Product Care

Thank you so much for your Madfish Gear purchase. We really appreciate your business.

We are a proudly Australian company who love fishing diving and the outdoors and we know you will enjoy your product. We would love to see any pictures featuring our bags or other products so please tag us in your social media posts @madfishgear or send through your pics and video via Facebook / Instagram or email us directly trade@madfishgear.com

We have created this guide to help you with some common questions and a practical guide to how to best care for your bag.

General Precautions 

The bags are tough but like any vinyl product you must take care when loading fish with spines or sharp teeth into your bags to avoid punctures.

The best way to protect the bag is to ensure you have a water and ice slurry in the bag before you add your catch. The most effective slurry is sea water and ice (salt water ice blocks are the best to maintain the lowest temperature. You can easily make these by freezing salt water in an ice cream container)

Mackies, Wahoo and other toothy pelagic fish should be laid in tail first and then slowly lower the head into the bag. DO NOT PUT THEM HEAD (TEETH) FIRST INTO THE BAG

Zipper Care

The zippers we use are the highest quality on the market, but they do require some care to avoid damage particularly to the zip and zip pullers.

When opening and closing the zipper ensure there is as little load on the zip as possible, do not force the zipper or apply large force to the zip pullers. This is particularly important when closing a loaded bag. DO NOT use the zip pullers to take all the weight on the zip or it may fail. The best way to close the zip, when the bag is loaded, is to use two people, one to bring the bag together and one to operate the zip. If you are fishing solo stand either side of the bag and use your legs to take the weight and move the zips in small increments ensuring the top of the bag is closed and there is no weight on the zipper. We also recommend not fully closing the zippers all the way back into the PVC leave 2-3cm, this will help easy the load on the zippers.  FAILURE TO FOLLOW THESE PROCEDURES WILL VOID ANY WARRANTY CLAIMS

Cleaning you bag

Once you have finished using the bag the following steps should be taken to ensure the longevity of the bag and to keep it smelling great.

  1. Empty the ice and left-over water out of the bag
  2. Thoroughly rinse the bag in fresh water to remove any scales, guts and sludge.
  3. Add a small amount of dish washing liquid into the bag and using a nonabrasive sponge, wipe the internals of the bag and any obvious marks on the outside of the bag. 
  4. Using the soapy sponge wipe over the zip allowing the soap to penetrate into the zip and then operate the zips from fully open to closed a few times.
  5. Thoroughly rinse the bag and the zipper and run the zipper back and forwards under the running hose removing all soap residue, lay the bag upside down to drain and dry.