Depends on the temps. If it's cool (low 40's) you can keep it raw. If it's in the low 50's you could keep it cooked (or smoked) and salted.

Best bet is to fish in the morning. It's often a good time to fish.

Thing is the dangerous pathogens thrive on protein and moisture. If it wasn't cool it's not a risk I would take though it is more than likely that no harm will come of it.  One possibility on a cool night is salt and a little lemon juice.

Best just to rise early and wet a line.

I usually go paddling in Mid-May, where temps can go from freezing to hot, all in the same day.
I troll as I paddle and if the weather is warm, this is what I do to keep fish cool and edible.
I did it in 2006, and paddled all day in 80 degree temps and the fish was fine for supper that night.
Fillet/gut fish and put in appropriate size zip lock bag. Go to bank and get a couple of the canvas money bags they give customers for change.
I soak bag and secured shut with a Bungee Dealee Bob and put under my seat out of the sun.
About every half-hour, I re- soak the bag.
You would do the same thing overnight, except you wouldn't have to re-soak bag, just soak it good, and hang with food pack or separate,  the bag needs to be free to evaporate to keep the fish cool.
Unless it was during the hottest part of the paddling season, I think this would work just fine.
Others on here put fish in watertight containers and anchor offshore in cold water.
I think in hotter weather, that would be the ticket, but if the night temps are say 60 degrees or less, I think you'd be okay?
Of course, being fish there's no guarantee's and you should do what you feel most comfortable with

To add to Wally's comments.  On the trip where we first saw this idea, we all fished in the evening, filleted the fish, put them in the cooler with the first aid ice packs and ate them the next night.  they were still cool on some hi 80's days.  

Thank everyone for the ideas and advice. I'll be up in the Q end of August so I have a mix of fairly warm days and cooler nights, sometimes very cold indeed. I like both the sink method and the chem pack method.

A side note on the sinking, when filtering water to drink I have a 30' hose extension for my purifier. Attached to it is a 2 ounce fishing weight that brings it down. I can get water thats pretty darned cold for adult beverages or a near ice cold gatorade.   It doesn't stay cold for long, but it sure is nice when its really hot out and the route was portage heavy.

Splice a 20' section of parachute cord onto your stringer. It gives the walleyes enough line to swim away from the turtle/otters. Never had them gone in the AM when I do that.

solotripper wrote on May 15^th, 2008 at 7:19pm:


That's because the fish had no incentive in the game while the snapper did.....the fish were gonna get eaten either way. 

Snow_Dog wrote on May 15^th, 2008 at 11:31pm:


 YES, but better to die by a sharp fillet knife and consumed in a delicious meal (for me), than be eaten in chunks by a hungry snapper
  I'm sure that old turtle would have a similar argument

Yeah, stringer from camp here. I don't like fish that taste like fish. That's the flavor of decomposition and storing fillets for any lengthy time defeats the "fresh" aspect so I clean 'em in the morning. The nerves need to be firing for the breading to penetrate. 

One of the nylon snaps or two work for me for a fish or two per line. Much more than that seems to increases the turtle's odd plus one is bound to end up belly up by the second morning if for some reason they haven't been consumed. More fish = more lines out. That's the nice thing about the nylon snaps.

Northerns tend to be pesky once in a great while but that's normally when the stringer is short and attached to the boat!

gamble on the snappers and the otters. have certainly "crapped out" on occasion but more times than not we are feasting on fillets when the sun comes up and not hanging onto a couple body-less heads on the stringer.

have seen some paddler made cribs here and there which is an intriguing option since the fish stand more of a chance when they are free to swim, kick and fight. might be more of an aviary target though. any stories here?

thebutcher

JJS,

Your turtle comment reminded me of being on that big island on Bentpine Lk, ( the one with the big logging chain).
I intently filling water bottles for the next day, when a HUGE snapper stuck his head out of the water, so close it startled me.
 He sort of treaded water for at least a couple of minutes, staring at me like a hungry dog.
 I finally noticed that there was some signs in the shallow water that people had cleaned fish there.
Apparently, he was the camp turtle and was looking for a handout.
I went for my camera, but of course he was swimming away when I got back.
 I bet more than one fisherman has had the bejeezers scared out him, when "FIDO" popped up in front of him

Now that's what i call a portage monkey

solotripper wrote on May 18^th, 2008 at 5:16pm:


That turtle got a couple of walleye when I camped on that site. I was taking a lazy nap and only to be rudely awaken by swearing and splashing and as "Fido" was persuaded to leave. After that we saw huge snapping turtle on the paddle the next and at our next campsite. (Which also had a huge fish crib)

" I bet more than one fisherman has had the bejeezers scared out him, when "FIDO" popped up in front of him "

ST,
That line made me laugh. I will confess that a similar "Fido" once produced a fine scorch mark on my shorts one morning, too!    Whew!!!
Wind-in-Face

Over the years I've stayed at several campsites with a local camp snapping turtle in residence. 
We had walleyes on a stringer overnight on one trip, woke up to find a smallish northern with one of the walleyes held crosswise in its mouth.  He didn't let go till we nearly pulled him out of the water with the stringer of fish.
I doubt that fish fillets would go bad overnight, especially if salted a bit and sealed in a ziplock.  I wouldn't try keeping them longer than for breakfast tho.
The sinking into cold water method sounds nearly fail-safe.