Do you actually bleed them out, or just get the fillet off and away from the blood? I’d expect with your basket your fish stay pretty well alive at least until you’re off the water, no?
Always surprises me how their colors change when they sit on ice for a while - depending on the species. Cats seem to take on dark spots. My SMB when from light brown to very dark.
Still made for some good fish tacos!
I use a live basket on my tube to keep my fish alive until I am ready to put them through “weight loss”. If you are fishing from a boat with a livewell, that also helps keep fish alive. But any fish that turn belly up should be taken out of the livewell, bled out and then put on ice.
**When I fillet fish…especially catfish…it is a bloody business. Like butchering a hog…minus the squeal. Whatever blood is in the fish is quickly drained and the fillets are further rinsed in the aforementioned ice water. **
More important than bleeding the fish you keep, if not kept alive, is getting them on ice as quickly as possible. All living creatures begin to decompose as soon as the life force leaves them. An additional degradation factor with fish is that they actually begin to consume themselves with their own digestive juices. [LINK TO ARTICLE](Freezing and refrigerated storage in fisheries - 1. Biological aspects Spoilage of Fish)
I keep the fish in my livewell until I am ready to leave the last fishing hole for the harbor. I stick the knife thru the gills and cut towards the mouth. They bleed out great. Pat, I know you are the authority on all things pescatorial but, I challenge you to try half and half next time you leave the lake. The bled fish are not slimy when you put them on the board to fillet them. Also the flesh of the fish, including the red flesh on the sides are a completely different color.. I showed a long time Kentucky catfish fisherman neighbor of mine my trick, because he also thought I was high. He couldn’t believe it when I showed him a cooler full of catfish sticking together and not slimey. He also noted that the flesh was tastier without having to remove the red flesh. Try it if you don’t believe me… Just give me props when you discover I’m right!
Slayerace (Randy)
**Not a personal attack nor a contradiction to any thing you have observed yourself Randy. I respect your knowledge and experience. But as in all things fishing this has to be a matter of personal opinion…very subjective. And those things can turn into whatever you want them to. **
I can think of no good reason for stopping on the way back to the launch ramp…in my tube…and taking fish out of my live basket to bleed them out. I prefer not to handle the fish once they have been relegated to the basket. And waving a sharp knife around while afloat in an inflated craft only increases the potential for disaster. I do just fine by waiting until I hit the cleaning station to do the bleeding part.
I still cannot see the correlation between bleeding out a fish and reduction of the red tissue along the lateral line. Yes, there is blood in that tissue, but it is just as effectively removed by filleting the fish and rinsing the fillets in ice water. The tissue is not part of the circulatory system and is naturally dark…on all species.
Catfish slime? I cannot recall it ever being an issue while filleting catfish. But it does get on your hands and/or clothing while handling them…whether you are releasing them or bleeding them out.
Again, I do not challenge whatever it is that you feel you have discovered. However, I simply cannot see the need to kill my fish before I am ready to fillet them. It is rare that any fish I keep in the basket is not still alive and well when I hit the ramp.
I readily agree that bleeding out a fish is a good idea if you are going to be carrying it in an ice chest or in any other kind of non-live condition. I fished both sport and commercial in California and I have experienced the positive differences in doing so…especially among some of the more delicate species. I am just not convinced that you should kill and bleed a fish if it will be kept alive until you put the blade to it.
Peace.