I'll be fishing for two weeks in mid November for steel head and browns and plan on taking a few of each for mounting. Question is, after i measure and skin them how do i preserve them in a cooler till I get home?
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Why don't you just mount them up while you're at it! Dude - you're on vacation - enjoy.
Seriously though, two weeks is pushing it. Think about what happens to food that you have in your fridge after two weeks.
If you don't have any local freezers nearby, why don't you just wait until the first week goes by then start collecting specimens?
Then, just make sure there's plenty of ice in the bottom of the cooler. And make sure the skins of the fish are kept up above the ice/water.
I'd wrap them in plastic tucking in the fins, then gently set them on top of each other. If you're concerned about them drying out, you could wrap them in a wet towel first.
A week might be pushing it, but I think you'd be fine...
Put your skins in alcohol. Get a couple plastic gallon jugs(wide mouth), fill one with alcohol(denatured), then you get your fish skinned put them in the other jug and add the alcohol, enough to cover the skin. They will keep indefinitely, rehydrate to soften in a borax solution and mount.
Your on vacation skinning the fish would be smelly and messy and time consuming.If only you could freeze them?
So simple, yet I didn't think of it...
Leave them on the stringer for a few days has long has other fish don't come after them and try to eat them,It might work