How Long Can You Leave a Fish Out of Fridge

[Scotth]

I was wondering, how long can you leave a dead fish before refridgeration?
For example, I might catch a few over a couple of hours...put them in my water bucket. I usually trade smaller legal ones for bigger ones as I go and let the smaller ones go. I like to only take a couple home.

Sometimes the larger ones coak it in the bucket. I mightn't notice them for half an hour. So I will gut and scale them but they might have been a goner for an hour. Then it might take me half an hour to get home.

My lady, the other night, took the catch home for me but she didn't bother putting them in teh fridge. I stayed on with teh kids for another hour and a half. When I got home I saw the fish on the sink. I was worried as to whether they would be OK or not?

In the bush we might knock over a sheep or a beast and hang em over night ready to set and then cut em up the next morning. As I am a newby to the coast I was wondering if they were left on the sink for a couple of hours would they still be OK? They were gutted and scaled and it was a cool night of about 15degrees?

Be good to find out if the would make us crook without actually having to go through the process of getting crook to find out!

[Gold_Coast_Chaser]

Hey Scott,

Id say they were probably fine to eat, sometimes ill go out for 4-5 hours and just put bream in a bucket of fresh saltwater (if i dont have some sort of slurry) and sometimes they sit in that bucket all trip and they'll be fine by the end of the day, so i dont see how leaving on a sink would be any worse than that unless it had dried out.

Hope that helps.

[Reel Nauti]

They'd be fine in that temperature. But it is a good idea to refridgerate/chill them asap. Grab yourself a bag of party ice and throw it in the esky when you go. Keeps the drinks cool and sanga's fresh and looks after the fish. Cheap insurance for a couple of dollars.

Cheers

Dave

[RayDeR]

G'day!

Even a couple of 2 litre bottles of water frozen (leave a gap for expansion) will takes ome time to thaw and will cool a bucket or esky with water in it. The water can be an extra water supply for drinking or washing hands too.

I actually use a couple of large Wilow freezer blocks. Before them ! used to freeze 2 x 2 litre ice cream cans of water. I put them in an esky with about 6 litres of sea wateror enough to keep fish covered.


I like to be sure with any fish I catch particularly with dead bait etc on my hands. Also if fishing in the daytime the sun can lift temperatures quickly above the temp where problems can occur.

Ray De R

[FNQCairns]

As a young fella, well before I became all edumucated and then modern day sophisticated I used to catch fish and leave them unchilled for easy 6 hours always bleed but I don't think gutted, the result may not have been 4 star restaurant in quality but they were fine and eaten by many with never a problem over the years, this was in a temperate region.

That said only you know what they have been through.

I used to ride my tredly from Caboolture to Bribie surfside early morning thow slices at the Taylor bag a few, head to the jetty side, plastic/lure up a couple of Flathead bag them also then get picked up at 3pm or so and driven home so up to 6 hours with fish in a wet hession bag kept in the shade.

Caught a sand crab on one of these trips - it didn't make the table.

cheers fnq

[cqfreshie]

Years ago all my fish went into a damp sugar bag, for anything up to 10 hours. Today, with ice and good cold boxes, and all the other mod cons...we've lost that ruggedness.

We're softies. Our gut can't take any bugs now, our skin breaks out at the first sign of a nastie, allergies everywhere.

Remember, the ice box is only a modern inovation. Mankind survived on unfrozen food for many thousands of years before now.

[johnny roger]

scotth,
all the above advise is exlent, but just stop and think of the aboriginies of the gulf country. no power, no fridge, only a dug out canoe where they would fish all day in the sun. i wasnt around all those years ago to tell you whether or not they got sick, but i think not. now im not saying throw away your engel or anything, but common sense goes a long way. as with any food, if left in the sun it will go off quicker, so if your fish was in the house, on a stainless sink which would have been cooler again, then they would have been fine.
i read on another thread that if you dont have any means of keeping a fish cool, wet a cloth or rag or something and lay it over the fish. evaporation creates a cooling effect.
John

[TimiBoy]

Years ago all my fish went into a damp sugar bag, for anything up to 10 hours.

Oh God I remember that. Under 10 years old when Dad used to fish (before Mum died) and I used to hate the texture of that wet old sack! And you couldn't see the fish you'd caught!