I know we had a post the other day about this but I could not find it. What does every think the best way to bleed fish are? I have heard cutting there gills will do it. I tried it on trout last year and found that worked all right. Is there a better way. Is there a main blood line I can get to bleed them out quick?
I see a lot of guys jcutting the back fin off cats to do it. I have just cut from the gil down and out. Worked good on some Walley I just caught.
The gills are the most vascular spots on most fish. Cutting them loose with a sharp knife is probably the fastest and easiest way to induce rapid bleedout.
However, some fish…like cats…can also be bled out by cutting around the tail…clear to the spine. That lets the blood vessels along the central core of the fish bleed out. Works best if you hang them up vertically…with the tail pointing down…to let gravity assist in the process.
** A shotgun blast to the head also works but you gotta be careful not to do that over a thin boat bottom.**
I think I will just stick to the gills and tail.
Can’t you just cut a slice in a catfishes tail to the spine, and instead of using gravity to aid in the bleeding process, just put your mouth on the fishes tail and suck real hard. I’m not trying to give the impression that I’m a vampire, but wouldn’t that work and take up less time? You can always spit the blood out when your mouth gets full.And don’t forget to brush your teeth.[:p]
[angelic]
Might work. I’ll let you do the R&D on that.
Go head on 'til your head hurts.
cutting the gills is the best way to achieve this, thats how the commercial salmon boats do it and alot of guides will also. They also will gut them as fast as they can to avoid stomach acids or digestive enzymes getting into the meat and fouling the quality of the fish.
I will gut a fish if I plan on being on the water for any real length of time but if its just a few hour trip i will Waite until i get to the cleaning station. What i try and do once the fish is on board is place it on a stringer take a pair of scissors and cut a gill in half some times i will do both depending on how much the fish is bleeding and then i let them bleed out into the lake it takes maybe 3 minutes or less to achieve this. Once that is completed I bury it in the ice chest making sure the fish is covered completely I have found this dramatically increases the quality of the meat for rainbows and Kokanee and the reason I use scissors instead of a knife to bleed the fish I have found this is allot safer on a rocking boat and I think it cuts the gills a heck of allot easer. hope this helps
Don J.
catfish-logic wrote:
[/quote]
Can’t you just cut a slice in a catfishes tail to the spine, and instead of using gravity to aid in the bleeding process, just put your mouth on the fishes tail and suck real hard. I’m not trying to give the impression that I’m a vampire, but wouldn’t that work and take up less time? You can always spit the blood out when your mouth gets full.And don’t forget to brush your teeth.[:p]
[angelic]
[/quote]
You may be able to put your mouth over the fishes mouth and blow real hard that should work. Then you wouldn’t have to brush your teeth, most people don’t carry a tooth brush.