what do you guys do after you catch your keeper, i was told cut through the gil plates grab the tail and give a few shakes bleed the fish then onto ice. seems letting the fish sit on the beach till ready to go home is the norm, sad to see those fish gasp fo air and slowly die i rather cut them and get it over with. plus i think the meat is better and fish dies quickly rather then long suffacation. what do you guys do?

cut the throat and open the entrails and gut them out. then wash the fish with the freshwater from the beach or whatever i can find. i always wash the blood. then i stuffed the ice into it's stomach.

Bass - I clean them when I get home....until then, bury them in the sand if I'm on the beach, otherwise, just try to keep them out of the sun (not that the sun is usually up that high when I fish anyways...;)), and then get them on ice in a cooler or trash bag back at the car.

Blues.....I usually gut them in the wash a soon as I can....which may be immediately, or at least within an hour if there happens to be a blitz happening that I don't wanna miss....

But, the "supposed" gaminess that not bleeding either bass or blues may give them doesn't bother me, in fact, I prefer it, but that's just my taste......

I think the "strong" flavor bluefish (can) get if it is not properly cared for is due in part to the dark (reddish) meat. If you ice them down right away and filet them as soon as you can (post fishing) and while you are fileting, remove that red meat. I think you will find the fish quite tasty and will last longer when stored. Speaking of long term storage of fish, while nothing is better then fresh, these vacume packing machines *are* the way to go!! I have had 9 month old fish that was great and tasted nearly as good as fresh.

sandman, the vacume packing sounds good. i will get one for sure. i never liked fish that were frozen, just not the same as fresh. vacume pack sounds like the way to go. :D

I've posted this before, but.....short of a vacuum packer......

Put your fillets in serving sizes in Ziplock Freezer bags....fill your sink with water.....Close all but the very corner of the bag and carefully submerge it in the water, with just the un-opened corner sticking out.....this forces out all the air.....carefully go deeper and deeper until the opened corner is just above the water line, then seal it.....dry off the bag, and layer in the freezer to freeze as fast you can...

ALMOST as good as vaccumed packed.....have had frozen fish that was over 9 months old and it was still yummy....

I do the same thing with herring for bait when I get it in the spring......

Regulations = sour fish.

The regs say you must transport the wfish whole.
This means if I catch legal fish and clean/filet it right then and there that I can be screwed by TheMan(tm)

Any ways around that?

What is it about a commercial license that allows you to fillet your fish when it is caught?

If I understand correctly, you can fillet the fish, but you must keep the frame with you to prove the fillets came off a legal fish.....either that or the "fillets" themselves must be over the legal size ....not sure how that holds in the various states, but I think that's the law in Mass and Jersey, anyway......

Actually, this is from the Mass Division of Marine Fisheries Abstract for 2003:

"Striped bass msut be transported with head body and tail intact -multialtion in such a way as to interfere with adequate and proper measurement is not permitted. The discard of dead, legal striped bass, i.e. high grading, is prohibited."

So, that is a bit vague, as in one sense it says the "head, body and tail" must be intact, but in another sense, it says if it is not multilated to "interfere with proper and adequate measurement" it is okay. I would thing an intact fram with the fillets removed would not interfere with proper measurement.

There was no mention of other fish other than bass pertaining to this subject.

Don't have time right now to wade thru the RI DEM website to find their rules............

You can gut & bleed the fish but you cannot dever the head or tail in the process until fish is at it's final destination....

Can I bring along my grill, cathc the fish, filet, cook, eat, and then use the carcas in my lobster trap?

What if my final destination is a shore lunch?

There was a big brew-ha-ha out here recently about fisherman bringing entire fish back and cleaning fish at the dock and dumping the remains in the harbor. A bunch of bass remains washed up next to the boat ramp and in some salt ponds. (they take a while to breakdown)

Trash pick-up out here is rare. (I am lucky @ once per week) Bringing fish home and putting the remains in a few plastic bags for the better part of a week during the summer months is NOT the way to make friends. :yak4: Bringing them back into the saltponds and dumping lots stuff in the water is OK for a while but it will get out of hand and casue water quality problems longer term. If you notice at montauk now, you can't dump remains...they have an dumpster next to the cleaning station that is emptied every day.
Here they have nothing here and the law is confusing. The newspaper article pleeded with fishermen to clean them offshore...but no one mentioned that the law says you have to bring them in.

I don't take short fish. I do clean some in the pond, and some at home , and some on the beach and some offshore. I know I am technically breaking the law when I do it offshore, but you can't keep bringing all this stuff back with you and dumping it next to your boat at the dock. I would rather bring home meat then lots of waste. This is a "stupid" law IMO and it is not very practical.

Would anyone bleed a trophy fish ? ;)

Hell, no, I would let it to stay in the cooler and rock my car up 'n down on the way to the b&t store for the weight-in. After it has been weight down and taken picture, I'll bleed it. I would bleed a tuna though. ;)

I have a bait frezzer that is just for my fishing!! I clean all my fisah here at home, when done I put all the inners, racks and all in a five gal bucket and put into my freezer. The next time i go fishing I take the frozen bucket with me and dump them at sea.
It works for me.

the culprit speaks up. ;)

:eek: ooohhh

sorry I did not mean it!! I will be quiet now

Too late...:smash: :laughs:

what I do!! what I do!!:laughs:

Maco,

I am just pulling your leg. The ocean consumes what it yeilds. It is in the harbors and on the beaches that dumping would be bad.

I thought it was funny so I commented......

Macojoe's bait freezer is a great way to handle it....its on my list of must gets. If I ever get my power chum grinder project completed (a la Van) I would be able to grind up most of that stuff and put it to good use. Won't be able to but a 30# bass head in there but most of that stuff mixed with some bunker oil and a few herring or macs makes decent chum.


Hey...I think I smell opportunity...Build a cleaning station in each harbor, collect the fish waste daily, pick up a used wood chipper and shred the fish, freeze as chum and re-sell to the fishermen. Sounds like a great job for college/high school kids on vacation.:)

Problems you would have to deal with -
vermin - rats, raccoons, teenagers
odor - the hot sun on a bucket of fishguts can work wonders
summerfolk -Oh, those unsightly fishermen. I wish they would leave our quaint little fishing village. those smelly nets, those ugly lobster traps. They make this beautiful little resort such an ugly place.Who else here remembers the last time summer folk tried to pass ordinances to restrict storage of fishing gear in a fishing town?

I will work with anyone who is serous about developing this idea.
PM me.

No Problem!! I was messing around also!!

I really have two bait freezer, A chest I bought from someone for $20 8 years ago, It has been out side all that time. If you were to look at it you would wonder how it ever works, :confused: me to
Then a friend gave me a upright freezer that is just laying around for this one to die, It may have a long wait .
I have 1 frige, freezer combo in my kitchen, another combo in the basement, upright freezer working in the basement for the house, and a bait freezer in the yard. Then the one waiting to be used stored at my brothers.
I much rather the chest for bait as it is easyto put full buckets of gut in. upright would be tuff for that. But I have propblems with the chest when packing it. If you put things way in the bottom they do not freeze good. this is were the motor is at and unless you rotate your stock good you will find that stuff down there stays a little soft. My buddy has the same problem with his. So you must rotate the bait offten!!
This is what makes freezer's smell so good!!
:yak6:
Hmm............ Wood chiper chumer :gorez: I would not want that job.

u would be amazed how a seagull can gulp a large intestine of a striper.