Catch care
Submitted by JCM on Sun, 2013-01-13 08:26
Wondering how the majority of boat fishers care for their catch.
Ive been fishing out wide, where the skipper does not store his fish on ice, nor are they killed, bled or gutted. They are simply thrown straight off the hook, still flapping into an under floor compartment with a couple of buckets of sea water, the water is pumped out & replaced once or twice during the day. The skipper argues that good clean cold sea water is good enough. I'm talking prime deep sea fish, being out dawn till after midday.
Appreciate any comments
till
Posts: 9358
Date Joined: 21/02/08
Sounds gross - fish with
Sounds gross - fish with someone else.
Fish guts
Posts: 318
Date Joined: 20/07/12
I personally like a ice
I personally like a ice slurry. 1/2 ice 1/2 sea water. And definitely bleed the fish. But each to their own :)
All men are equal before fish....
Fish guts
Posts: 318
Date Joined: 20/07/12
Forgot to mention the
Forgot to mention the instant kill. Spike to the brain.
All men are equal before fish....
BOOMER
Posts: 179
Date Joined: 24/01/11
Bleed, spike, Ice slurry in
Bleed, spike, Ice slurry in that order
Boomer
Big hook,
Big bait,
BIG FISH !!!!!
Paully
Posts: 3246
Date Joined: 15/08/09
spike first then bleed and slurry
Doooma
Posts: 791
Date Joined: 05/12/09
Geez.. the ocean isnt that
Geez.. the ocean isnt that cold!!!! be lucky to be under 22 degrees at the moment!!!
snappermiles
Posts: 2100
Date Joined: 05/11/10
hes crazy
although i no a few people like him! i just put mine straight into an ice slurry!
ALL FISHERMEN ARE LIARS EXCEPT YOU AND ME! AND IM NOT SO SURE ABOUT YOU!
allrounder
Posts: 1853
Date Joined: 10/11/08
Same
If your ice slurry is cold enough you dont need to bleed them.
So tell me have you got your info from years on the water or hours on the internet?
fishing fanatic
Posts: 809
Date Joined: 01/05/09
Stick a knife in next to the
Stick a knife in next to the pect fins in the gills and wriggle it around till the vein is cut ans then so the other. Then hold on well and put it over the side in the water till its fully bled then back on the boat spike to the brain to kill it and then remove hooks and put it in an ice SEA water slurry of about 50/50. Or just stragiht onto ice. Or in a damp heshian bag
till
Posts: 9358
Date Joined: 21/02/08
Damp hessian bags are only
Damp hessian bags are only for a certain old spearo who is too cheap for ice.
outdoinit
Posts: 1009
Date Joined: 05/10/12
Slightly Different
Spike (instant Kill), Bleed, then to under floor compartment with fresh seawater for 5 mins to wash all the blood out clean, then in the cooler straight on Ice... Keep fresh for ages...
Once went out on a Charter where they put fish in the Ice box with no ice or any cooling (seawater or other) and left them there all day, then at the end of the day proceeded to fillet them with the knife we had been using to cut up the bait with...
:-( Disgusting.... Hence to say I didnt take fish home from that lot...
I've spent half my life fishing.. The other half I have wasted..
nev
Posts: 193
Date Joined: 04/02/09
much the same
lay fish onto piece of foam to calm them, spike ,bleed , dee hook and wash with deck hose and then into slurry. Definetly a lot better with Pinkys, filleting is much easier as the flesh is set and no blood at all.
pricey10
Posts: 486
Date Joined: 07/01/12
Oh god yeah suppised the
Oh god yeah suppised the fish hasn't gone rotten by the time you get home. I always ice slurry mine and if time allows I bleed and spike but if we are on a hot bite I just give em a good wack to the head to with the judge and straight in the box
Karratha. WA
Rob H
Posts: 5808
Date Joined: 18/01/12
Commercially nowadays the
Commercially nowadays the practice is to spike only then slurry or pack in ice. Its generally accepted that as soon as you open the fish with a knife you release enzymes and bacteria which hasten the deterioration process of a fish which may be packed whole for 4 or 5 days plus.
different of course for us who fillet at the end of the day. Certainly chilling makes the filletting much easier especially on fish like Rankin Cod.
I just dont understand why every manufacturer doesnt insulate their kill tanks as standard. Then you can drop a couple of blocks ice while they bleed.
Give a man a mask, and he'll show you his true face...
The older you get the more you realize that no one has a f++king clue what they're doing.
Everyone's just winging it.
JohnF
Posts: 2839
Date Joined: 07/07/10
Ice makes a huge
Ice makes a huge difference.
We got an unexpected mac last year while out trying to fix an electrical gremlin on the old mans boat....dragged a lure behind the boat as a bit of a laugh while we tested things....no ice, no esky, so we stored it on deck with a wet shirt wrapped around it, we were back in within an hour. Maccie was quite fishy.
Recently, we got a mac, spiked, bled, straight in ice slurry, fillet, vac sealed, fridge, bbq next day, could not have been more perfectly handled.....the flesh was superb and not a hint of fishyness......it makes a massive difference.
Apart from that, it is just humane to spike a fish immediately.......we do bleed tuna before spiking though.......
Boston Whaler 235 Conquest......getting the flogging it was built for.
catchalittle
Posts: 1875
Date Joined: 04/09/08
depends on the fish either
depends on the fish either bleed them out or otherwise spike to the head then straight in to the killwell which has a plastic tub in it and cover with ice and a bit of water,as for baitfish straight in to a bucket of water waiting for their turn on the baitboard to be diced and sliced
Nathan
Spitfire56
Posts: 128
Date Joined: 29/07/12
Too cheap for ice
I freeze 3x 3 L bottles of ice and place in the kill tank with sea water once I catch a keeper. Find it lasts longer on a hot day and you can refreeze for next time
C.P
Posts: 345
Date Joined: 04/01/12
Spike
What do you use to spike your fish? Is it a commercially made tool or do you use a knife or sharpened scewdriver?
carnarvonite
Posts: 8673
Date Joined: 24/07/07
Spike
Usually a sharpened phillips screwdriver or a fid if the proper one isn't handy.
Vinesh87
Posts: 2751
Date Joined: 02/04/11
Seen that a few times. Not
Seen that a few times. Not keen at all.
Bled and washed out and then straight into the iced up slurry in the esky out of the sun!!. Not even the kill tank full of ice will do for me!!
Vin
carnarvonite
Posts: 8673
Date Joined: 24/07/07
Slurry
A lot of the wetliners don't even spike their fish now, the shock of them hitting the ice slurry has the same effect as spiking them. I spike and then into the ice slurry , filletting happens next day after the fish are well and truly set.
Going back many years it was common practice to gill and gut all the fish and stick them under wet hessian, you would give it a squirt with the deck hose every half hour or so to keep it damp and allow for evaporation to do its cooling job.
br3nno
Posts: 353
Date Joined: 25/12/12
1. Spike2. Bleed in sea
1. Spike
2. Bleed in sea water
3. Place in icy slurry
Cant go wrong. Good luck
BC
sea-kem
Posts: 15031
Date Joined: 30/11/09
Can I ask the stupid
Can I ask the stupid question? If you spike to kill the fish outright then try to bleed with the heart stopped, doesn't that defeat the purpose? I always bleed first then into the slurry.
Love the West!
allrounder
Posts: 1853
Date Joined: 10/11/08
If your slurry is cold
You dont need to do anything to the fish except drop it in. The blood retracts to the vital organs the same as it does in a human(Hypothermia) and it doesnt release the enzymes ect that start to break down the flesh.
So tell me have you got your info from years on the water or hours on the internet?
outdoinit
Posts: 1009
Date Joined: 05/10/12
Even after the spike
they still bleed out fine, as long as you knife them straight away after the spike. Then I find that putting them in the underfloor tank with fresh sea water for 5 mins really cleans them up, so when we put in ice box no blood and mess everywhere.. ;-)
I've spent half my life fishing.. The other half I have wasted..
crasny1
Posts: 7003
Date Joined: 16/10/08
Spiking causes Brain death
Not Cardiovascular death.
