How much can you pack?

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MattP
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How much can you pack?

Post by MattP »

I was looking at buying a hand-troller and trying to figure out what its capacity would be. Can anyone tell me roughly how much fish you can ice in a half-tote?

Thanks,

Matt
yak2you2
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Re: How much can you pack?

Post by yak2you2 »

Depends. There is several different syles of half totes available. If your going to be day tripping, might consider slush ice, it makes a lot better product and doesn't take up quite as much hold space.
Genereally speaking, you should be able to fit around 300-350 lbs. of cohos with ice into a half tote. Kings, being a little bigger, don't pack as well, so a little less.
Good luck and good fishing!
steffco
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Re: How much can you pack?

Post by steffco »

Yaks estimate sounds about right to me, FWIW
MattP
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Re: How much can you pack?

Post by MattP »

Thanks for the response Yak. I went ahead and bought my first troller. I can't wait to get started in April.

A couple questions about the slush ice. How much do you normally fill a tote up with ice in order to make it? Was also wondering how long you can keep fish on it. Is it strictly a one day thing or can you go two or three?
yak2you2
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Re: How much can you pack?

Post by yak2you2 »

I usually fill them half full of ice the night before. Run out and throw the gear in the next morning, then scoop them down to about a quarter or a third full of ice, add a couple of buckets of water, and add fish. it doesn't take much to suspend them at first. Then, when the fish level comes up above the surface, i'll add a little more of each. Keep it good and icy, because the ice will melt as you add water. If it's slushy, fish will hold for 3 days. I rarely ever have to hold them as I come home every night. Try to keep them suspended to keep the weight off of the bottom ones, but not so much that their sloshing otherwise scale loss can be a problem. Neither of these are as big a factor in a half tote as they are in a full tote or a brailer.
It just takes a few times and you'll get an eye for it. The golden rule; to much ice with you is an easy problem to fix.
Be aware of your balance side to side, and fore and aft, your first few times filling them up. In a little converted cabin cruiser like mine, the whole deck space is confined to the back third of the boat. So, if you stack 800 lbs. of fish in the back, it makes it stearn heavy. In a sloppy sea, it can cause your motors to ride dangerously close to getting swamped if your running outbaords. It also makes it really tough to get up on step at the end of the day. To counter this, I have an uninsulated tub in my house that my extra ice goes in. On a big coho day, I'll stick another 400-500 lbs. forward to balance myself. Same goes for side to side. When your conking like crazy, it's easy to forget what your doing, and throw all your fish in one tub, don't do that. Spread them out so you stay balanced. Just 20 cohos is like having another guy standing on the side of your boat. If it's possible, it's a really good idea to secure your tubs with a ratchet strap, so a heavy sea doesn't slide both to one side. Usually I'm long gone before it gets that heavy, but you never know.
One more thing, a guy gets tired at the end of the day, and if you don't think about it you'll wind up sticking the drain bung up against your bulkhead, I've done it many times. Now you either have to wrestle a tote full of fish back far enough to reach it, or reach into ice water up above your elbows to get the last few fish out when unloading.
Good luck!
Salty
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Re: How much can you pack?

Post by Salty »

As usual Yak has it just right. I also recommend No-Mar brailer bags custom fitted to your tote or slush tank. Buy two or three bags for each tote as then you will always have clean bags ready to go. Develop a system for rotating your bags. Be sure to chlorine rinse both your bags and tanks before refilling. We have a post in the Chum Troll News section from last spring on how to handle and ice round chums. A lot of that is practical for dressed salmon also. I have enough tanks so that I don't have to remove ice from a tank, I just add. Smaller totes are much easier to work with than big ones in a lot of ways.
I don't recommend slushing dressed salmon for more than 72 hours as studies show the bacteria count rising rapidly after this time. Many processors allow up to "five" days slushed dressed salmon with some trollers considering the first day as a "zero" day. So, in some cases you are allowed to deliver "6" day old slush iced dressed salmon. This is a very bad idea, particularly bad when you deliver those fish to a tender that is 12-18 hours away from the plant if he left immediately after your delivery.
Fortunately, the vast majority of us are delivering directly to the plant after 1-3 days when we are slushing. It is a good idea, if you think you might want to stretch your trip, to layer ice the first day or so instead of slushing. Layer iced fish in a tote or tank in a brailer bag lift out just as fine as slushed fish.
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Re: How much can you pack?

Post by kjwelder »

Make sure the fish are all facing the same direction in the tote or they will scale on each other. Scale means losing their scales which is a bad thing and can result in a lower price.
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