Icing your catch

[Prawn Star]

I always tell people when you shoot a deer do you let it sit in the woods all day before gutting it? Every guided trip I have been on the guides just bonk and throw in the box. One guy got pissed at me cause I bled a halibut out and got blood on the deck. Is it too much to ask the guide to please let me at least bleed the fish before going into the box and can we bring some ice.

 

[Rockin Johnny]

Back in the days when I didn’t have refrigeration on board I cut the gills and left the fish on the swim step to bleed out. If I had salt ice, I’d belly-ice them and lay them in alternating head to tail and tail to head format in a mega-size cooler and cover with the salt ice as the stack built up.

The most important part of this drill—-I placed stud-ends under one side of the cooler (opposite the drain hole) so the ice melt drains out of the cooler… that’s a critical step to keep any bacteria formation out of the mix.

I now have a refrigerator on my boat so I can freeze water bottles which I place in the belly cavity of my springs. If no salt ice available I buy block ice and pulverize the blocks with a hammer so I’m not bruising the meat with the weight of the whole blocks

I’m all in with Adanac on quality … if you can’t properly take care of your catch you shouldn’t be harvesting fish

I commercial trolled back in the day and the skipper I worked for hammered quality into me (at the top of his shrieking lungs)—- every blood vein (and i mean every blood vein) in every belly cavity had to be massaged dry of blood before the fish got belly iced and GENTLY LAID in the hold of the boat. Back in those days, the springs we hooked were flown to what the skipper called “the Parisean white table cloth market” ..

to this day I treat each fish as if that’s where it’s going

Thank you, that’s exactly what I was looking for, I completely agree with this. Have you ever made a slurry by chipping a block up and adding salt water? When I worked on a pilot project catching springs the dfo gave us coolers with a slurry in them that consisted of shaved ice, salt and sugar…

 

[Rockin Johnny]

I always tell people when you shoot a deer do you let it sit in the woods all day before gutting it? Every guided trip I have been on the guides just bonk and throw in the box. One guy got pissed at me cause I bled a halibut out and got blood on the deck. Is it too much to ask the guide to please let me at least bleed the fish before going into the box and can we bring some ice.

Exactly, this is why I started this thread because guys were telling me not icing was common practice when they were being guiding at some of the fancy lodges even. I agree whether hunting or fishing once it’s dead I give thanks and I then I treat like a piece of meat that I would be proud to share with my friends and family.

 

[Sharphooks]

Exactly, this is why I started this thread because guys were telling me not icing was common practice when they were being guiding at some of the fancy lodges even. I agree whether hunting or fishing once it’s dead I give thanks and I then I treat like a piece of meat that I would be proud to share with my friends and family.

Whacking and stacking with no bleeding and no ice is lazy and just plain bad form. Guides should have a helper to do that as the fish come on board if they don’t have the time or inclination to do it themselves.
Fish treated like that are the first to oxidize into various volatile alcohols such as ethanol, isopropanol and propanol (“off-odor “ etc) in a freezer and eventually end up in the trash or buried in someone’s garden
Making a slurry like you described I’m guessing works short term but not sure I’d want the fish bathed like that for any extended period… they’d be swimming in bacteria build up… draining off the water and slime and blood is key to freshness

 

[Tips Up]

I am super happy with my new fish hold. It is now between the seats towards front of boat and shaded rather than under the open back deck in the sun. It is insulated by the foam under deck and has a drain. I throw a bag of ice in it and it stays cool for the day. Fish are bled in bucket then into the hold. I used to put a wet towel over fish but found that had a bad result on the flesh. I agree that water is the enemy. Keep them cold and out of direct water.

 

[Tomfoolery]

Interesting discussion. I am second guessing my method now for day trips which is bonking, immediate bleed in a fish bucket while the heart is still pumping and then into a fish bag with salt water which I change out every half hour to keep the temps low. I will gut and clean once back to the dock which is a formula that seemingly works well for me. I used to use ice packs instead of water in the bag and am thinking I should maybe go back to that.

I am interested in how fresh salt water could deteriorate non-gutted fish over a shorter period that ice packs wouldn't, or is this mainly an issue for longer trips? I used to use a wet burlap to cover the fish but got away from that due to the cleaning and sanitary requirements.

For multi day trips it's always pack in ice and drain the slurry if fresh water. I used to use a wet burlap to cover the fish but got away from that due to the cleaning and sanitary requirements.

