fish hold
 

What's the best way to deal with ice, blood and the mess that ends up in the fish hold? It has a drain hole but I don't want all that stuff running down under the gas tank into the bilge. On my previous boat I had a macerator pump installed under the drain hole that would suck it dry. Cant do that here as there is no access. I was thinking of getting an insert or fish bag. Any thoughts?
-Robert

I agree with you...dont want fish slim in the bildge.

I use a big cooler for fish and use the floor box for bumpers and rope.

I'd rather not have a cooler taking up deck space. Some of the fishing we do can get quite "Chinese firedrillish" and coolers can get in the way. Its an I/O and the engine cover is already an issue.

-Robert

CREATE access and install a macerator

What he said. Buy a $15 acces panel, cut a hole, 5200 the bejezus out of it, and screw it in place.

Yup. not a hard job. I put one (a hatch) in near my captains chair in an area that had a huge void in it but no access to it. Now I have a nice, large, under deck storage area that previously was just wasted space. It's actually a fairly easy thing to do. Most hatches come with an installation template. Just scribe the cutout onto your deck, cut it out, and then screw and caulk the hatch into place. Easy.

HMMMMMMM I wonder if I can find a rectangular waterproof hatch the size of the fish hold and put a liner in it... would be really nice to have DRY storage there

Only thing you have to be careful about is the strength of the hatch material. Most are made of some sort of plastic, and a large one would not be good to stand on I think. Might be better to make one out of f-glass or starboard.

if you are catching big fish, a good fish bag is hard to beat.

+1 on the fish bag. Folds and takes up very little room when not in use. Keep your ice in the bags in your fish hold, pull out the fish bag once you need it and transfer some ice to the bag & fish, then put it wherever you want. A couple other things - makes it easy to offload the catch, easy to clean the bag, and when the dnr stops you they don't have to bother boarding you to count/measure fish - just hand them the bag. Mine saved our butts when we landed a 50lb class yft, no way was gonna fit anywhere but the bag. I keep looking to stuff a big wahoo in it one day. :pray: