Crayfish Blood
Submitted by aussiejoe on Wed, 2020-11-25 06:52
With the "White Run" about to ramp up I was looking for some tips on how to deal with the blue / black gel (blood?)
I usually desensitize crays in an ice slurry, separate the tails and cryovac these, on polystyrens trays to avoid having the bags pierced. Sometimes the tails turn black when defrosting. How can this be avoided?
Appreciate any tips.
Woodsy65
Posts: 163
Date Joined: 21/05/15
I dont chase crays so
I dont chase crays so certainly am not an expert, however have a mate who dives regulary and freezes the tails green as you mentioned. Prior to cryovacing them, he squeezes fresh lemon juice in the bag and then cryovacs. He swears by this method to stop them turning black when deffrosting. I have never had a black cray tail from him, so maybe he is correct.
quadfisher
Posts: 1146
Date Joined: 28/09/10
Heads or tails?
Before freezing we snip the anntenna at that joint near the head ,,,,, roll in newspaper and put 2 or 3 in ziplock bags always head down away from the ziplock on top of bag,,,,,,,, place in freezer heads down and when defrosting there is a black gel blob on anntenna stub, crays are clean.....
But your doing tails so I would find/ buy a cyclindrical container or pvc pipe and snip anntenna , jam heads down so they cant move, leave for maybe 10 minutes before detaching tails etc ,,, worth a try......
quadfisher
biggerfish
Posts: 669
Date Joined: 02/03/09
I used to tear the middle
I used to tear the middle tail fin off once caught and sized as per fisheries rule but found the blood would ooze from it and would turn bottom of tail black. I now use scissors and cut only the very end of tail so you don't make cray bleed haven't had any black tails for a while
Play hard fish harder
Francis
Posts: 326
Date Joined: 17/06/08
Yep - can confirm this works
Yep - can confirm this works for me also
little johnny
Posts: 5359
Date Joined: 04/12/11
If tailing at home
Use clean towel to let all blood ( moisture out) put in clean salt water in Chinese takeaway size containers. Add tails It’s like they just been caught up to 1 year later . Doing right thing in regards to ice slurry to Kill them . Never drown crays in fresh water big no no . They swell and create more black . If freezing hole ( kill in salt water ice slurry) let drain and put scotch towel under them when you pack them .( removes any moisture /blood out that you may miss . Never use fresh water .
aussiejoe
Posts: 93
Date Joined: 01/03/14
Many thhanks
for your replies.