Slurry or Ice Only
Printed From: The Fishing Website
Category: Saltwater Fishing
Forum Name: The Briny Bar
Forum Description: The place for general chat on saltwater fishing!
URL: https://www.fishing.net.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=100598
Printed Date: 26 Jun 2026 at 4:56am
Topic: Slurry or Ice Only
Posted By: Pickles
Subject: Slurry or Ice Only
Date Posted: 23 Apr 2014 at 7:20pm
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Over the years I've been a big fan of a slurry in the chilly bin as opposed to just salt ice. I've had numerous debates and even the odd argument on the boat with various people about it, but it seems more logical to me to mix one third salt water. I find it makes it easier to stack the catch, ensures a uniform temperature over the entire fish and stays just as cold for hours. What are your opinions? |
Replies:
Posted By: Dagwood
Date Posted: 23 Apr 2014 at 7:28pm
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I bring home a 2 litre ice cream container of salt water each time we're out. Freeze it down and next time place it in the bottom of the polystyrene bin with a bit of sea water. Any fish we get fish come home chilled down and seem fine. If we don't catch anything, well at least the cost of ice doesn't have to be added to bait, fuel etc... Got to be better than what my Dad used to do - he was proud of a damp sack.
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Posted By: cirrus
Date Posted: 23 Apr 2014 at 7:35pm
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Was a topic on this recently. Just cant think what it was called. For me slurry. Have found cold does not transfer to air in bin as readily as water. Slurry gives bigger area of cold to surround fish. Found if i put fish on ice the upper layers of fish did not chill properly ,especially if opening and closing ice box. |
Posted By: P.T
Date Posted: 23 Apr 2014 at 7:42pm
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Slurry. This keeps the fish longer and better. |
Posted By: Pickles
Date Posted: 23 Apr 2014 at 7:43pm
| Sweet. 3 out of 3! At least I know I'm not mad! |
Posted By: Lethal
Date Posted: 23 Apr 2014 at 7:49pm
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fully agree slurry regardless of how you do it saltwater and ice, either by ice cream container of saltwater frozen and dropped in with the salt water, or by freshwater contained in a 2lt bottle as long as the fresh water is contained from polluting the salt water, yep slurry is better all round as it cools the whole fish not just the air which disperses every time you open the chilly bin... the old wet sack has long gone out the window, plus the sacks these days are hard to come by anyway... ------------- Thanks for everything you did for us Eric. may you rest in peace, You were one of the real legends of NZ recreational fishing |
Posted By: sappercatcha
Date Posted: 23 Apr 2014 at 7:50pm
slurry! it gets the temp of the fish down quick quicker than only ice and that's what you want with a good slurry you don't even have to kill the fish the ice is so cold it kills them instantly a good slurry can almost freeze fish and would be fine over night...... however if I cant filet when I get home I take the fish out of the slurry and pack in ice. ice the bottom of the bin then a layer of fish then more ice then more fish and so on this will keep the fish for a couple of days fresh as if you have a good bin salt ice is cheep in comparison to bait fuel rods reels etc and in my opinion just as important as if you are going trough the trouble and spending the money to go out and catch them what's another 10 bucks for a couple of bags of ice to keep them in the best condition possible for the table  ------------- http://www.legasea.co.nz" rel="nofollow">  keep up the good work boys
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Posted By: kaveman
Date Posted: 23 Apr 2014 at 8:03pm
definately slurry, thats why comm longliners use it -------------  www.kavemantackle.co.nz
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Posted By: cirrus
Date Posted: 23 Apr 2014 at 8:17pm
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Is it a problem to dilute the salt water with fresh. I often line bottom of bin with sealed plastic bottles of frozen fresh water. Then add one or two 2 litre blocks of freshwater ice. Then when out there add about equal part of salt water. Have assumed that the salt water added to the blocks of fresh water ice + sealed containers of ice would still give a higher salt content than purchased salt ice. |
Posted By: Potty
Date Posted: 23 Apr 2014 at 8:21pm
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I find slurry is only good for a day trip, packing in salt ice is better when away for a few days. ------------- Love fishing, love my job. It's a bloody shame that they clash. http://www.legasea.co.nz" rel="nofollow">
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Posted By: alan syme
Date Posted: 23 Apr 2014 at 8:25pm
| slurry for me. good point by potty. |
Posted By: pjc
Date Posted: 23 Apr 2014 at 9:08pm
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slurry for me and i spike them straight away ------------- Sex at 58.Lucky I live at 56 |
Posted By: captain.Gav.
