I was just given an ice chest with recently caught snapper. It has been a long time since I had to freeze alot of fish. What is the best way......freeze them in water or freeze them in vaccum sealed bags?

I've always freezed them in water for extended periods and never had a problem.

Freezer bags + water + few drops of lemon juice if available.

Freezer bags over vaccum? Since they still have a ton of moisture in the meat?

If it's saltwater fish that will be grilled, I vacuum seal it. It'll last for yrs that way. If it is getting fried like 99% of the freshwater fish I catch, it gets put in water then frozen in freezer bags.

We often bring home a sheet load of crappie from the lake to have in the other 10 months of the year. We always put the filets in a ziplock with water and have never had a problem.

I have vacuum sealed and frozen in water for many years. In my experience the fish keeps much longer if frozen in water, but most people don't keep fish that long. If you plan on eating it within the first year I would say vacuum seal. If you have so much fish you plan on it lasting years, then I would freeze in water.

Some folks claim the water adjusts the taste, but that has not been very noticable to me.

I usually freeze big batches of fish for frying and vacuum seal fish for grilling, baking and individual servings.

Either way will work.

I always freeze in water, but I don't have a vaccum sealer.

I know it's probably redneck as hell, but when it's a lot of fish, I will cut the top part (about 1/6th - just above the top of the handle) off of a jug of milk. Rinse it out really well, then place the fish in. Then I cover it with water. It's a lot less cumbersome than ziplocks.

How do you vaccum seal a bag with water in it?

I place fillets in ziplock fill about half way with water. I then get a 5 gallon bucket of water, place the ziplock down into the buckets of water until water reaches the seal of the ziplock then seal. The pressure of the water forcers all the air out and you have yourself a cheap vacuum sealer.

Well you're a redneck from Waller so it's amazing to me that you didn't try to stick your face into the water and suck the air out!

I understand that idea though.

I thought they meant, fill up a foodsaver bag with water and use the food saver on it. Mine does not have a "soaked" setting only a "moist" one.

Queso, you are not alone. We have done that for years with fish and shrimp. We tend to use half gallon jugs and cut just the spout for fish. We leave the spout and actually count out the number of shrimp in each container. It is easier to gauge how much you want to thaw knowing how many you will feed.
For fish, we do the jugs with water for fish fry fare and we use gallon bags with water for half shell and larger pieces. Keeps a long time. The only saltwater species I've been specifically told not to freeze in water is tuna. Vacuum seal and eat within 6-8 months.

...and make sure you get the air out of your gallon bags.

Tuna seems to get nasty with water. Kingfish too. But I don't eat kings.

Yeah, the last time we went to Venice, our guide said absolutely no water on Tuna. We each had about 40-50lbs of tuna apiece and we vacuum sealed it all. It was good til it was gone at about 7 months.
We don't keep kings anymore either. Never very good after it is thawed. We will keep one small to medium sized king caught fresh and make kingfish salad that day (think tuna salad). It is awesome and is good for 2-3 days but that is all we do with them.
My wife and I try to freeze fish and shrimp in portions that we can eat. We do venison backstrap and the like similarly. That way, we don't waste any. Our freezer looks like a supermarket with all of the numbers on containers.