Bleeding fish

[Mike89]

Thanks everyone for the excellent information and especially to Fab for taking the time to post such an informative article on this topic.

It is very interesting. I used to wash my fish in fresh water to clean and gut them. A friend told me that it was much better to leave them in salt water and never let them touch fresh, as such since then I have been following his advice. Great to see some science behind it!

As far as bleeding, I will generally bleed all blackies, trevallies, salmon and pelagics upon capture. I read somewhere trevallies were much better bled, and have been practicing this since I started fishing for them.

Back to the issue of salt/fresh water rinsing, I'm guessing that the flesh can be tainted just by rinsing the fillets under fresh water before frying them. How should we clean them before cooking, then? Make up a salt water mix at home?

Cheers

[JonD]

Must admit I've tried bled and unbled and couldn't taste any difference in the more common species like snapper and kingfish. 

Down here the comercial guys don't bleed any kings or snapper, I've also been told while working on a comercial boat that bled kings are not sellable.

jon 

[beatsworking]

So how do you actually 'bleed' a fish? 

One thing I noticed on my recent fishing regulations was that removing the head or altering the length is not permitted until 'well away from the water'. (http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fishing/recreational/fishing-rules-and-regs/perm-prohib-saltwater). 

[xerotao]

I most of my fish. And humanely dispatch my squid.

Ikijime is also another method to prepare fish for the table

[kiwicraig]

On 6/5/2016 at 9:06 PM, quochuy said:

Not all fish need bleeding but I always Ikijime my fish. Either with a knife, scissors, spike or my Ikijime gun .

Let to die slowly by asphyxia fish stress and that affect the quality of the meat.

--

Huy

100% agree.  Some species need to be bled - like tunas and Aussie Salmon - but many don't.  All will benefit from being iki spiked though.  I do that to my fish and put them in an ice slurry.  If you miss the brain when you spike it you will be able to tell when you get it out as it will be showing signs of rigor.  If you Iki it right it will be limp and floppy.  I've had sessions where I've had one flathead that I did not spike correctly and you could absolutely taste the difference between that and the ones where I got it right.

[Raymondo]

If this is the outcome, ill stick to catch and release and a steak when I get home. Lol 

[Yowie]

9 minutes ago, Raymondo said:

If this is the outcome, ill stick to catch and release and a steak when I get home. Lol 

That is a dumb f #^*@# g thing to do in the first place, at least stick the fish in a tub before doing the killing !!!

[Raymondo]

Lol pretty bad hey , pic from the net. Hope he's got a deck wash system. 

[Brew]

A while back while I was travelling an aboriginal told me to try cooking the fish I caught (can't remember what type any more) whole on coals, not bled, not gutted and not scaled. 

Theory was the scales held in the moisture and the guts added flavour. 

Tasted great but must admit I haven't tried it since. 

I'd imagine it would be trial and error on which fish this method would suit. 

[Blackfish]

Brew, I've done Brassy Trevally like this up NW and are fantastic.