# Fish Handling and Slaughter



## backcountry (May 19, 2016)

Brutal but honest title.

How do folks kill the trout they keep? Any unique way to preserve the fish meat in the best possible manner?

I just saw a video on Ike Jime and it has me curious to do better at preserving the meat for eating. I won't go as far as "spinal cord destruction" on my little inflatable pontoon but I am thinking more about ethical and effective preservation techniques. I am going to try the brain puncture and more rapid blood draining of both gills (already do) along with cutting at tail (new for me). Probably start doing a ice and water bath in cooler instead of just ice.

Had no clue how long fish could live with classic suffocation method. I gilled the trout but evidently even then the brain can stimulate lactic acid for an hour or more.


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## TPrawitt91 (Sep 1, 2015)

I only keep fish every once in a while and usually cook it within a couple hours of catching it. I have always just hit em in the head with a rock and cleaned em out. Take them to the campfire shortly after and will usually have them in the cooler until then. I don’t ever catch them to bring home and save for later


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## Steve G (Nov 29, 2016)

For small fish like trout I usually do like TPwawitt91 does. For larger fish I rip the gills and let it bleed out a bit then a knife to the brain. (tip: Most people think of braining from the top. Going in from the side is much easier).

More importantly in my opinion is to never wash the flesh in tap water. Frankly i rarely ever wash fillets.


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## ns450f (Aug 28, 2018)

I always keep them alive on a stringer for as long as possible and just gut them alive, I figure that kills them quickly enough. It sounds cruel now that I type it out.


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

If I am out in my tube I will just put them into a nylon fish basket. This keeps them alive and does no harm to them. Then if I want to let any of them go as I catch other fish I can with no problems. If I am shore fishing I'll just put them onto a stringer and then back into the water until it is time to leave. 

Then once on shore I'll just clean them and throw them on ice

I have never bled trout out by pulling their gills until it is time to clean them. Now larger fish such as salmon or stripers I'll always bleed them out.


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## Kwalk3 (Jun 21, 2012)

If I'm guessing, I just watched the same thing the other day. Was it the piece that VOX put out? 

Thought it was really interesting as well. I've been doing a lot of warm-water fishing the last few months, and have wondered if these methods would improve taste and texture of Catfish, Wiper(Similar to the striped bass in the video I watched) and Walleye.

Does anyone bleed catfish with good results? I'm targeting the Cats and Walleyes specifically for the freezer, so I'm looking for anything that helps me put a better quality meal on the table......


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## backcountry (May 19, 2016)

Kwalk3 said:


> If I'm guessing, I just watched the same thing the other day. Was it the piece that VOX put out?
> 
> Thought it was really interesting as well. I've been doing a lot of warm-water fishing the last few months, and have wondered if these methods would improve taste and texture of Catfish, Wiper(Similar to the striped bass in the video I watched) and Walleye.
> 
> Does anyone bleed catfish with good results? I'm targeting the Cats and Walleyes specifically for the freezer, so I'm looking for anything that helps me put a better quality meal on the table......


The VOX video started me down the rabbit hole. Found a few articles and taste test reviews.

Curious to try it. Won't take much extra effort or time. Just bought a $3 ice pick to deal with the brain puncture (not going to drop $30 for a specialized tool). I'll decide if I want to deal with an open knife, to cut the tail blood vessels, on an inflatable boat another time.

The blind taste test reviews I read found it was only slightly better after 2 days. Much better day of to 24 hours; they claim it's one of the handling techniques for "sushi grade" fish. Didn't see any reviews for frozen.

I normally take my limit of trout. We tend to eat 1-2 first day and then vacuum seal and freeze the rest. Will be curious to see if we can tell the difference.


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## PBH (Nov 7, 2007)

yikes.

People can sure make things complicated when they want to...


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## backcountry (May 19, 2016)

Not really any more complicated than banging on the head and gilling. Supposedly more effective though. 

Hunters have learned over time to care for meat better in the field via simple tricks. Nothing different here. 

If a pin needle to the brain and one extra cut makes my fish last longer and taste better I'll keep doing it. If not, then I'll save myself a few seconds and skip it. Probably less time then it took to write your comment.

And I'm only into a $3 ice pick. Sooooooo complicated 😁😉


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## caddis8 (Sep 10, 2007)

As far as cats and walleye go.....

If you skin the cat and also get the mud vein (dark meat on the lateral line) off, you'll be fine. It freezes fine and tastes good. I think it helps a little bit to freeze in a mild saline solution (salty water) which can prevent freezer burn on the meat.

Walleye, pretty hard to screw these up. The larger ones can have some taste to it, and all of that will be along the lateral line. A little trick to those. When you fillet and bone them, if you unzip them by making a small slit along the blood line or lateral line, you can pull the fillet in two. Then, you can pull the pin bones and most of the blood vein out, which will really help with fishy flavor. I don't worry about bleeding out as I fillet as quickly as possible. It's never been bad, so I've never worked on improving. Again, freeze in a slight salt water bath in a ziplock. Good to eat.


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## backcountry (May 19, 2016)

I've never cleaned or filleted catfish. Only eat it when others cook it up for tacos. Interesting that the "mud vein" is along the lateral line with them. Whenever others have used that term around me they are normally referring to the kidney.

Learn something new every day.

