After 25 years of hauling back fish from Alaska we have settled on fish boxes. Coolers will keep your fish frozen longer, but they are quite heavy. Each piece of checked baggage can weigh no more than 70 pounds, and the weight of the cooler is significant. That is an acceptable penalty only if your fish are poorly frozen to start with or you have a long journey home.

If you have rock-hard frozen fish filets to start with you should not have a problem using fish boxes. Our friends from as far away as Florida get their frozen fish home just fine, especially if they put 5 pounds (the legal max) of dry ice in each box to start with. If you are fishing in Soldatna or another larger Alaska city you should have no problem getting dry ice. If you are heading to Seattle or even Portland no dry ice will be necessary.