Kaunolu
2008-06-22 18:01:08
Please correct any wrong ideas I have here.
Freezer boat better product, better price. More work but less work. Jill and I can do it on our own/or we need a 3rd hand. Spend less in fuel going to sell product and getting fresh ice. Catch more fish do not need to leave the grounds to sell. Another entity on board, the freezer unit constantly running. Not being able to ever have peace and quiet. Expensive if breaks. Initial cost.
Ice simple efficient and inexpensive still a great product. Back breaking shoveling ice. Most boats are ice must be a reason.
Slush tanks/bags instead of icing? Seen them pulled Salmon out of them understand the theory. Why doesn't everyone use them?
I could really use some feedback on this one. Personal experience/theories anything would be helpful and appreciated.
Thank you
John
Salty
2008-06-25 16:13:53
In 1990 we spent $12,000 and converted our iced holds to slush tanks complete with plumbing. About three years later I ripped out the fuel tanks in the Lazerette and built three 1,000 lb tanks there. We hold 11,000 pounds slushed round chums in brailer bags when plugged now. I have done it in one day so have an accurate idea.
It is a wonderful system. We do not shovel ice anymore. The holds are quick and easy to clean. The brailer bags clean up quickly and we sterilize rinse every bag after cleaning now. We can and have layer iced into the brailer bags when contemplating a long (5 day) king trip. I have had over 300 kings either iced or slushed in her several times.
There are a couple of keys to brailer bag slushing or icing. First, it really helps us to have a good hydraulic winch and boom for moving bags of ice around. Both for unloading and for adding ice to the slushed tanks holding fish. We also pull a bag out when we are layer icing to belly ice and add ice over the fish.
I commonly plan to use five tanks with a capacity of a little over 5, 000 pounds for most troll trips. Often I only use 2 or three tanks in the winter or spring on a trip. Thus the main hold becomes an ice storage facility until needed.
The key is to have lots of brailer bags. I have 33. The maximum I ever use for fish is 15. But I really need 33. For a typical summer trip I put ice in 20 different bags. I double bag and put ice in both bags in all the holds except for the two immediately forward of the landing bins where we clean and put the first fish of the trip. I just ice one bag in those bins. As the trip proceeds we use the top bags to add ice, either layers or to slush, as we ice the fish. When we need another hold we slush the bottom bags which have just the right amount of ice for the job. The 11 extra bags without ice are the ones ready to go in the holds for the next trip because I like to have clean sterilized and dry bags ready to insert in the bottoms right when we unload so we can thoroughly clean and sterilize the ones which just had fish in them. I know that this only adds up to 31 bags but it always seems that we have one or two in need of repair, mending, new bungies, straps, snaps, etc.
There is a lot more to the effective use of the brailer bag slush or icing system but this should help. I have been doing it for nearly 20 years now and I learn something significant every year.