Advice please

[gladiator]

I'm going to camp for 2 days in a great spot, I was wondering for best results, should I clean my catch and store in an ice cooler each day, or should I keep the fish as is in the cooler and clean when I get to town? what recommendations do you guys have to keep my catch fresh and tasty?

Thanks

 

[deep thinker]

Clean and bleed as soon as possible.
If you dont have a problem with sharks in your area, Id go as far as to kill the fish in the water and then cut the gills so the fish can bleed out fresh.
When you get to shore scale and gut the fish. Make sure to leave as little as possible blood in the fish when gutting, especially in the air pocket between the stomack and the spine. Leaving the guts in can give the fish a bad taste and odour. Also when you shoot a fish that is more cartrilage than actual bones, dogfish for eg. Also gut immediately, even while in the water and preferably skin too. They taste of amonia if you leave the guts in, or so Ive heard

 

[spaghetti]

Clean as soon as possible.
Sempre Forza Maggica Roma!

 

[tribs]

All good advice gut ASAP, although bream frozen whole and then defrosted and gutted have a stonger yet still pleasant taste.
Tribs

 

[Spaniard]

Ditto everything that's been said. Blood usually makes fish taste bitter which is why it is good to 'bleed' them ASAP and getting rid of gills for the same reason especially if you cook the fish 'whole' instead of filleted. The guts will go off more quickly than the firm flesh so again, gut the fish as soon as you can.

 

[Pastor]

If you are bleeding them wait for the bleeding to stop before gutting (removing the heart).
Question of my own here. If you cut the gills to bleed the fish it will bleed to death, now if you brain it before cutting the gills does the heart stop beating causing less bleeding? A little academic I know but I'm curious

 

[deep thinker]

Hmm interesting question there Pastor...
I brain them more for the fact to cause a quicker kill than cutting the gills, also braining causes less blood in the water, of which Id like as little as possible while in there for obvious reasons.
Now back to the question, if the fish is submerged while being bled and allready brained I cant see why it would bleed less than when just cutting the gills. Fish probably have different gelling properties in their blood than humans and also different body temps, so as long as the body temp does not vary too much it should just bleed out. I dont think blood will start gelling in the water either, as it needs air to start thickening and drying
Maybe somebody more informed will chip in here as well but thats how I see it.

 

[abusingelves]

heart muscle keeps pumping for a little while after you cut off its nerve supply, so i presume you'd get just as much blood out of the fish if you

1: brained it and cut the gills, as you would if you

2: just cut the gills.

 

[Pastor]

Yeah that's what I would think too, going by the story that a chicken will run around for a while after its head is chopped off. To be honest the only time I cut the gills is with Pollack which is very rare. I usually just brain and string, then gut back at the shore or immediately before getting back in the boat

 

[Agar4Life]

The fish bleeds more when you cut the gills than when you open the brain cavity simply because the gills have a much richer blood supply. Thats why gills are red and the brain is grey.

On another note. Assuming you are not in a sharky area (such as here in the UK) would it not make sense to gut a fish midwater as it may attract more fish. Most fish will scavenge waste flesh and predatory fish should be attracted by the blood.

Of course, by breaking the skin of a fish you MAY deter fish of the same species by means of 'alarm' cues that will alert others. This will mostly be found in shoaling fish.

Anyone seen any truth in any of this while spearfishing?

 

[deep thinker]

Aqua, we were more talking about braining it to kill the fish and then cutting the gills versus only cutting the gills, not wether or not braining or cutting the gills will produce better bleeding.
On the uk waters not being sharky, dont you have a rogue mako around there certain times of the year? rofl
Your waters are changing, what with all the other new types of fish being spotted (white bream) so you mite require shark sheilds soon

 

[gladiator]

Thank you everyone for your replies. I appreciate everyone's input. I forgot to mention that mainly I will be going after groupers and Emperors. I do feel nervous about gutting the fish in the water as I am not really sure what type of sharks are in the Arabian Gulf (doha, qatar precisely)

I'll post some pictures when I get back home. Thanks again everyone.

 

[gladiator]

Clean as soon as possible.
Sempre Forza Maggica Roma!

:fridayForza Roma Forza Lupi ... so finiti i tempi cupi:friday

Thank you Spaghetti

 

[hyeparis]

I spearfsih in sweet water: I usually clean the fish, stuff it with salt, then wrap in up in grass, then seal it in a plastic bag and then dig a hole and bury it - it stays good enough even without refrigerator for two days. Or, if I aim properly and manage to avoid spearing it thru the belly, then I just keep all fish alive on a line in water until I decide to head back.

 

[deep thinker]

I spearfsih in sweet water: I usually clean the fish, stuff it with salt, then wrap in up in grass, then seal it in a plastic bag and then dig a hole and bury it - it stays good enough even without refrigerator for two days. Or, if I aim properly and manage to avoid spearing it thru the belly, then I just keep all fish alive on a line in water until I decide to head back.

Interesting preservation technique you got there mate, you should add that to the thread in the cooking section.
The second part of your post bugs me a bit though. Isnt our aim as spearfisherman to fish selectively yet humanely? If you caught them on line and used a keepnet Id be fine with that but keeping speared fish alive on a line (Im presuming this is on a stringer or similar method to keep them from tearing off) is just not cool in my book :rcard
Please kill your fish in the future and keep it on ice or in a camping fridge if your away from home for a couple of days. Heck according to you you dont even need a fridge so I dont see the point in keeping fish alive after theyve been speared in this method.

 

[hyeparis]

Interesting preservation technique you got there mate, you should add that to the thread in the cooking section.
The second part of your post bugs me a bit though. Isnt our aim as spearfisherman to fish selectively yet humanely? If you caught them on line and used a keepnet Id be fine with that but keeping speared fish alive on a line (Im presuming this is on a stringer or similar method to keep them from tearing off) is just not cool in my book :rcard
Please kill your fish in the future and keep it on ice or in a camping fridge if your away from home for a couple of days. Heck according to you you dont even need a fridge so I dont see the point in keeping fish alive after theyve been speared in this method.

Well, what can I say? You have a point there. I did it a couple of times - when we stayed for a long stretch on shore and had no fridge at hand. But, usually, I kill fish and store it. I must note though that the idea of cricitizing someone for being 'too cruel' to fish by keeping it alive on a line would not be too popular well in the country where i live - there are hundreds of poachers here who electrocture the fish or catch them with nets, then throwing away the smaller fish to die on shore so whatever we spearfishers do to fish is dwarfed by that. Also one has to factor in culturual differences on such issues. For instance, those who live in the Caucausus routinely slit throats of sheep to make fresh barbeques rather than buy burgers for grilling them.

 

[deep thinker]

Too true and point well taken mate, we must however remember that this is a international forum visited by all makes and models of people so we want to keep the public opinion of our sport as positive as we possibly can.
On the slitting of throughts of sheep, that happens here quite regularly aswell, so its just a matter of where you are and what your personal preferences is. I have no problem with people killing animals for food but do it humanely and try to cause the animal as little distress as possible.
Happy hunting...
And by the way Im still pretty impressed by your other storage method, what is the tempratures like where you normally do this? Would it work in very humid or warm climates? Hmm I wonder

 

[hyeparis]

Ok, al rite. I promise I will never ever again keep a fish on line alive. But I can't vouch for the rest of folks.
As for storing - it worked for us during the week-long stay in the delte of the Volga when tempratures were around 32 celcius. The fish we stored for two-three days was still good enough.

 

[naiad]

Question of my own here. If you cut the gills to bleed the fish it will bleed to death, now if you brain it before cutting the gills does the heart stop beating causing less bleeding?

The heart will continue beating for some time, even if it is not connected to the brain. Probably more humane to brain it first before bleeding it.

 

[Pastor]

No arguing with that Lucia Thanks.

I might try bleeding fish next time to see if I can tell the difference with my single remaining taste bud. Braining the fish to me has always been my first priority after shooting, I don't know if fish do actually feel pain or not but if they do then it makes me feel better about it as well as the fish no doubt if they are brained quickly.