Date Posted: 23 Apr 2014 at 9:28pm
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We do a combo,, Iki straight away then once have a few fish in the bin we mix up a saltwater/salt ice slurry. However later before the ramp we do a gut, gill and cleanup, drain out the slurry and just do a 'ice down' for the trip home with the fish flesh being firm and ready to fillet. We used to leave them in the slurry until filleting but on those longer days out,,found that the flesh went abit 'mushy' for filleting. The slurry certainly chills them down quickly at the start though. |
Posted By: sappercatcha
Date Posted: 23 Apr 2014 at 9:59pm
------------- http://www.legasea.co.nz" rel="nofollow"> keep up the good work boys
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cirrus wrote:Posted By: of2fsh
Date Posted: 23 Apr 2014 at 10:19pm
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Frozen blocks or milk bottles mixed with sea water in a chilli bin makes cold water... A slurry is flake ice and sea water mixed so its of a consistent mix. A slurry will hold fish at around 1 degree or colder ,perfect to keep them fresh Salt ice contains about a tea spoon of salt per 20 ltrs,put some in your mouth and taste it,I use it in the rum when on charter boats..its bugger all salt ------------- 2009 and 2010 BERKLEY SOFTBAIT COMP CHAMPS,Runner up 2013 ( solo),winner 2013/14 longest kingfish nz fishing competition |
Posted By: cirrus
Date Posted: 23 Apr 2014 at 10:22pm
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Cheers sappercatcha. That clarifies things. I thought that salt ice that you buy was fresh water with only a small amount of salt added,hence me thinking adding salt water to fresh ice would be about equal to salt ice in a slurry |
Posted By: cirrus
Date Posted: 23 Apr 2014 at 10:27pm
Wayne your saying salt ice is fresh water with added salt. In that case it would be way less than seawater. So adding sea water to fresh ice should do the trick.? |
Posted By: of2fsh
Date Posted: 23 Apr 2014 at 10:38pm
Yes way less than sea water,for hygienic reasons and its a lot easier salt ice is made from fresh water with added salt,sea water takes a lot more to freeze than mass produced flake ice ( salt ice) The salt is there to lower the freezing point hence giving it a longer life,if you make a slurry with fresh water ice cubes and sea water its going to do the same thing but the initial temp will be higher so it wont last. Flake ice mixed right lasts well because it has a colder starting temp ( in a slurry) and the flakes mixed into a slurry hold a consistent temp for longer,the flakes play a large part in keeping the slurry real cold as its a thicker mass than just water with a ice block thrown in. ------------- 2009 and 2010 BERKLEY SOFTBAIT COMP CHAMPS,Runner up 2013 ( solo),winner 2013/14 longest kingfish nz fishing competition |
Posted By: of2fsh
Date Posted: 23 Apr 2014 at 10:49pm
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Try this system next time you get a fish. Make a thickish slurry with flake ice ( more ice than water) Iki fish and strait into bin. When home fillet fish and put fillets back in slurry for 10 minutes. Pat dry with paper towel and put in fridge till you cook it Makes a diffrence to taste,and there easier to fillet as the fish is firm ------------- 2009 and 2010 BERKLEY SOFTBAIT COMP CHAMPS,Runner up 2013 ( solo),winner 2013/14 longest kingfish nz fishing competition |
Posted By: Pickles
Date Posted: 23 Apr 2014 at 10:52pm
Agreed. The only downside to pulling them all out of the slurry and filleting in winter is that your hands go blue and numb! Small price to pay for fresh, firm fillets though. |
Posted By: cirrus
Date Posted: 23 Apr 2014 at 11:20pm
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All becoming clear. Will try your method wayne. Keeping fish is a true art to get them at max freshness. But well worth it. |
Posted By: chris_gee
Date Posted: 24 Apr 2014 at 9:29am
