I just started doing this and the quality of the meat is really good. Or maybe it's the quality of the stripers, I dunno....

Bluefish, tunoids, and skates/sharks, yes, but not stripers (just out of habit I guess).

when i am gonna eat them. yep :hihi:

not if I need to weigh them though ;)

Bluefish, yes....

Stripers, no.........

But since I like to eat bluefish, a little "gameyness" in stripers doesn't bother me.....:)

I started bleeding my fish this year and there is a noticable difference.

Careful bleeding the tog, they squirt.

I ate some great tasting bluefish at the Back Eddy in Westport last year. I asked the chef his secret, and he said to brine the fish in a Kosher salt and water solution.

yes

You dont want to bleed sharks you want to totally gut them before they die as they lose urine thru the skin and it gets into the meat when they die.yuch!If you dont you can smell and taste the ammonia.

only tuna get bled. I got an 875 once ( a number of years ago)...you should see the blood from that sucker...was pooring out of the scuppers.

Others (blues bass, ect) get put on ice cleaned pretty quick.

Bleed everything you're going to eat

Interesting side question raised here......

bleed or gut your fish? I saw with Sharks, gutting is good - how about blues?

Anything that I am going to eat I bleed and gut ASAP!
But Bass are to be hole when you get to the dock!! But I have been known to gut them at sea.
Then all hits the ice!! Then what get frozen gets vacum packed.

IVE HEARD THAT BLEEDING ALSO LOWERS THE TOXINS IN THE FISH.

If it's to be food, bleed it , gut it , pack it with ice. Well cared for food is great food.

I bleed and gut everything that I am going to keep as soon as it is on the beach.

I 'm gonna bleed my next (first) keeper if I'm out in the suds-last fall I saw a guy tie his fish to his belt and cut it above the anus (major artery) and leave it in the water. the fish swam next to the guy till it was bled, then he gutted it and said he would fillet it once he got on the rocks. he told me the meat keeps better that way and it cuts down on the red meat (bloodline)

although highly illigal, i keep 'em alive in the livewell, till it's go time.{no, i'm not "high-grading"}
then i slice there throats,down to the backbone, for the ride home.{livewell still running}
by the time i get back to the dock, there all bled out, and freshly dead. then filet and zip-lock.
makes for very fresh white, meat.
less mess on the filet table too.
mike

Keep in mind that when you keep fish (or lobsters) in a non-recirculating livewell they are essentially marinating in their own waste (and there is a significant amount of waste). You would be better off keeping them on ice.

I slit it and gut them. then i dunk it in a fresh saltwarer with a stringer. and then i use shaved ices to stuff its stomach and bury it into the coller full of shaved ice.

Most of the ones I kept last year (not that I keep a lot) were still alive at fillet time.....:think:

alive at filet time=blood everywhear.

macojoe, u mentioned about the hole. is the hole that u were talking about that is seen frequently at a local fish market and that shows how not fresh a fish is, right? i wonder how does a bass or any fish do that? its like they explode their stomach acid and it start to detoritorate the organs or flesh...?

maybe I am being ultra-sensitive here, but that seems a little cruel. Sticking it and letting it swim and die slowly. I think a quick-clean death is better. I respect this fish to much to allow it to suffer bleeding to death.

Actually I would think Gutting it while it was still alive would be a crueler way than Bleeding to death. When you just give it a stick and let it bleed it just kinda goes to sleep......

Not to sound cruel, but I never really cared about suffering... it's going to die quickly either way, either x minutes bleeding out or almost right away if you gut and fillet it...

As far as bleeding stripers... never did it, never saw the need... if you dont like gaminess, cut the red meat off the fillet

As for Bluefish... I loooooooveeeee fresh grilled cocktail blues (under say 6 lbs)...
As soon as the come in (unless fishing is red hot) they get smacked in the head, then grab em by the gill, slit em ass to neck and pull everything out of the cavity... best done if still allitle alive, flueshes the blood out better.... just watch your fingers near the mouth and hold on... they like to wake up when you slit em... I use a Rapala fillet glove to hold on..

