What's the best way to minimize weight loss if you had say eight hours or more before you could get it on a scale?

hypothetical question. No I am not waiting to weigh anything.

saltwater ice slush :kewl:

saltwater/raw water ice even better ;)

Water and lots of ice

If icewater slush is not available, place the fish in a big bin bag (33 gal or bigger), placed in a freshwater icewater bath in a cooler. Lost less than 1/2lb on a 26lb fish overnight that way.

Once put a large fish in the bath tub overnite with several bags of ice. It was late fall and no place open after 7 PM.

Once put a large fish in the bath tub overnite with several bags of ice. It was late fall and no place open after 7 PM.

shee-it ...we used to use the tubs at the Pilgrim Springs for our coolers...I thought that was common pratice..:rotf3: I tried it at home......once..:1poke:

bath tub... 10 bags of ice ...

saltwater ice slush :kewl:

saltwater/raw water ice even better ;)


or

blocks of ice and wrap the fish in a towel or two soaked in seawater in the cooler

I usually lay the fish on its back(dorsal down) and ice both sides of the fish to keep them fresh, not necessarily to avert weight loss.
At the risk of starting controversy, I will tell you a fish's weight loss is negligible at best. They simply do not lose much weight once dead. When I hear someone say they had a live 50 but it was 48 on the official scale, I laugh to myself. I caught and sold fish for 20 years on the cape. I would get a fish at night, somtimes weigh it on the spot then sell it the next day. The weight rarely, if ever, was different.Sometimes the fish would lay in the sand or floor of my boat all night with no ice.

There can be certain circumstances where a fish might appear to be heavier.U pull a fish onto the beach with a big plug cross it's mouth u might notice it's belly is fat..IMO they will take on water.I have had em burp out what seemed like a 1/2 gallon of water quite a while after I have landed em.This certainly happens in current.Off the bridges we used to say we drowned em.So when u pull one off the beach an scale it.There is a great possibility that It could be 2-3 lbs lighter when it hits the scales. Not much u can do about it either.I, like BB believe the weight loss is minimum on a well iced fish.Perhaps trying eyes read the small numbers on them boga's

When I worked at a tackle shop we had a cooler that I would put my fish in whenI caught them at night. As an experiment I would weight the fish that night and then again in the morning when I opened up the shop. The weight loss was generally only 1 /4 lb.That said ,they can lose water weight as my esteemed collegue Mr Nibs has stated.I bet if you put a cork in the butt and didn't turn the fish upside down you would save weight,but then is all that nasty fluid part of the fish? I suppose it is important if a boat is riding on it.

Ice and a cooler. Bass will not lose much weight this way. I caught a 32 pound bass on Cutty last year and it weighed 32 and a half the next morning. Three days later at Erickson's-32 even

My experience back when I used to comm the back beaches was that I found that for every 3 hours I had a fish laying on the beach, it lost about a pound, but never more than 3 pounds. That was just laying in the sand. ...But you could get a bout 3 pounds of sand eels down ones throat... People Ice fish????

AAhhhh, good ol Pilgrim Springs. The tubs there were good for eel tanks too......
Remember one of my cohorts back then had a 48 he was going to mount. The mounter guy said to keep it cold, but not to let it soak in water. He said to lay it on top of ice with a wet towle. Somehting about it damaging to the scales for a skin mount soaking once the fish was dead.....

Put a hose in thier mouth and fill them up with water ... Its been done .. Guys name is forever "Hoser" ... Dumbell weighed it in at one tackle shop .. took it home and hosed it ,, brought it to another and weighed it in heavier... got caught ..

By the way, Back Beach is right on about weight loss. Over night weight loss is minimal, A couple of ounces.