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Sea water contains about 60gm of salt per litre which lowers the freezing point of water by 1.9 degrees - say 2. The freezer temperature is about -23. There are three stages of warming. Say for 1 L of ice and 1L of sea water the first stage is to the freezing point say -23 to -2 effectively reducing a sea temperature of that litre to -2. The next phase is giving up latent heat which is the most important that contributes 80 calories per grm ie around four times the amount of the first phase. The third phase is from the just melted point to air temperature in this case going from -2 to say 6 a frig temperature. That phase has a third or so of the first phase. So the cooling is in the ratios of 3 12 1 so the ice phase itself gives 12/16 of the total cooling. If the salt ice has less salt than sea water the lowering of the freezing point would be less. Say 6 teaspoons of salt per litre would lower the temp by a bit less than 1 degree. The total cooling ability of salt ice vs plain ice is exactly the same. The only difference is during the second phase when solid ice is still present. This will make the seawater ice slurry mix 2 degrees cooler or the salt ice mix 1 degree cooler. A difference but not much. The slurry will distribute the cold better but you are also cooling water as well as fish. How efficient it is depends on how much ice there is compared to fish. However the contribution of salted water is small. |
Posted By: TIN RIB
Date Posted: 24 Apr 2014 at 9:49am
thanks Chris but you lost me at Sea water 
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Posted By: Finatic
Date Posted: 24 Apr 2014 at 10:16am
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I always packed them in a slurry, went home and had a big steak meal for dinner and then dealt to the fish the next day when they had firmed up. ------------- What's the cheapest type of meat? Dear balls. They're under a buck. |
Posted By: Kevin.S
Date Posted: 24 Apr 2014 at 10:59am
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We never use ice, just keep several old plastic bottles full of water permanently in the freezer. When we head out fishing we put them in the chilly bin and just add a bucket or so of sea water while out fishing and keep the fish in that. Always worked fine and is free, but it is limited on time. Probably an absolute max of 18h or so, but not a problem to us as we never go away for several days. Mostly the fish is only in the bin for 6 hours max. I did read somewhere that this was better than ice as just ice is too cold, but as I've never used ice I can't compare. |
Posted By: slayliner
Date Posted: 24 Apr 2014 at 1:28pm
| Commercial guys put their snapper in a slurry for about an hour then pack them in ice ,if you leave them in a slurry too long the eyes go hazy frozen looking and the japs don't like it |
Posted By: FizFisho
Date Posted: 24 Apr 2014 at 1:32pm
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salt water and ice slurry, it spreads the surface area of cold even temperature. which is the whole point of it. |
Posted By: mmmWord
Date Posted: 24 Apr 2014 at 2:01pm
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Chris's answer is on the right track, I shall try to clarify/simplify/explain it slightly. I don't have that much experience of what works best in practice, but I have a vague idea of the theory. In short: use saltwater slurry, use the saltiest ice possible but it doesn't matter too much, and freezing it in a container is okay as long as you give it plenty of time to bring the slurry down to temperature. I'm cheap so am going to go with seawater frozen in milk bottles and placed in advance in a bit of seawater, myself. As I can see it, there are three main concerns. 1. We want to get our fish cold as quickly as possible 2. We want to keep it cold for a while, possibly a few days but more likely an afternoon. 3. We possibly also don't want any particular part of our fish to become *too* cold, in case that also causes damage. I'm not actually sure whether this is an issue, but I'll deal with it anyway. Things we might do include using a seawater slurry or not, with salt ice or freshwater ice that is in a container or loose. Slurry: use it. As I see it, the slurry is probably the most important point here. The water in the slurry will quickly be cooled by the ice, reaching just above the feezing temperature of seawater (about -2c). At the same time the ice will increase in temperature until very close to its freezing point: some of it will melt, some will stay frozen for now. If we used freshwater in our slurry it would sit at 0c, so a bit warmer, as well as potentially causing problems due to being