Northwest Fishing Reports

Gringo developed a really cool system. You need these for your coolers!

Creative! Thanks for sharing.

Great idea and thanks for sharing! You told me how to do it but so much better to see it. Where do you get the insulation pieces? Also, I noticed Food Saver bags on the counter but you said Seal-a-Meal bags. Seal-a-Meal bags are 1/2 the price but I did notice a difference and went back to Food Saver Bags. Which did you use?

I am going to make some up!!!

Thanks! The bags I use are the ones from Costco. Food Saver I think. Seal-A-Meal is just my general name for them.
The foiled bubble wrap you can get at Home Depot and othe hardware store usually in the same area as insulation.

I spent last night making new bags so thought I would drop in and add an update.

#1. These bags do not stand up to crab and/or spiny ray! Both will puncture the bags and you will lose the water as they melt (a couple had small leaks from crabbing so were slowly shrinking, but that last Potholes Walleye trip killed them all)!

#2. The bags I just replaced lasted about 2 years, think about it let's say 2 bags of ice per week at $1.50 per bag is $3 per week saved, multiply that by 2 years (104 weeks) and you are looking at about $300 per year in ice! That's not including the time and hassle of making ice runs.

#3. Once you get rolling you can whip em out pretty fast. Last night I made 5 bags in about an hour.

Tight lines!

I wonder if separating the bags from the fish by a towel or burlap bag would help the issue with the spiny rays. Or some type of plastic mess thingy to separate it?

Way cool Gringo. Great idea and nice video. I have everything but the foiled insulation to do something like this. What is the cost of that stuff? And do you get it per foot?



fishnislife

fishnislife wrote:Way cool Gringo. Great idea and nice video. I have everything but the foiled insulation to do something like this. What is the cost of that stuff? And do you get it per foot?
fishnislife

I get it by the roll at Home Depot (usually in the insulation or roofing isle). You can get different widths and lengths. I just looked at the Home Depot website and you can get a 12"X15' roll for $11.98 or a 24"X10" roll for $10.85.

For me it is kinda like Tapitio or Chulula - I use that S#*t on everything. Lining heat ducts, wrapping coolers. I lined my fish box on my boat with the 1" pink foamboard to try and keep it cold, it worked, but not as well as I wanted. So I threw a layer of the foil bubblewrap on top of that and I swear it doubled how long the ice lasts in there! This last trip to potholes, I put the ice bags in the fish box on Friday morning, drove over to Potholes, spent three days fishing in mid 70's weather and when I got home there was still ice in the bags. It is really amazing how well it insulates stuff for as thin as it is.

Here is a good picture of my fish box with the ice bags in the bottom.

Mike Carey wrote:I wonder if separating the bags from the fish by a towel or burlap bag would help the issue with the spiny rays. Or some type of plastic mess thingy to separate it?

Yeah, I was thinking about that maybe some type of mesh mat like they use on the sinks in commercial kitchens.. Now I'm on the hunt

I bet that helps

Gringo Pescador wrote:

Mike Carey wrote:I wonder if separating the bags from the fish by a towel or burlap bag would help the issue with the spiny rays. Or some type of plastic mess thingy to separate it?

Yeah, I was thinking about that maybe some type of mesh mat like they use on the sinks in commercial kitchens.. Now I'm on the hunt

What about that rubbery kind of stuff they use as shelf liners? I think it might be made by rubber maid.

What do you use to attach it to the walls of your fish box? Can it be taken out to wash?

Toni wrote:

Gringo Pescador wrote:

Mike Carey wrote:I wonder if separating the bags from the fish by a towel or burlap bag would help the issue with the spiny rays. Or some type of plastic mess thingy to separate it?

Yeah, I was thinking about that maybe some type of mesh mat like they use on the sinks in commercial kitchens.. Now I'm on the hunt

What about that rubbery kind of stuff they use as shelf liners? I think it might be made by rubber maid.

What do you use to attach it to the walls of your fish box? Can it be taken out to wash?

The foil is cut to the same size as the pink and attached to the pink with heavy duty double backed tape (paint dept at Home Depot). The side and bottom panels are not permanent and can be removed and hosed down along with the fish box. The top is permanently stuck with the double back tape. You can't see it because of the ice bags but the bottom is actually split in 1/2 with a corner notched out of one panel at the middle to provide a finger hold to pull it up.

Does anyone have any feeling about how well these home-made ice packs work compared to the soft gel ice packs or the hard blue gel packs?

DavidA wrote:Does anyone have any feeling about how well these home-made ice packs work compared to the soft gel ice packs or the hard blue gel packs?

I used one today. I put it in my lunch box about 9:00am. I had cottage cheese and yogurt on it. I ate them at 6pm. Still cold. Last year did something similar but just the blue gel pack (didn't use the hard blu ones)they were luke warm. This is by far, colder longer. Within the homemade pack there was still some ice.

One more question. When putting it in the cooler, is the insulation on the top or the bottom? I was wondering if maybe insulation on the top and bottom of the ice pack might still keep things cold in there but melt even slower.

DavidA wrote:One more question. When putting it in the cooler, is the insulation on the top or the bottom? I was wondering if maybe insulation on the top and bottom of the ice pack might still keep things cold in there but melt even slower.

I always put mine ice-side up (toward what I want to stay cold). I am sure it would melt slower if you put the insulation on both sides of the pack, but then I think you would be insulating the cold from whatever it is you want to be cold.