Saw that, some big fish rolling through French creek
I wonder where that fish was heading.
Hopefully towards my gear
Nicely done. Just pointing out that you could get a ticket and the fish seized for not leaving the tail on one of those fillets until your back home.
So this goes against the regs for transporting your catch. By law you must leave the tail on one of the fillets for id purposes until at your primary residence. Very few actually do it but it is the regulation.
True story.
I get it though. I do what I can and follow all rules around catching and retaining, but if you're out there for more than a couple of days and you get into some big fish how many 10 lb fillets do you need to freeze whole? For me the small risk of a run-in is worth it not to waste fish.
Most of the bigger lodges have processing licences where they have to submit detailed paperwork to DFO with complete catch statistics for each angler. Fish are processed and bagged individually then boxed and flash frozen. From my own experiences it is by far the most accurate reporting of salmon catch I have ever seen.
Slice the fillet down to the skin without going through. Freeze in a fish bag. Throw back in freezer at home to get super cold again. Easy to finish the cut, remove the tail, and vacuum seal now. Bonus is you can glaze the already frozen pieces with some icy water with just a bit of salt and sugar in it for further protection from little pockets of air that a frozen piece might have.