less salty than the fish's flesh (we might get a reverse-brining effect). Water does a much better job of transferring energy than air, so putting our fish into this now-cold slurry ensures a quick transfer of heat away from the fish. Without a slurry, you will get quick transfer where the ice actually touches the fish, but very slow transfer where there is air between the fish and the ice. Thus we have addressed concern 1 as identified above. We have also dealt to concern 3: even though there will be some ice left in the chilly bin, its temperature will be around -2c rather than the potentially-damaging-to-fish -20c ish it left your freezer at. Salt vs fresh ice: In short, salt ice will keep your slurry colder (concern 1) and may contain more "total coldness" for the kinds of temperatures we are talking about (concern 2). Adding salt to ice lowers the melting temperature of ice from 0c to about -2c (if as salty as seawater). Most of the cooling-effect of ice happens when it melts, so salt ice will do this more quickly. If you want cold beer quickly, put it in salt ice. If you want cold fish, a salt ice and saltwater slurry will sit at -2c whereas freshwater would sit at 0c. Freshwater ice and salt water slurry will sit somewhere in between due to dilution, of course. The salt ice will melt sooner than the fresh ice, but it will do a better job of keeping the fish cold after melting but while below 0c (concern 2). If you're going to be letting it get quite warm (ie much above 0c), fresh water will in theory take a bit longer to warm up than salt water. But don't do that. The only difference between loose ice and a ice in a container is the effective surface area in contact with the water, and therefore the rate at which the ice melts/cools the water down. As long as you have enough blocks of ice to cool the water (or prepare your bin well in advance of its first fish) I don't really see any problem with using ice blocks. A greater number of smaller (and less spherical) blocks will be faster-cooling than fewer bigger block, but all that really matters is that your slurry is cold. |
Posted By: Joker
Date Posted: 24 Apr 2014 at 2:02pm
| Use 3 litre juice bottles with a couple of handfuls of salt, it freezes at a lot lower temperature than sea water and gives off its maximum cooling well below zero. Then chuck some sea water in to cool the fish. |
Posted By: Apex Predator
Date Posted: 24 Apr 2014 at 2:51pm
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The only problem with using containers of frozen water, be it salt or fresh is that you end up with an ice block inside a container of water and the effective chiling ability reduces because the water surrounding the ice inside the container is warmer than the block of ice itself. This means that your'e trying to chill the water added into the bin with a cold source of 0 to -2 deg rather than a much colder block of ice itself.
I've got into the habit of taking a 10l paint bucket of seawater home and freezing it. I have dividers in the bucket so I end up with 4 reasonably big blocks of ice because I found that 1 big block would slide around and wear the inner liner of the bin or even split it, as well as possibly damaging the fish.
I put at least 10l of seawater into the bin as well and this holds its temp at -2 for a whole day even in the hottest summer weather. Your catch will freeze in this but only to -2 so it doesn't seem to damage the fillets at all. I drain the water out of the bin when we've finished fishing and the ice keeps everything chilled until the next morning if need be.
If I'm going away for a few days I buy Salt Ice. $7.00 for a 20l bag from the icemaker on GS Road in Manurewa.
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Posted By: P.T
Date Posted: 24 Apr 2014 at 3:40pm
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You can get 100ltr of salt ice for $10.00 in Onehunga. you can do what you like with it for that price. Great value |
Posted By: Telecaster
Date Posted: 24 Apr 2014 at 3:50pm
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Yep, Polar Ice on Gt South Road manurewa are cheap also, they fill a 44l rubbermaid for $5. |
Posted By: Pickles
Date Posted: 24 Apr 2014 at 3:50pm
Bloody hell that's a fantastic price. Is it in flakes or solid blocks? Could you please let me know where to find them?
