Getting the salmon catch home

Boise resident Chad Hood fishes a lot for salmon in Alaska and talks about getting his catch home. People say you shouldn't be signing and freezing and they can handle one freeze thaw cycle and you would never know the difference. So typically I'll get it in a freezer. And then the day of travel, I'll have that cooler that I brought up with my gear in it. I'll put all that fish in the cooler or even like an action packer tote, and then I'll use my clothes, the clothes I'm not wearing on my back, on the plane. Anyone that does these kind of trips really needs to have a travel set of clothes so you're not stinking out people on the plane. So all my nasty gear from the field I use as insulation to keep the fish from thorn out, whether I have a cooler or just a plastic tote, I wrapped the fish in the clothes. It acts as an insulator and I can go from a hub of Alaska to Boise. Travel takes me between seven to 12 hours and I'll get home and that fish is still frozen. Or if it was partially frozen, it certainly is still ice cold. And there you have it. It's really simple, and all you're really doing is paying a little extra in baggage and it saves a lot of money. And it's a real good system that I've got pretty well dialed in over the years. I'm a cheapskate too, and I can't justify dumping a bunch of whole salmon off at a processor to cut up and send home and then send me a three or $400 bill, and he always share some of his catch with me.