Back before the use of coolers was universal, I can remember bringing home long stringers of bluegill bream after an afternoon's fishing. We just put them in the trunk of the car.

Often one or two would somehow come off the stringer and wedge themselves invisibly under something in the trunk. We always noticed it pretty soon, but sometimes the smell would become overpowering. A druggist friend of my Dad's gave him something which I think was called Oil of Wintergreen which smelled like chewing gum and pretty much overcame the odor...Geo