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Posted By: FizFisho
Date Posted: 24 Apr 2014 at 4:25pm
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but what is the salt content of the ice? regardless its cheap ice for convenience sake :-) |
Posted By: Finatic
Date Posted: 24 Apr 2014 at 5:01pm
This is them http://www.brassmonkeyice.co.nz/contact-us/" rel="nofollow - http://www.brassmonkeyice.co.nz/contact-us/ and it's flake. ------------- What's the cheapest type of meat? Dear balls. They're under a buck. |
Posted By: Pickles
Date Posted: 24 Apr 2014 at 5:02pm
| Awesome, thanks Finatic |
Posted By: cirrus
Date Posted: 24 Apr 2014 at 5:30pm
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This has been a great thread and i have learned much. ,ready to put into practice. However if salt ice (commercial) has such a low salt content what is it designed to do. Does the small amount of salt lower its melting point ,keeping it a bit colder. And the small amount of salt also act as a preservative. Even so it must be mainly fresh chlorinated water. Years ago a Greek fish shop owner in Wellington , his whole life was fish and had generations of fish handling experience behind him said. Never wash fish in fresh water.He was referring to whole fish. In this case fresh Pilchards which they used to sell. Said nothing will make fish go rotten as quickly as fresh water. |
Posted By: Lethal
Date Posted: 24 Apr 2014 at 6:11pm
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correct cirrus wise man that Greek fisho, as long as salt water is added your on the right track, if freshwater is contained in a container in ice form it will work, just add saltwater for the caught fish to be held in will do the job, i have put a few fish cubed/fillet in brine lately and left them for 24hrs with a mixture of plain salt/brown sugar and white vinegar before smoking, i dont thing i would be game to use freshwater frozen in a bottle to keep it cool, i spent the extra bucks and added salt ice to it stored in a chilly bin, awesome results i have to tell you... ------------- Thanks for everything you did for us Eric. may you rest in peace, You were one of the real legends of NZ recreational fishing |
Posted By: treedoc
Date Posted: 24 Apr 2014 at 6:18pm
| Plus, using a slurry makes cleaning the chillibin easier - very important! |
Posted By: P.T
Date Posted: 24 Apr 2014 at 8:44pm
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Posted By: P.T
Date Posted: 24 Apr 2014 at 8:46pm
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The ice is food grade, so not cheap rubbish. Have kept fish perfect for up to 3 days. top product |
Posted By: Pickles
Date Posted: 24 Apr 2014 at 8:49pm
Sweet. Looks like I will be stocking up the chest freezer with cheap, top quality salt ice then! Nothing worse than trying to get a 3am start with nothing but ****house gas station ice. Nothing beats a salt ice and sea water slurry. |
Posted By: Derek F
Date Posted: 24 Apr 2014 at 8:53pm
Wow....Everyone should have a freezer full of that at home ready and waiting. ------------- And the trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more...Erica Jong |
Posted By: roughy
Date Posted: 24 Apr 2014 at 9:07pm
It's not just the Japs, any chef planning to put whole snapper on the menu won't want it. They teach them to look for white eye and scale or skin damage from trawlers for optimum usage. Yep best method is slurry for no more than 2 or 3 hours and then drain the water off and pack in more ice. If your not too concerned about the white eye then slurry is fine to leave them in to fillet the following day. Each to their own. I like it nice and cold so the flesh is firm to fillet the next day.
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Posted By: fozzie
Date Posted: 24 Apr 2014 at 9:22pm
Correct,it is mixed a t a level that allows it to still freeze, that is why we sell "salt ice" and not "frozen sea water". I have had this arguement with customers claiming there is not enough salt in salt ice compared to sea water, it doesnt work like that. ------------- Dont take life too seriously.....no one gets out alive any way. http://www.legasea.co.nz" rel="nofollow">
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Posted By: DIY
Date Posted: 24 Apr 2014 at 9:25pm
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I get my salt flake ice from Onehunga Wharf as well, he fills up a 55ltr chilly bin for $5. I just split it up into about 4 bags and leave it in the chest freezer ready for when I go fishing. No trying to find a service station that has got some. Easy. ------------- Oh what a smasher - two eggs and a rasher! |
Posted By: chris_gee
Date Posted: 25 Apr 2014 at 8:44am
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A teaspoon of salt per 20 litres is about .25gm/L. Normal sea water has 35 gm/L (not 65 as I previously said). Each 5 gm/L lowers the freezing point by .28, so sea water lowers it by 2. Salt ice at the reported concentration would lower it by .28 X .25/5 = .015. Adding an equal part of water to ice will roughly reduce the ice from freezer temperature of -23 to the freezing point and the water about the same. The amount of heat absorption then available is 80 cal per gram of ice to stay at zero plus .015 cal for salt ice. If the temperature is allowed to rise to refrigerator temp of 6 then for a 50/50 mix another 12 cal/gm of ice becomes available.(6 from the ice and 6 from the water) At best holding it at 0 a gram of salt ice provides 80.015 calories of cooling versus 80, less than .02% difference. Making your own could improve this a bit, but the effect would be less than that of time since in the freezer and the ratio of ice to fish. Osmosis draws water from a weak solution to a stronger one. If that were a factor presumably the closer the slurry was to sea water the better. http://nsidc.org/cryosphere/seaice/characteristics/brine_salinity.html |
