Fish prep, best process I have found.

Utah Fishing Reports & Discussion Utah Fishing General
1

I’ve been fishing for over 35 years. Lately I have been getting more pleasure from eating my catch than ever before. This is the process I follow, if anyone wants to add to it please do:

  1. Immediately decide if you are going to invite your catch home for dinner, don’t waffle as this is the most important decision to insure a super tasty meal.
  2. Do NOT bonk the fish on the head.
  3. This next part may seem cruel but it sure beats “drowning” on a stringer over the next hour or so. While the fish is still 100% alive put it on your stringer immediately and remove it’s gills. Remove as many of the gills as quickly as possible. Don’t waste time. You don’t need a knife or scissors for this, just get your finger under them and pull them out. Your are doing the fish a favor by quickly dispatching it. Your human dinner guests will thank you later.
    The reason for putting it on the stringer is because I only have one hand and it removes the chance the fish will flop and get away and surely die. The fish will die quickly but in the next few minutes it will pump all it’s blood out through the torn gills. The blood that gets on the flesh when you fillet or gut the fish is one of the key reasons that keeps a good meal from becoming a fantastic meal. You have now taken care of the first important step.
  4. This next step is as important as the gill removal. As soon as the fish is 100% dead(which happens very quickly and like I said beats a slow death on a stringer), get it out of the water and in to a cooler full of ice. Try to get some ice between each fish. You HAVE to cool dead flesh quickly in order to keep it’s palatable qualities. Don’t let your fish cool slowly by keeping them alive on a stringer. Even water that is as cool as 45 degrees will not let your fish be as tasty as possible. The ice is critical.
  5. Take them home, if you can’t clean them that night just make sure to add some more ice and they will still be super fresh in the morning.
  6. Finish prepping them in the morning in your wife’s kitchen sink without getting caught and have a great meal that night!
  7. Avoid the freezer if at all possible.

Anything else I missed?

2

Sounds great Ill admit over the years Ive lost my taste for trout maybe if I had followed those practices id still take a few for the table. Now days the only way Ill eat trout is if im camping and the fish go from the lake
iver straight to the campfire.

3

I’d just add that waiting overnight to clean them isn’t good for the flavor of the meat either. Thanks for the tips!!

4

You are correct it is best to clean them before going to bed. I should have clarified that.
My suggested method just helps keep them as fresh as possible, in my opinion.
Just in case you get home real late, flat tire, bearing problem, traffic, etc. A little ice goes a long way to insure a good meal.
We owe the quarry we chase and kill the respect they deserve.

5

Thanks, might just give this method a try.

6

I think you are right on, my variation is; once caught, bleed them by cutting the gills, but not taking them out, stinger in lake for 5 to 10 minutes to bleed out, then iced. Clean before leaving the the lake, re ice. Final spot clean in sink, before wrapping in wax paper for fridge.

Add, I have a bottom meat drawer in my fridge, that is cooler than the rest of the fridge, can keep trout up to five days.

Also if I get trout that are from a mossy lake, like strawberry in July or later, and If, if I decide to keep any, same process, BUT I soak them in milk for a day prior to cooking. Seems to mellow the flavor.

Cooking is done in tin foil, coat the outside of fish with butter or spread, and a tablespoon inside. Lemon slices on outside, both sides, lemon wedges 2, inside. Grill 6 - 7 minutes per side depending on size of fish. Medium to Low heat, but preheated grill.

This is for Trout. Fish I filet handled differently.

7

I definitely agree with a little butter and lemon slice for a whole fish on the barbeque. I will also add a slice of orange and just a tiny sprinkle of bacon bits on each side too. Not enough to over power it, just to barely taste it.

8

Love your philosophy, SB!

9

Boy, everybody has hit it right on the head so far.

The very best quality that I get is from, in this order, catch, immediately bleed (in the water), gut, then ice. Gutting is quick enough to do while fishing and when you get home all beat and tired, you can fillet the next day or so as long as you keep it cold and the flesh will be perfect.

Another thing that I have noticed that kinda makes me laugh is how many guys go to great length and effort to make fish edible. I’ve tried most fish you can catch in Utah waters and I have yet to find one that’s unpalatable if taken care of properly when caught. Some are better than others, but even carp can be delicious when fried. I think when people eat fish and gripe that it’s"fishy" , maybe they should realize that the probably just don’t like fish:). Anyway, just an opinion.

10

Imagine, fish tasting fishy. I find Chicken tastes chickeny. Usually a little Franks Hot Sauce solves that.

11

Yup, and rattlesnake tastes “rattlesnakey”. I think that when someone thinks fish is “fishy” and it smells like bait before cooking it, then I give them a pass.

Up here at bear lake, I hear a lot of guys say how bad a big laker is to eat. Too fishy they say, but if bled and gutted as soon as it’s caught, they are amazing when just simply grilled. If you bake them however, they stink up the house. Still taste great, but the oil in their flesh smells the oven up.
The trick is learning which methods of cooking for each different species of fish. So far, they can all be decent in my opinion, just some are better than others.

12

I like to cook trout in tinfoil on the grill with butter and garlic and a little lemon juice. I let em cook for about 15 min and then throw the trout in the garbage and eat the tinfoil.

13

I ate some rattlesnake in West Texas last year and I would say it was almost “chickeny”. Just sayin.

14

I almost agree with your method. I have discovered trout are best when they swim away.

15

:sunglasses:Fishing and fish preparation are both very subjective subjects. Sooner or later we all settle into the systems and methods WE like best and it really doesn’t matter if someone else thinks we are not doing it right. If it is right for us then that is all that counts.

