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The best way to keep fish on the beach might not be what you want to hear. To ensure the freshest catch possible, it would be ideal to pull fish off your hook and drop them straight into an iced down cooler.
Depending on where you’re fishing, that’s not necessarily ideal. Dragging a huge cooler full of ice to the beach isn’t anyone’s idea of a good time. Let’s discuss what your options are.
Fish Stringer
Wade fishermen often tether fish to themselves, or stake them in the water on a stringer. A beach fisherman, in theory, could do the same, especially on calm surf days along the Gulf Coast. But, that’s not really my idea of surf fishing. I like my feet firmly planted on the sand when fishing from the beach.
If you ever decide to tether fish, or stake them in the waves, you’ll want to keep them far away from your body. So, you’ll either need a very long stringer, or you’ll need to stake them somewhere away from your body. If a curious shark decides to have a taste of your catch, you don’t want to be anywhere near it. If a shark pulls on the stringer, just let him have it, and move away, because it’s not worth it.
Place Your Fish In A Ditch
Some beaches have ditches and holes along the edge of the water. If you’re near one that’s deep enough, you could keep your fish alive in the ditch. Again, not really a great option, except in certain places, and in somewhat rare scenarios along the beach. If you’re lucky enough to have such a feature, place your fish in a mesh bag, or on a stringer, so they don’t flop out of the hole, or otherwise escape.
Insulated Fish Bags
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There are many insulated fish bag options on the market. Many of them are geared specifically towards kayak fishermen. But, you can use those on the beach as well.
Since block ice stays frozen longer than crushed ice, that’s what I use to cool my catch down in the bag. Several frozen 1 liter water bottles will do the trick. You should ideally kill a fish before putting it into any sort of bag.
An Ice mule, as pictured above, works well for this, but they are pricey. They have incorporated slings and straps for easy carry. The Ice Mule is just one example of many options like this out there. Make sure to get something with handles, or a sling of some sort, for easy carry over the sand.
Backpack or Backpack Coolers
Similar to an Ice Mule, there are many other backpack coolers on the market that will work well for storing fish on the beach. Pay careful attention to the size, to make sure it’s big enough for the fish you plan to keep. You should be able to shove several frozen water bottles, and a limit of pompano into a 30 can backpack cooler with no problem.
A nice benefit of backpack coolers is that you can also strap your other gear to the sides of it for easy carry to the beach.
Homemade Backpack Cooler
You can also create a makeshift backpack cooler using a cheap backpack, garbage bags, and a cheap windshield visor. Line the inside of your backpack with a large trash bag, then use a cheap windshield visor as your insulating layer, then add another trash bag inside the insulation to hold your fish and ice. 2 or 3 frozen 1 liter water bottles should do nicely to keep such a small space cooled down for a good while.
Bury Your Catch
If you’re fishing during a cooler season, you could bury your fish a couple feet deep near the shore line. This will keep them cool, and hopefully fresh, for a short while at least. I would not try this with a more perishable species such as mackerel.
If you ever bury fish, be sure to mark the location! One way to mark your spot is to run a stringer through the fish’s mouth and leave the end of the stringer lying on top of the sand. You’d probably be OK burying fish for an hour or two, but it just depends on how cold the sand is.
Keep A Cooler In Your Automobile
If you’re fishing somewhere that you can drive onto the beach, or at least park very close to your spot, a cooler in your automobile is the best option. Simply stop what you’re doing and take your keeper to the car.
A car cooler, however, isn’t a great option when you have to park a long distance from your fishing spot. But, even in that case, it’s still ideal to keep a backup larger cooler in your vehicle. You never know when you might catch something large that you want to keep.
Using A Cooler On A Surf Cart
Fishing in locations where you can’t drive on the beach, begs the use of a surf cart. If you have a surf cart, or can afford to buy one, this is the best option for transporting a cooler across soft sand.
A good surf cart will float a fairly heavy cooler effortlessly across the sand. Normal pneumatic cart tires will work well in many places with hard packed sand. But, when fishing along the gulf coast, you’re better off with a cart that has the bigger orange tires, or the balloon tires.
If you’re lucky enough to have a surf cart, just pick a hard sided cooler that will fit nicely inside of it.
Handheld Soft Sided Coolers
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Nowadays, there are lots of good hand held coolers on the market. Find something like the Yeti Hopper above, but cheaper, and that will work great as a fish cooler. You want something lightweight, because those ounces really add up quickly when you’re carrying them across loose sand.
Jetty Walker Or Alice Pack Frame
A Jetty Walker is a solid aluminum backpack made for fishing the beach and the jetties. You can strap a cheap plastic cooler to it, along with the rest of your gear. Check out the Jetty Walker at http://www.olsaltystackle.com.
A U.S. Army Alice pack frame is the same concept, and possibly a better solution. ALICE stands for All-Purpose Lightweight Individual Carrying Equipment (ALICE). You don’t want the actual pack, but rather just the frame and the straps. These are readily available on eBay and military surplus stores. There is a cargo shelf attachment also available for Alice packs that makes them very similar to a Jetty Walker. You can place a cooler on this shelf, and strap it to the pack. It’ll, of course, take a little ingenuity on your part on how exactly to set it up.
Laying Fish On The Sand
There seems to be anecdotal stories of people just throwing their keeper fish on the sand for a short while before heading home. I certainly would not suggest you do this. Apparently some species are more durable than others, and can handle such treatment in cool weather. I don’t know. I wouldn’t do it no matter what the species is. The way I look at it is, if it’s warm enough for me to be surf fishing, it’s warm enough for a fish to spoil rather quickly.
Conclusion
When it comes to keeping fish on the beach, there really isn’t a great substitute for a cooler with ice. How you get that cooler to the beach is the tricky part. Hopefully this gave you some workable ideas that you can try.
If you decide to purchase a cooler, backpack, or cooler bag, you should try to stick with lighter colors, as they help thwart the sun’s rays.
Good Luck
Augustus Clay
If you found this article helpful, you might also enjoy some of my other saltwater fishing articles such as this one – Surf Fishing Supply List For Beginners