Posted By: Steps
Date Posted: 25 Apr 2014 at 10:01am
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We bring home 10L of sea ice (which has a concentrate of approx 8 to 9 teaspoons per L) pour approx 8 L into different sized flat tubberware container 3/4 full and freeze in the bait /burley freezer. Fishing day are mt ed out of the containers into the chilly bin, and drinks etc added. Bait burley goes in a bait chilly bin with the frozen 2? burly block acting as freezer blocks. When the 1st layer of fish is completed in the chilly bin, the blocks of ice are lifted on top of those fish And a very cold wet slurry is forming in the bottom. Again next layer and most of the blocks are lifted on the top. And repeated. Its not a big chilly bin 4 snaps to a 'layer' The fish chill down quite quickly, rather surprisingly. After a days fishing , the bottom fish in the slurry are bascally frozen...the next layer nearly the next 2 are very nicely chilled... which is our preference. For an over nighter if a 2 or 3 layers caught the previous arvo, by the time get home next evening they are frozen when un pack and the rest nicely chilled down We dont have any need to add water of any type, make up slurry or what ever... Also of note , frozen sea ice is NOT like the very dilute salt ice or ordinary ice.. it is more crystallized and the bigger slabs break up very easy. no need to store large amounts of dilute 'salt ice' which is little more than ordinary water with a tiny bit of salt added No need to stop and buy ice It is free and immediately available in the freezer at any time It is colder than salt ice, lasts much much longer no messing with containers taking up extra space as the day goes on. Simple It works rather well. Plus collection doubles with getting sea water to rinse scales etc when filleting. We use one of those 10L containers of filtered water with a wide neck for quick filling one gets at the supermarket. We buy one of those for over night trips/ coffees etc... so when the old one sucks a kumura (drops when full and splits) there is another real cheap container to replace it. |
Posted By: P.T
Date Posted: 25 Apr 2014 at 10:20am
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wow,all this imfo, far too complex. All I know is that the flake ice is food grade ,cheap as anything, the commercial, and retail use it. so good enough for me. Has kept my fish, including tuna, fresh as for up to 3 days. Your choice in the end. |
Posted By: Rob Optimist
Date Posted: 25 Apr 2014 at 10:30am
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Complex alright, can't get bulk ice and sick of paying a small fortune at gas stations so All I do now is freeze a few two litre ice cream containers of salt water, mix a bit of sea water in to make the slurry and smash the blocks up as required during the day. Works very good and I can get the temp I want. Found that having frozen bottles in sea water is not enough to chill properly. ------------- "attitude is everything" |
Posted By: Steps
Date Posted: 26 Apr 2014 at 9:33am
The method simple and convenient.... the reasoning is for those who can then see if the method suits their application.... Rather than simply take things (like the so called salt ice concentrations, and assume (a55 u & me) chill /temp factors) Giving a basis to actually make an INFORMED "choice in the end" |
Posted By: brmbrm
Date Posted: 27 Apr 2014 at 10:26am
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Slurry chills the fish quicker due to efficiency of heat transfer into water compared to air and solid ice mixture ( all those heat transfer coefficients). Sea water is free and I don't need to make a special trip. I'm not out for that long so frozen sea water and a bit of sea water to make a slurry is cheap, easy and effective. If out for a few days would need to rethink of course |
Posted By: cirrus
Date Posted: 27 Apr 2014 at 10:44pm
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Well i packed my bin today. 4 frozen small milk bottles. 1 2litre block of ice. Added about 3-4 litre of sea water. Only caught 2 snapper and 1 kahawai-(big) and a good sized rig. Just finished filleting ,and found snapper with milky eyes. Kahawai & rig eyes normal . So guess something wasnt quite right with the mix. It actually is complex. Ice fully melted ,bottles were about a quarter melted and water freezing. |
Posted By: Steps
Date Posted: 28 Apr 2014 at 12:45pm
totally agree When we go out for around 24 hrs the sea water above works well up to that period... above that period I do not know as have not done so.... for fish. But heading out camping for 4 or 5 days with the grandchildren, sea ice definitely lasts far longer than 'salt ice' to keep milk perishables cool... except then the sea ice still in the containers..... Thats as far as personal experience goes. |