My mesh bag smells like dead fish

[jjdub]

A couple of months ago, after a day of diving off Catalina, my mesh gear bag began smelling exactly like a pile of dead fish. I don't know if the fact that my bag got friendly with the boat's mop has anything to do with it, but I can't seem to get the smell to go away.

I've tried the sink-the-stink stuff as well as soaking the bag in soapy water and letting it dry in the sun. At best, the smell becomes slightly subtler but it quickly returns to full strength.

If I hadn't paid full price for this bag at my LDS, I would simply replace it at this point, but I did so I would love any suggestions for tough odor problems.

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

Try soaking it in vinegar. (And then let it soak in "Sink The Stink" overnight.)

 

[bperrybap]

I've used pine-sol before.

--- bill

 

[MSilvia]

You might try a bleach solution, or a soak in citrus degreaser.

 

[Captain CaveMan]

try taking the dead fish out of the bag. That might help

 

[TxHockeyGuy]

My dive gear has never smelled as bad as my hockey gear so I'll tell you what works for that. Fill your bath tub with hot water, put the bag in, poor generous amounts of Tide, and start stomping on it for about 20 minutes. I have found that Tide works better than some of the other detergents for me, but it wasn't exactly a scientific process that I used to come to that conclusion. When you're done with that drain the tub and then repeat but this time just weight it down and leave it for 24 hours, no stomping this time.

 

[Charlie99]

You might try a bleach solution, .............

Never had a bag take on a stubborn smell, but dilute bleach is my last resort for truly funky boots that Sink-the-stink and/or Myrazyme won't cure.

Before going to the extreme of using bleach, I'll soak the offending item overnight in an enzyme based cleaner (such as Sink-the-Stink or Myrazyme) and fully dry it in shade, and then let it cook in the sun for a day or so. At that point, if the boot or bag is still smelling, then I've got nothing to lose by throwing it into bleach, but I'll still start off with a fairly dilute -- maybe 1 in 20 solution -- for the first attempt.

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

try taking the dead fish out of the bag. That might help

 

[jjdub]

Thanks for the suggestions. I will try the various soaking methods first, since I think the dead fish are cute and I would rather avoid removing them