Five day old bait left in ice chest.

I wouldn’t leave bait in an ice chest for 5 days.

I would have placed it somewhere away on land and put some vapor rub under my nose and cleaned that bad boy up

Mine was an ice chest full of frog heads.

It was a soup of misery in my Dads brand new ice chest.

why wouldn't you just throw the whole thing overboard off the stern and flush it out?

woulda been nice if he'd have idled out of the marina to do that shite as well. I don't really want to smell that shite at the launch.

In the sealed ice chest? Oh, that shite gets duct taped closed, thrown in the back of the truck, and taken for a ride to the nearest dump. Then I go to Bass Pro and pay the stupid tax to buy a new one.

The biggest whipping I ever got in my life revolved around an ice chest and bait. It was Labor Day weekend and Dad and I had gone fishing on a Friday and had to come back Saturday; I had some shite to do on Sunday and couldn't go with him for the whole weekend. Since it was a long weekend at the end of the summer season, he dropped me off on Saturday, got resupplied and went back to the fishing camp for the rest of the weekend. Since I wasn't there in the boat anymore, he left the smaller ice chest we were using for bait and loaded up the big 120 qt ice chest to have more room for fish. He left with one instruction: Clean out the ice chest. There was maybe a half pound of shrimp and a few shad left in there that we'd caught on Friday, so he didn't take it and was going to get fresh bait when he went back. Did I mention it was Labor Day weekend and hot as balls?

When that man got back Monday afternoon and saw the ice chest right next to the pump shed where he'd dropped it off, he was mad because I'd left it outside. When he opened it and eau de rotten seafood hit him in the face because I'd completely forgotten about his instructions, he was livid. When he found me inside playing Nintendo, I thought he was going to kill me. He grabbed my be the arm and picked my feet off the ground before I could even think about running and spanked me all the way outside to the pump shed to show me why he was spanking me.

You bet your arse I never forgot to wash the ice chests again.

It was more the complete failure to follow instructions. Also, fourteen bucks was a lot more money in 1985. I was playing NINTENDO. NES.

Worst part is that after the teaching moment passed, I had to help him clean all the rest of the fish that he'd caught that morning before he came back. My job was to scale and skin and dad would gut and filet. I was sitting there with my spoon, all covered in scales, eyes all red, sniffling, snot dripping out of my nose.

Then I had to open that ice chest to put all the scales and guts and skins in, duct tape it closed, and loaded it in the back of the truck. We each held the hose so the other could clean off. Then we went to dump the befouled ice chest at his work where the dumpster was going to be emptied at 4 the next morning before anyone but dad was there. To end the lesson, we stopped and got some ice cream.

Is it worth more than a gallon of bleach and a gallon of vinegar?

If so, I would put a gallon of bleach in for about a week then a gallon of vinegar in for about a month.

A buddy of mine caught some really nice grouper years ago and, as is necessary with shallow water grouper, it is best to let them age on ice a little while...a couple days...firms 'em up. Deep grouper don't need this but if they are in 30 feet or less it really makes a difference unless its cold and then they probably ain't going to be in 30 foot or less. Anyway....he heads to the hill, ices the fish down, cleans the boat, and goes to the marina office to get the boat lifted and placed in storage. He goes to load the cooler and the boat guy tells him he put it on his truck for him and the boat was already put to bed. My buddy gets in the truck and goes home, parking his truck with the cooler in it the shop, 280 miles from the boat. 2 days later he opens to cooler....and it is empty except for ice and water and a few drinks etc...no grouper. Confused my buddy though someone had come to get the fish and had already filleted them and they would tell him later...no worries. This would have been Monday. Friday morning dude gets a call from the marina....something is bad wrong with the boat LOL....the guy had loaded the wrong cooler!!! The fish had been in dry storage in Stuart on the 5th level in August LOL....it was probably 130 degrees up there LOL....needless to say those fish were kind of ripe!

We go down Saturday to deal with it and I try to talk him into simply trashing the cooler...its a 120qt igloo marine cooler...he ain't having it LOL....we head off shore and dump that smelly mess and I swear withing 10 minutes there as a slick about a mile in diameter.....looked just like a feeding slick LOL....we drug the cooler for about 15 minutes and closed it and headed back to the hill and a couple of gallons of bleach later it was almost like new...but always stunk more than would be normal.....

This seems a little overly dramatic and an advertisement with the company hashtags and shout outs.

Ice chest is nothing compared to live well that has to be scooped out.