Very much the same as in humans with head injuries. You have to switch off machines with brain death as the heart and other vital organs can still function for some time.
Spiking kills the nervous system and stop the fish from flapping and bruising the flesh. Then bleeding as the heart still beats.
But I am also a Ice believer, and only bleed Pelagic fish like mackies and Tuna. White flesh fish either straight into an ice slurry which stuns them, much like crabs. Sometimes I Iki but have not noticed any difference with this. If I dont have a nice good slurry then for Humane reasons Iki. Otherwise just an Ice stun.
Neels
"I would like to die on Mars. Just not on impact!!" _ Elon Musk
sea-kem
Posts: 15031
Date Joined: 30/11/09
Thanks Crasny. That's what I
Thanks Crasny. That's what I was trying to get cleared up. So Iki and bleed seems the go. Getting a good ice slurry when you have caught some good big fish can be a bit of a task on a smaller boat. I tend to use block ice as it's easy to make and lasts longer and costs me nothing. And it get the water pretty cold.
Love the West!
meglodon
Posts: 5981
Date Joined: 17/06/10
+ 1
yep thats my preffered method
Paul H
Posts: 2104
Date Joined: 18/01/07
Definately tatse better
Definately tatse better looked after in an ice slurry. Whether I bleed depends on the fish. When filleting KG's other thing I insist on is washing the fillets in clean sea water before packing/freezing- washing them in fresh takes so much of the tatse out.
Cheers
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roddo
Posts: 486
Date Joined: 16/10/09
so for those who do extended
so for those who do extended trips without modcons what's your best practice. IE when we go to steep each year we don't have the room for 20+ bags of ice. All we do is take 10x 2.5 litre bottles full of water frozen at the end of each day straight back in the freezer for tomorrow. So we can't get a great ice slurry but its enough to get it pretty cold. We always spike and bleed all fish.
till
Posts: 9358
Date Joined: 21/02/08
Don't freeze in bottles, at
Don't freeze in bottles, at least use tubs and tip the ice out. You're not really going to get much heat transfer from the fish to the bottles.
Rob H
Posts: 5808
Date Joined: 18/01/12
Bottles are the go for
Bottles are the go for Steep, saves water. To use 25 litres a day on block ice would be impractical given the water situation at steep point unless using salt which is much slower to freeze due to lower freeze point.
i use bottles also at the islands same reason.
Give a man a mask, and he'll show you his true face...
The older you get the more you realize that no one has a f++king clue what they're doing.
Everyone's just winging it.
till
Posts: 9358
Date Joined: 21/02/08
Fair point about saving
Fair point about saving water, maybe you just need yet more cooling for salt water ice.
Faulkner Family
Posts: 18067
Date Joined: 11/03/08
we always looked for better
we always looked for better ways to look after the fish we caught. finally we found what works best for us.
first spike the fish then bleed. place the fish in a tub to bleed out then wash off with either deck wash or over the side, then place fish in the esky with ice.
as far as filet care, if we are going to freeze we dont wash the fillet as all , only wash it off after thawing and just before cooking. never wash the fillets with fresh water unless its going to be eaten fairly soon as the addatives in the water taints the flesh. also tried washing in salt water which we brought back in from deep in a clean bucket onl;y used for that purpose.
the taste difference is noticable when you eat the fish done different ways
RUSS and SANDY. A family that fishes together stays together
Yewiefish85
Posts: 793
Date Joined: 02/01/11
My old man has 2L drink
My old man has 2L drink bottles filled with saltwater, bloody cold and lasts a fair while, me ot the other hand use ice slurry, I don't make up the slurry till I get something to go in the esky, if it is reef fish as mentioned above go strait into the slurry, tuna get spiked, bled, then gilled and gutted and stomach cavity stuffed with ice from the slurry, mackerel bled and towel soaked in slurry over fish (usually too big to fit in the esky)
Yewie