I grew up doing a salt bath for fish fillets so I was shocked to hear others believe it damages the meat. Never compared side by side. My father does it for trout though I don't. He fries everything so never had a real chance to taste a difference.


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## Kwalk3 (Jun 21, 2012)

caddis8 said:


> As far as cats and walleye go.....
> 
> If you skin the cat and also get the mud vein (dark meat on the lateral line) off, you'll be fine. It freezes fine and tastes good. I think it helps a little bit to freeze in a mild saline solution (salty water) which can prevent freezer burn on the meat.
> 
> Walleye, pretty hard to screw these up. The larger ones can have some taste to it, and all of that will be along the lateral line. A little trick to those. When you fillet and bone them, if you unzip them by making a small slit along the blood line or lateral line, you can pull the fillet in two. Then, you can pull the pin bones and most of the blood vein out, which will really help with fishy flavor. I don't worry about bleeding out as I fillet as quickly as possible. It's never been bad, so I've never worked on improving. Again, freeze in a slight salt water bath in a ziplock. Good to eat.


I always skin and trim the catfish fillets and remove the mud vein/bloodline. I really like eating catfish and they are really mild fish when they are skinned and trimmed. Have never bled them but would do it if it improved texture. An 8 fish limit of 5 lb channel cats is a deliciously efficient way to fill the freezer.

Walleye is amazing. Mild and firm.

And I'm kinda in the same boat as far as needing to improve on it, but I spend a lot of time preparing and cooking the fish and game that I bring home, so even if the result was only marginally better I'd be willing to give it a shot.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## caddis8 (Sep 10, 2007)

Kwalk3 said:


> I always skin and trim the catfish fillets and remove the mud vein/bloodline. I really like eating catfish and they are really mild fish when they are skinned and trimmed. Have never bled them but would do it if it improved texture. An 8 fish limit of 5 lb channel cats is a deliciously efficient way to fill the freezer.
> 
> Walleye is amazing. Mild and firm.
> 
> ...


When I was a wee lad my dad caught a catfish at Newton Dam on his fly rod fishing for bass/crappies. We had never eaten it so we just filleted it as we would trout. We cooked it skin side down on the grill with bbq sauce. It was horrible. Tasted like mud/poo/moss. We didn't have much to do with cats until I had grown up a bit and started catfishing as a teenager and learned that skinning them was the key. Remove the dark meat and it glorious.

I do remember the taste of that first catfish. wow.

I do the same thing with trout if it's a larger one. But I smoke most of the trout I catch now if I do catch one and that is the way to go.


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

I can just imagine what a catfish would taste like with the skin left on. 

Even when I was a lad fishing down at Utah Lake and catching buckets full of mud cats, the first thing that we would do is skin them.


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## wyoming2utah (Sep 12, 2007)

Critter said:


> I can just imagine what a catfish would taste like with the skin left on.
> 
> Even when I was a lad fishing down at Utah Lake and catching buckets full of mud cats, the first thing that we would do is skin them.


That's how I feel about trout and salmon. To me, the biggest mistake people make with salmi if's is cooking them with the skin. Talk about ruining good fish...


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## backcountry (May 19, 2016)

Which is funny as I believe Salmon and trout is best with skin on. I like the flavor and the meat maintains more of its juices. Plus, much of the health benefit from fish, the omega 3s, are fatty acid and the skin side has a fair amount of subcutaneous fat (from what I've been told and observed). 

Downside: mercury stores readily in fat. So you have to read the fish consumption advisories by the state. 

That said, my go to recipe involves cooking either fish for a crispy skin. Those who don't like it can just take the flesh while people like me can eat the crispy treat :smile:


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## wyoming2utah (Sep 12, 2007)

I believe the skin gives the meat a really fishy flavor. Cooking trout without the skin removes that flavor. I won’t eat trout that has been cooked with the skin.


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## backcountry (May 19, 2016)

Definitely understand. About half the people I know won't eat fish with skin on in general. I use to just cook trout whole but learned the hard way that many people don't like the taste, work or sight of it that way.

To each their own. No right or wrong way.


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

For trout if they are around 10 inches or so we will pan fry them. Skin, heads, and tails and I have to agree that it adds a little different taste but I wouldn't call it fishy. 

Others depending on how big they are will usually get filleted unless we are in a hurry where we can just cut the heads and tails off to get them into the frying pan.


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## caddis8 (Sep 10, 2007)

If smoking I leave the skin on. I then pull the meat off the skin and pick off the dark meat. If grilling, I'll leave skin on just so it stays together, then immediately remove skin. I also don't eat trout that much and it has to come from somewhere cold with good water- ice fishing is acceptable. 

I'm kind of a snob apparently.


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## backcountry (May 19, 2016)

Caught my limit yesterday. Easily practiced first 2 steps of "Ike jime" and used an ice water bath instead of just ice. Carcasses were noticeably cleaner while filleting but that just makes sense from a thorough bleeding out. Some of the fillets have been wrapped up in fridge for 24 hours now and the classic "fish smell" is noticeably less, if not imperceptible. And that is with skin on. Can't speak for taste yet; friend offered a homemade brisket dinner tonight so fish dinner got delayed until tomorrow. Can't pass up on that offer.

Brain puncture was simple and effective. Absolutely no signs of life after that and you know immediately if you've been successful or not. A little tougher to cut tail properly without a platform but was very manageable. All around took about 10-15 seconds so I think I'll keep doing it.


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