One corner of my garage is piled to the rafters with coolers. I have picnic coolers, party coolers, soft-sided and hard-sided coolers, but my fishing coolers are a step above the average cooler. My fishing coolers keep fish, bait and drinks cold for hours in scorching sun. At the end of the day, I wash them of fish blood and slime until they are sparkling clean. Then I leave them on the boat to suffer through winters, summers, rain and snow.
For years, I cycled through cheap coolers that succumbed to the torture of living on a fishing boat. About a decade ago, I invested in premium coolers capable of putting up with my abuse. High-quality materials and smart construction make a premium cooler highly efficient and damn near indestructible. Spending a little more money results in a reliable cooler to keep contents colder with less ice.
Skill Building
Cold storage is an overlooked fishing skill. When I bought my 20-foot Jones Brothers center-console, I added a 160-quart Igloo fish box and 35-quart lunch cooler. These coolers were inexpensive and convenient for keeping ice the length of a fishing trip. However, the hinges, latches and other components are not durable. Fortunately, these components are easy to replace as spare parts are available at boat or tackle shops and big-box stores. When the plastic cracked or faded, replacing the cooler was no big deal.
Ten years ago, I replaced my boat coolers with Yeti coolers. The initial investment was hard to swallow, but the tough design and superior performance paid off with years of maintenance-free service, improved ice retention and easy ownership.
Premium Cooler Features
Premium coolers are built with roto-molded plastic, the same material used in whitewater kayaks and curbside trash cans. Roto-molding involves filling a metal mold with plastic powder, then rotating and heating the mold to melt and distribute the plastic. When applied to coolers, the process creates a hollow shape perfect for filling with insulation.
Since I bought the Yeti coolers, I haven’t replaced a hinge or latch. The rubber latches stretch without breaking, and the hinge is a solid stainless-steel bar passing through the length of the lid. The drain plug allows me to drain meltwater without removing the plug entirely.
I like a cooler with smooth surfaces inside and out for easy cleaning. A premium cooler is built of food-safe antimicrobial plastic that prevents bad smell and contamination. The cooler has molded handles to carry it solo and rope handles for when I have a friend’s help.
Nonmarking rubber feet underneath the cooler prevent it from sliding. The feet also raise the cooler off the deck so water, blood and fish slime don’t get caught beneath. To hold ice longer, a freezer-grade rubber gasket seals the cooler lid. The gasket is easy to clean and lasts through thousands of opening and closing cycles.
These features are standard on most premium coolers. Ever since Yeti proved people will pay hundreds more for an indestructible high-performance cooler, a long list of manufacturers have jumped on board. After a decade of hassle-free ownership, I proved the investment is worth the return.
Cold-Storage Systems
While I rarely use my Yeti coolers to keep ice for days, the thick insulation allows me to purchase less ice and keep fish colder.
On my boat, I have four coolers. I use a 35-quart Yeti Tundra to store food and drinks. With a 7-pound bag of ice, the cooler keeps my lunch cold all day. I leave the drain plug open to keep sandwiches dry while melting ice lowers the temperature of my drinks to near freezing.
In the bow, I have a 125-quart Yeti Tundra fish box. When I switched from the 160-quart Igloo to the Yeti, the thicker insulation and plastic sacrificed storage space. For most of the fish I catch, the reduced capacity isn’t an issue.
When I catch a big cobia or king mackerel, I use a Reliable Fishing Products insulated fish bag I keep folded in my bow hatch. The fish bag has an inch of flexible insulation wrapped in UV- and tear-resistant fabric. With a couple of bags of ice, the fish bag keeps my trophy cold all the way to the cleaning table.
In my fish box, I use two 20-pound bags of ice to preserve fish. I leave the bags intact with the drain plugs sealed through the fishing day. Toward the end of the day, I break open one of the bags and spread the ice over the fish. Then I open the drain plugs to keep the fish from soaking in meltwater. The fish are ice-cold when I return to the dock.
The fourth cooler is the coolest. An 18-quart Yeti Flip Hopper soft-sided cooler fits perfectly into the 125-quart Tundra. I stuff the little cooler with three Yeti Thin Ice ice packs and my frozen bait. Stored in the larger cooler, the soft-sided cooler keeps bait frozen all day. If I catch a large fish and need more space in my fish box, I remove the Flip Hopper and it still maintains the bait until the end of the day.
Cleaning coolers at the end of the day is almost as important as ice retention. Coolers with smooth surfaces inside and out provide less opportunity for blood, guts and slime to hide from a soft-bristle scrub brush and terry cloth rag. To kill organics that escape scrubbing, I wash coolers with a light 6-to-1 mixture of water to bleach.
But Weight
The biggest drawback to my heavy-duty coolers is weight. The Yeti cooler is almost twice as heavy as my old Igloo.
To reduce weight, cooler designers use injection-molded plastic, which is thinner and lighter than roto-molded plastic. Mike Dixon at Engel coolers explains, “Injection-molded coolers are lighter but more susceptible to cracks.” The inside and outside of the cooler are molded in two pieces that are joined after the space is filled with insulation.
Injection-molded coolers are a little less durable, but they are also less expensive than roto-molded coolers. “The injection-molding process requires less time and energy to provide the same ice retention,” Dixon explains. With durable construction and components, injection-molding holds its own with roto-molding.
One of the most innovative approaches to saving weight comes from Rugged Road. Marketing manager Mary Genung explains, “Rugged Road coolers are built from the inside out.”
Instead of a plastic skin filled with insulation, Rugged Road starts with closed-cell foam and coats it with a material similar to spray-on truck-bed liner. The coating is optimized for durability and performance. “The coating on the bottom of the cooler is nonskid, so the cooler doesn’t need rubber feet,” Genung says. The top of the cooler has a thicker coating for durability.
Read Next: Fish Coolers to Save Space on a Small Boat
Pieces and Parts
With so many options for premium coolers, a purchase can come down to accessories. Designers are competing to create the best-looking and most user-friendly coolers.
Pelican is famous for indestructible gear cases that soldiers and adventurers use to protect equipment. Pelican coolers use the same high-performance materials and construction to protect your catch. James Knowles, Pelican’s marketing manager, says, “We offer roto-molded wheeled coolers and injection-molded fish boxes.” A big selling point is Pelican’s unique gasket, which allows the use of dry ice without building pressure inside the cooler.
Another innovative accessory will soon be available from Rugged Road. Genung offers a preview: “We’ve been developing a drain plug with a Bluetooth-connected thermometer.” Using the compatible smartphone app, the thermometer provides inside and outside temperatures while calculating ice retention. The app sends an alarm notification if the temperature rises.
The number of premium coolers on the market creates competition that benefits consumers. Construction and ice retention are comparable across premium coolers, so designers are taking the opportunity to improve design, materials and construction to make coolers that live longer and keep ice longer.
