle/tongs so keep the blackened ash/sharp edges from touching anything.

once we are at our basecamp, one bag is filled with rocks. the walleye fillets are put inside a plastic sandwich bag with a twist tie. the lake trout fillets are put in a brine of salt and lemon juice. the fillets are thrown in another nylon bag. both bags are hooked to a carabiner on the end of a 15 ft piece of paracord. they are sunk off of steep dropoff of the island we stay on. the fillets soak below the thermocline for as long as we need them. never had any go bad this way.

jaximus wrote on Sep 3^rd, 2013 at 4:09am:

the lake trout fillets are put in a brine of salt and lemon juice.

Are you cooking the trout with the lemon juice? If so, do you also bake for peace of mind as well?.

I had a girlfriend that use to brown chicken and finish cooking in lemon juice for our big 4th of July parties. It was really good. I always wondered how it would work with fish on a trip.

db wrote on Sep 3^rd, 2013 at 6:08am:

jaximus wrote on Sep 3rd, 2013 at 4:09am: the lake trout fillets are put in a brine of salt and lemon juice. Are you cooking the trout with the lemon juice? If so, do you also bake for peace of mind as well?

when we want to eat the trout, we simply drain the old lemon juice brine out(it gets all oily), take the fillets and toss them in an aluminum foil pouch with a dash of salt, enough lemon juice to keep the fillet moist, some lemon pepper, and a bit of onion powder. seal the bag and toss it over the fire for the first 8 minutes or so (till its about to burst) then poke a few holes and give it another 5 mins. right before you want to eat it, poke holes through the bottom to let all the juice out and brown the bottom just a bit. should be flaky opaque pink/orangy meat. if its clearish, leave it on longer

I'm so confused.....I have done lakers whole, only once over the fire in foil. Pretty good.

But my education continues. On my most recent trip it was standard fare to do filets over the fire in foil. However my accomplice did not poke any holes in the foil to drain the juice as we sort of liked dipping the filets in the juices. Pretty tasty. There also didn't seem to be any concern about the foil "bag" bursting. We used a grill of sorts and cooked over an open fire as opposed to coals.

Now Jaximus, who also sounds like this is common practice for him and his crew, pokes holes in the foil to drain the juice and perhaps "brown" the bottom a bit which also sounds like it might be a good idea. Will that dry the laker out? I suppose it is all good when you are hungry.

i make my foil bags really tightly sealed so they boil faster and swell up. its my camping timer. when they get ready to burst, poke some holes in the top.

as for the holes in the bottom, it doesnt really dry it out so much as burn off the oils and make the fillets more flaky

we cook over fire/coals/whatever the other guys have going when im ready to throw the fish on.

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Back to 'keeping filets'. If you want to keep them more than a few hours, as in overnight, use the same ziplock/canvas bag system. Add a couple of small smooth rocks to canvas bag. Make sure you've gently squeezed all air from bag. Tie a long piece of rope to canvas bag. Lower it over 25-30' or so, of water (another use for depthfinder). Tie other end to shore at camp. In the morning, just paddle out to where you can pull it straight up to avoid snags. Fish for breakfast!!! ;)

Back in the old days, we used to call these "swamp coolers" - sounds like something from Florida, no?

The fancy chemical engineering name for it is "evaporative cooling": the cooling effect comes from the evaporation of the water in the wet cloth. So the more evaporation you get, the more your fillets get cooled. It won't work as well when it's really humid outside, and it will work better when there's lots of air flow across the wet cloth. A cloth that has lots of surface area (like burlap) will work better than something with a tight weave like cotton or nylon.

db's bleach idea is a good one: bleach is a *very* powerful bactericide, so you only need a drop or two in a couple of litres of water to kill all the bacteria.

But you don't want to push the swamp cooling thing too far. The restaurant business has something they call the "four-hour rule". According to this rule, you don't want to leave anything longer than four hours at room temperature before it becomes a health and safety issue. I don't know how conservative that rule is, and how much extra time you get from in-boat cooling is up to you. Just sayin' there's limits!