Always good to share ideas. A truly serious angler should remain open minded to new ideas and should not dismiss anything unless they have tried it and found it was not better than something they are already doing…and doing better.

I agree with your initial premise…that most fish are better when bled out as soon as possible after being caught…and then put on ice. Now that works fine if you are in a boat…or if you are bank tangling with a cooler at your side. But for roaming bank tanglers and for tubers, tooners and small boaters without a cooler it may not be the ultimate answer.

I have worked in commercial fishing and have seen the results of harvesting and preserving a large catch in a variety of ways. And I have delved into the biology of what happens to fish flesh under various conditions. And it is all subject to a whole range of variables…species, water temps, actual bleeding/cleaning process and timing, etc.

Fish are little chemical factories. When we fight them on the end of a line they build up lactic acid in their muscle tissues from the stress and exhaustion of the battle. That not only impacts their ability to survive when released but can also affect the quality of the flesh on the table. Bleeding a freshly caught fish DOES help reduce or eliminate some of that stuff.

But…on the flip side…if we only bleed the fish and then throw them into a cooler…dead but not gutted…there is another chemical process that goes to work on the fish. They actually begin to digest themselves in their own juices…autolysis. Being quickly cooled in ice will slow it down, but not if the fish remain ungutted for a long time.

I have had this discussion with another BFTer…Slayerace. And as then, I agree that the ideal situation is to be able to bleed out your fish quickly. But when float tubing that is not practical. If I kill the fish they cannot go into a cooler. So my system is to keep them alive in a fish basket until I hit the shore. Then I put the knife to them and fillet, skin and debone them while they are still kicking. I plunge the fillets into ice water and then into an ice filled cooler.

I guarantee than my fillets are as bloodless and enzyme free as any that I might have bled out on a boat. And I also guarantee that the finished product…on the table…will not taste any less toothsome.

One of the other reasons I do not subscribe to bleeding out every fish I catch while in my tube is that a lot of the fish I catch got spines. You combine sharp spines and a knife blade…while trying to control a flopping fish in an inflated fishng craft…and, well, you get the “point”.

Whatever type of fishing one does, and whatever system works best for the individual, the important thing is to make every possible effort to either release the fish alive and well or to make sure it arrives on the table in the best possible shape.

16

Good advice … I think trout have distinct flavor characteristics depending on the waters they are caught in… Either I wave goodbye to them or they are destined for the smoker.

I have recently discovered that if I baste them as they are smoking with a slurry of lemon concentrate, brown sugar, and some fish spice that I got from Costco in one of those giant containers, (Rosemarry, Thyme etc, etc.) that they turn out pretty good.

I’m not sure if basting, while smoking, is according to Hoyle, when it comes to smoking purists, or if they last as long, but it works for me.

** You can tell if a person likes fish if they have sardines in their 72 hour food storage supply.**

17

Excellent advice and education, I will be the first to admit I was only thinking of a boat situation when I published my tips. What spurred me to throw my two cents out was I had been to Deer Creek and Strawberry in the last week or so and saw dozens of trout sun bathing for hours on the ends of stringers. Yum!

18

:sunglasses:I like trout from some waters and not from others. The combination of water chemistry, water temps, diet and other factors can “flavor up” a trout to the extent they are no longer palatable. But, as relative to the main topic of this thread, proper care, preparation and cooking can make a world of difference too. Again, mostly subjective. What some folks find icky others like just fine.

When it comes to smoking I tend to do everything I can to reduce moisture during the process…not adding it…through basting. Salt, seasonings and flavors should be infused during the pre-smoking process. Then the heat and smoke should combine to cook, dry and flavor the final product just as you want it. Basting during the cooking process is generally something you would do while grilling, to keep the meat moist. But if you like how it turns out, that is all that counts. And since most of us are smoking our fish for the special flavor and texture it produces…and not to have it survive in our long term storage stash…who cares how long it lasts. Never lasts long enough to go stale at my place.

19

:sunglasses:Stringers are definitely not high on the list of the best ways to store fish betwixt hook and pan. Even if they remain alive they suffer increased stress and oxygen deprivation from not being able to swim freely.

I was almost disowned by my family as a youngster in Idaho because I did not like trout…at least the way it came to the table in my family. The fish usually spent a long day in a hot creel before getting back to the car. Then they might be wrapped in wet burlap for the trip home. After cleaning they were soaked for hours in a tub of room temperature water and then finally put into the refrigerator. They often remained in the refrigerator for a few days before being fried…whole…heads and all…with the white eyeballs staring out. Even when the skin was crispy fried the mistreated flesh was usually soggy and fishy. What I now refer to as “long time no sea” syndrome. Oh yeah, and I hated having to pick out the little flesh bones too.

**Any trout I bring home for the table is properly dispatched, bled and FILLETED. Removing the skin greatly improves the taste of trout. And slicing out the little row of flesh bones makes it possible to serve it to all family members…even small kids…without having to hear any choking sounds. Filleting and skinning trout also makes them better candidates for breading or battering the fillets and deep frying. **

I hear so many people say “I don’t like fish”. And when I probe a little I find that their only exposure to eating fish was some of those sun-sauteed troutskis prepared by someone who really didn’t know their way around the kitchen…especially when it comes to cooking fish. It’s no wonder that so many folks have an aversion to fish if that is all they have ever had.

20

**I realize that I have broken all the holy laws of smoking by basting them but, Oh Well! **
I let them smoke a little longer when I baste them, as it does tend to rehydrate them just a bit.
I also started using non iodized Kosher Salt, for dry brining as it has a milder salt flavor.

If my grandkids are around when I unload the smoker, I don’t need to worry about shelf life, as they will vanish pretty fast.

**As Guy Fieri might say …Good Stuff. **