 

[Salmonslayer1992]

I will definitely always ice my fish given the opportunity. Salt ice preferred, but freshwater ice better than none. However, if I am just going out for a few hours and don't have ice handy I won't make a special run just to get some. Worst case I put my fish in an insulated kill bag after bleeding, and take one of those giant orange shammy rags you can get from Crappy Tire, soak that real good and wrap it around the fish for evaporative cooling. Charlie White used to write about laying burlap over the catch and soaking that - same idea.

I have recently been given burlap sacks that I’ll cover the fish with in my fish holed and soak with deck hose throughout the day.
Charlie white full of applicable knowledge.

 

[Salmonslayer1992]

I have recently been given burlap sacks that I’ll cover the fish with in my fish holed and soak with deck hose throughout the day.
Charlie white full of applicable knowledge.

The coho need to be gutted and cleaned asap as they go soft right away if not, in my experience at least.

 

[Aquaholic]

From a UFAWU page, on what looks like a gillnetter. It appears that gutting is not done before icing. We did similar on commercial troller years ago, gut the fish at the end of the day.

 

[Tips Up]

We have come along way from the baby bath in the bilge. LOL.

 

[Salmonslayer1992]

From a UFAWU page, on what looks like a gillnetter. It appears that gutting is not done before icing.

View attachment 119525

I worked on a packer on the Fraser river 10-15 years ago,lots of the boats I unloaded had absolutely no ice and the fish were all whole, crazy standing waste deep in slimy salmon. I worked on a gill netter with a flash freezer where every fish was bled out cleaned laid head to tail on plates glazed and flash frozen, unreal the difference in the quality of the fish that is put out to market.

 

[Aquaholic]

We have come along way from the baby bath in the bilge. LOL.

My point is that as a sporty, you do not have to gut your fish right away. Bleeding them right away, for sure.

 

[Rockin Johnny]

Well, obviously bleeding while heart is pumping, gutting 10 minutes later and cooling down to just above freezing asap and then flash freezing at -40 at the end of the day before putting them into the chamber vac is optimal. But not always doable when on the fish with steady action or out in a remote area. I definitely have noticed a difference in quality when a fish gets left in the bleed out box for an hour by mistake but not sure of the difference in quality when gutted immediately vs at end of day when kept under salt ice immediately after bleeding……

 

[easydoesit]

Ice packing bruises the meat and turns them into mush in my experience. To each their

Interesting discussion. I am second guessing my method now for day trips which is bonking, immediate bleed in a fish bucket while the heart is still pumping and then into a fish bag with salt water which I change out every half hour to keep the temps low. I will gut and clean once back to the dock which is a formula that seemingly works well for me. I used to use ice packs instead of water in the bag and am thinking I should maybe go back to that.

I am interested in how fresh salt water could deteriorate non-gutted fish over a shorter period that ice packs wouldn't, or is this mainly an issue for longer trips? I used to use a wet burlap to cover the fish but got away from that due to the cleaning and sanitary requirements.

For multi day trips it's always pack in ice and drain the slurry if fresh water. I used to use a wet burlap to cover the fish but got away from that due to the cleaning and sanitary requirements.

 

[Rain City]

You have to also be careful about gutting fish in a rush and contaminating the meat with all the fun gut juices.

 

[easydoesit]

Saltwater surface temperatures in BC can be in excess of 15C, so if you rely just on pumped in seawater you may be warming your fish if you don’t add ice.

If you’re fishing Vancouver Harbour today the recorded temperature was 19.7C.
Room temperature.

 

[SpringVelocity]

This thread is getting a bit overboard on my opinion. Quite honestly when I started fishing for salmon 47 years ago with my family nearly everyone had a fish tub and we all survived.

 

[Aquaholic]

This thread is getting a bit overboard on my opinion. Quite honestly when I started fishing for salmon 47 years ago with my family nearly everyone had a fish tub and we all survived.

Consensus Denied!

 

[Rockin Johnny]

This thread is getting a bit overboard on my opinion. Quite honestly when I started fishing for salmon 47 years ago with my family nearly everyone had a fish tub and we all survived.

Thank you, and I appreciate that. I am not looking to survive tho, I am just curious on how others preserve the highest quality meat while fishing. I don’t live near the ocean so we eat our catch out of the freezer from August to June and I take pride in serving and eating outstanding bounty. After all at the end of the day, after putting all the effort into hunting and fishing all we end up with is Stories,Steaks and snap shots.

 

[Aquaholic]

Thank you, and I appreciate that. I am not looking to survive tho, I am just curious on how others preserve the highest quality meat while fishing. I don’t live near the ocean so we eat our catch out of the freezer from August to June and I take pride in serving and eating outstanding bounty. After all at the end of the day, after putting all the effort into hunting and fishing all we end up with is Stories,Steaks and snap shots.

Have you looked into a pressure bleeding system?