For Blackfish, most of them are allive when we get back to the dock, cut em with the electric carving knife and be done with em; white meat either way...

A friend of mine has a video.

He his dad and Dad's friend were out fishing tuna. As soon as the tuna got to the boat - still flush hot , and they bled and gutted it.

He was holding the heart in his hand...and if he touched it, it would beat 2 or 3 times, then stop. Touch it again and it would beat a few more times.

it was pretty cool.

I have seen the difference between a bled tuna and a tuna left untouched.....what a difference in the quality.


Which leads me to believe that any table fare should be bled, gutted and packed with a much ice as possible as soon as possible. Of course whenever the law allows.

-IWK

I bleed all my fish.........eventually.:D

:D

If its good for commercial boats its good for me.

Bleed and gut immediately and pack with ice.

I never heard of bleeding fish before. I think its a great idea though just wondering how I go about doing it??? Would one of you guys mind telling me.

macojoe, u mentioned about the hole. is the hole that u were talking about that is seen frequently at a local fish market and that shows how not fresh a fish is, right?

The law states that all Bass need to be (landed by boat of corase) not cut up in any way. But I gut and clean all That I am going to eat at sea as soon as I get them!! When I get to the dock I be head them and go home.

The stuff I sell is sold just as you catch them, no gutting bleeding or anything.

I catch it , measure it , decide whether to keep it or not. If I keep it , it gets one good whack with an aluminum t-ball bat. It's suffering is over. I cut it to the backbone to bleed it and gut it. Then it gets packed in ice in the cooler. Just my ritual, that's all.

Originally posted by Backbeach Jake
I catch it , measure it , decide whether to keep it or not. If I keep it , it gets one good whack with an aluminum t-ball bat. It's suffering is over. I cut it to the backbone to bleed it and gut it. Then it gets packed in ice in the cooler. Just my ritual, that's all.

beachwalker, the savage hunter.

.

In the words of Ted Nugent " You can't grill it, till you kill it."

Have you seen his Cook Book that he and his wife have put out, It called "Kill it andGrill it".

if it's good enough for Pauly in the Godfather, it's good enough for my keepers. I'd imagine they get that euphoric light headed feeling just before they see the light. It's probably a little more humane than throwing them on the beach to die slowly.


Originally posted by Iwannakeeper
maybe I am being ultra-sensitive here, but that seems a little cruel. Sticking it and letting it swim and die slowly. I think a quick-clean death is better. I respect this fish to much to allow it to suffer bleeding to death.

Wouldn't it be the most human to behead it? And wouldn't it be better for the enviornment to gut it and throw the waste back into the ocean rather than the trash or what not?

boy has this thread evolved....

-Bleed em' gut em' and ice em' I think it makes a difference......

MJoe, its ok to gut a Bass, just can't do any more than that....:cool:

and thats beheading a bass. my epa buddy and i saw a guy with two beheaded basses. we laughed because we knew that this guy was up to something. and also we think that he was an idiot to do that. oh well.

why is it stupid to behead a bass?

because it is against the law. people mulitate their keeper or catches to avoid accurate measurement so they can keep the fish or sell them. u can behad the bass at home. gutting them is much better than behading in the public. besides, it raises suspecisions. if u want to show ur catch to people, leave everything intact. if u re going to bring it home, do it discreetly.

What's the difference bettween chopping it's head off and having it die instantly rather than ripping it's guts out while its alive? This is all laws aside but saying that it was like a 40 incher so it's aparent it being large enough to keep. Could I make less sense?...probably

you got a pointthere, adam, but what if u find a police catching you with a beheaded fish? i thought that once u gut them and bled them, they die instantly. if i see u do that with a big fish, well, i wont object or make a comment. but my concern is trhe police... policia:smash: