Occasionally I will keep a fish or two when fishing to eat. I noticed in the last post about vests that someone mentioned a creel. If you carry a creel when you fish, what kind do you carry? I have looked at the big box stores and have not found any creels that I consider very practical or functional. Mostly I see the wicker creels and I think they are too large for my tastes. Are there other forms, kinds of creels that you have seen or used that you would like to share? A friend of mine sometimes just takes zip lock bags. That certainly is the minimalist approach. However, I would just like to know what might be useful or available for that purpose. Thanks
I don’t have any experience with creels. However if I am fishing for food I keep a cooler in the truck or on the boat stocked with ice. For trout I gut and gill them as soon as possible and put them on ice again as soon as I can. For lighter fleshed fish, I just put them on ice and clean them later. I will either keep my first 2 or 3 or my last 2 or 3 and get them on ice as quickly as I can. For really dark or oily fish, I will either fillet them as soon as I catch them, if that is legal, or I will bleed them out by ringing around the tail deeply and keeping the fish in the water until it stops bleeding.
I do know that a creel should keep the fish cool. So a light colored creel is better. You also want one that breaths very well. Evaporation cools things, so you want as much of that to happen while your fish is in the creel. Wicker models worked by lining them with green leaves or ferns and over the fish. Any breeze passed through the wicker into the leaves and the increased surface area of the green leaves increase evaporation and kept the fish cool for a time. If you aren’t using ice, you want to recreate this process with whatever creel you use. Meaning rubber creels with a few drain holes are not recomended.
Thats my $.02 and I am sure others have recomendations on actual modles. Good Luck.
i dont keep any fish, or eat fish for that matter. i’m wierd i know.
but i’ve seen some wicker creels in cabelas. for a modest price.
Dale: I keep quite a few trout to eat without problems. I bought one of those cheap carrybags that you use to put a sixpack of drink into for a picnic/football game. I put a couple of those prefozen ice packets in it and a ziplock bag. I gut the trout as soon as possible, put them in the ziplock and in my portable cooler. When I get back to the truck they go into my regular Coleman cooler. Plus you can stick a lot of fishing stuff in the spare pockets.
Tim
I’ve been using a creel for years. It was a cheapie that I bought at Wally World years ago just after A River Runs Through It came out. I love it. They do make some canvas creels that are not so bulky, I saw one at Dick’s last time I was there.
Hope this helps.
Thunderthumbs.
Thanks guys for the good suggestions. The cooler and the canvas creel sound pretty functional. I’ll check them out.
I have a creel made of Scottish flax-it has a vinyl liner & you just dip the creel in the water. Supposedly, the water evaporating cool your catch. The only times I use mine are the couple times a year that I keep gills for the freezer, & I transfer the fish to the ice in my cooler as soon as I get near the Jeep. BTW, these creels generally cost between $0.00 & $45.00. Gander Mountain sells a cheaper edition made of canvas… I honestly don’t know how that would compare.
Mike
[b]FlyFlopper…
Here is the classic canvas flax creel:
http://www.yagersflies.com/arctic-creels.html
I?ve had one since I was 14. (That?s 50 years ago.)
Still as good as the day I bought it.
All you have to do is dip them in the water once in a while and evaporation takes care of the cooling. They are lined in plastic sheeting, (for ease of cleaning), with another piece of plastic on the back of the creel to keep the wet canvas off of you if you are wearing street cloths and not waders.
You?ll love it.
DickM.[/b]
When I’m on my pontoon or float tube, I drag a nylon mesh, zippered live well behind me if I plan to keep fish. On the river, and (for example) after I bonk the fish in the live well and head for the truck, I use a canvas and plastic PolarCreel. Then they go in the ice chest. I like to eat Grayling, they are overpopulated here, and they spoil REALLY fast after being bonked. The live well + polarcreel has worked great for gettiing them home fresh to the smoker.
If you have a big group, a long drive, and are fishing somewhere you can all ethically bring home a limit, buy some dry ice and a couple local newspapers in town as soon as you get off the lake. Wrap the dry ice in newspaper, and layer the fish between the blocks. Flash frozen on the drive home!
DANBOB
Hey Dale,
I posted the link to this once before, but if you want to see some of the nicest creels I’ve ever seen check them out here! http://www.diamondbairdlureco.com go to the creel section and get ready to drool!
Simply Exquisite! :shock:
Terry
First off let me say you should kill your fish with a quick slice to the gills to bleed them out. Then gut them right away . This keeps their flavor and keepability greatly.
I’d like to add a note to those newbies out there about plastic bags.
Putting your catch in a ziploc bag with a bit of water is the quickest way to ruin a fish. They will fare better in the open air than in plastic. One of the easiest ways to keep fish fresh is to place them in wet grass in an open container in the shade. Better yet is to have some ice or one of those freezer pac’s in a cooler.
Out in the boat in the hot sun what to do about keepers? I take along a roll of paper towels to individually wrap each fish comlpetely. Then dip them in the water till the paper towel is dripping wet. Place them out of the sun with a damp towel over them to keep them shady at all times. ( I found out the hard way, don’t let your wife see you using one of the towels for keeping bloody fish cool ) This will keep them fresh till you can get them back on shore and into some ice or the fridge.
I have a buddy who always puts his fish in a plastic bag, The kind you get at the grocery store. He tosses this in the bottom of the boat directly in the sunlight. I have never seen him eat a fish so I asked him if he did . His astounding answer was, Nope trout are too mushy I cook them and give them to my dogs. I gave him the straight skinny on the care of his catch but he wasn’t interested. Finally
one day we were fishing in my boat, I kept a fish properly while he did his bag in the sun trick. As we arrived home I made him feel the firmness of my catch as opposed to his mushy one. Then had barbequed trout and made him eat some . FINALLY the dime dropped. He has since he mended his ways. He now eats trout and the dogs have to make do with dog food.
I believe we have a moral obligation to take proper care of the fish we kill.
I could be wrong, Its possible I suppose, however unlikely. I don’t make mistrakes.
GBF…I totally agree with your points about the care…especially the plastic bag thing although if the bag has ice in it and a means to drain the water out then I think it works…
About the moral thing…agree to a point…an obligation not to waste…your buddy didn’t care for the meat however he didn’t waste it…
My Dad and I used to go rabbit hunting…ate the cottontails and cooked the jackrabbits for the dogs…
Hey Terry those Diamond Baird creels are definately drooling material!!! Thanks for that link.
Might be wrong but pretty sure Cabelas had basic canvas creels or bags in their catalogue… I used a similar one when I did some surf fishing, a canvas outer and plastic liner, was real good and cleaned easily.
Yup - found it: ArctiCreel Item:IH-310422
I’m another one that says stay away from plastic bags. Many yrs ago the AZ g/f had a news letter. It said to stay away from plastic bags because of the taste they gave to fish. I suppose that the plastic bag chemistry has changed over the yrs but I still stay way from them on the rare times I keep a fish. If you want to freeze your fish do it in the paper milk carton filled with water, not a plastic bag. Wet newspaper and wet brown paper bag work in all but the hottest temps to get fish safely home much like the canvas water bags kept water cool yrs ago
Hey everybody; watch out for this Terry guy; he has a nasty habit of introducing you to stuff that makes you drool and then you have to have one; then you become hooked and start selling your wife’s clothes so you can buy stuff. He once mentioned Mike McFarland to me and now I steal old clothes off of clotheslines so I have the money to buy fiberglass fly rods!
Sweet creels!!! Any idea how much they go for 'cause I didn’t see any prices.
Sweet creels!!! Any idea how much they go for 'cause I didn’t see any prices.
Probably alot! If the price is not there.
You might try to contact him?
I don’t want to! There aren’t enough clotheslines in my area!
[quote=“Bamboozle”]
I don’t want to! There aren’t enough clotheslines in my area![/quote]
:shock: