Gutting fish at Sea

[Hell Boy]

Hey all,

i've heard that the faster you clean (gutting it at sea) and chilling your fish straight away in ice slurry the better it tastes, has anyone here done it and has noticed an improvement in taste?

Cheers,

Bryn,

[Swindells]

Interesting question, i always bleed the fish and get them on ice, i've never heard of someone gutting a fish straight away to improve flavour. it'll be interesting to see what people say.

I also take home a bucket of seawater to clean the fish in.

Swindells

[nidrac]

I don't know about gutting them straight away, don't always have the time to do it after every fish caught however we do leave all the fish in the kill tank after bleeding them and then gut them before fishing at the next stop.. we normally pull up at the new fishing spot and then clean the fish (free burley) then put them on ice... and we have noticed a fair difference in the taste with the fish we get when going out with a few mates who bleed them and throw them straight on ice and don't gut them untill filleting...

Nidrac...

[ronnien]

have not gutted a fish for over 10yrs, the last time we did this not all fish were done right leaving us with a esky full of waste.
now they get bleed & straight into the esky, opening up a fish's guts opens a world of bacteria if you dont get everything out you risk loosing all the fish.
so now everything stays in tack.

ron.

[Pazz01]

Always cut the throat of all fish, put them in a wet hessain bag and gut them after the stop and straight on the ice. Never lost a fish yet. Anything from trout, big mouth, red emperor or barra. Same thing. Never lost one.

Pazz

[finding_time]

have not gutted a fish for over 10yrs, the last time we did this not all fish were done right leaving us with a esky full of waste.
now they get bleed & straight into the esky, opening up a fish's guts opens a world of bacteria if you dont get everything out you risk loosing all the fish.
so now everything stays in tack.

ron.

Spot on RON!!!! Leave the guts intact if your out there for any lenght of time! Once you open the stomach cavity you have bacteria issues! We brain spike, bleed, then into the ice standing the fish belly down if possible.

Ian

[legsy11]

agree with ronnien and ft.its also the reason why i fillet all my fish.if however i was to keep one to cook whole,i would bleed,gut,and put in a seperate esky on ice.just try to keep the guts whole if you can.

[Jurkyjj]

Pretty much the same as above.
Bleed them, into the kill tank and then straight into the ice slurry.
I have never gutted a fish, just bled them.
I have never had bad reports of the taste of my fish from friends or family!!

Hope this helps.

Cheers, Jason.

[sagair]

Best not to start gutting by sticking the knife in the fished date as when this bowel part is busted it spreads the bacteria very quickly. It is preferable to leave it intact.

[thump-a]

We brain spike ; Bleed and leave in the bin to bleed out before putting on ice.
In summer they dont stay in the bin for long ; just to hot up here
Never had a problem yet.

Cheers Graham

[uglyfish]

Spot on RON!!!! Leave the guts intact if your out there for any lenght of time! Once you open the stomach cavity you have bacteria issues! We brain spike, bleed, then into the ice standing the fish belly down if possible.

Ian

very very spot on,rigor mortus sets in as soon as the fish is dead and opening the gut only allows bacteria to speed up the process.If you do gut them you should avoid busting the gut and pack the cavity with ice standing the fish belly down like before mentioned

[Hell Boy]

Thanks for the replies guys,

it looks like i'll just stick to the spike, bleed and ice, as it seems to be the safest option.

cheers,

Bryn

[blackjew]

Whilst living in the N.T. It gets xxxxxx hot up there and the water temp is like a bath 29c .
I take half an esky of ice and add a 2KG bag of salt or more ,when the boats in the water add half a bucket of sea water give it a real good stir don't use your hand ,as the ice starts to melt it combines with the salt and the oxygen from you madly stiring, it turns to a slurry that will nearly freezers fish. I learnt this method whilst Tuna fishing in S.A. when fish that were caught ready for export, were put in the slurry as it is so cold this prevents the spread of bacteria .Ive used this method on whole fish that have been spiked and bled and fillets it will last a full days fishing fresh water is a huge no no as the fresh water absorbs into the flesh of the fish.Take a jerry can with you and bring home some salt water freeze your fillets in the water in plastic containers, the fillets have to be completely covered this stops freezer burn as no air is present in the container.then simply thaw out your fillets dry and cook.

[DALEPRICE]

i think ronnien and finding time have hit the nail on the head,
i did a seafood handling course a while ago and the boys pretty well
have it down pat, what happens is the bacteria actually eats into the
fish flesh and destroys it, hence why you dont want to open up the gut cavity and then the bacteria will find its way into the flesh. the other thing is to bring the fish's body temperature down as fast as possible to get the fish threw the rigor mortus stage. so the faster the fish is on a ice down the better.

i still have the training stuff somewhere and can scan it onto this post if anybody wants to read some more info.

cheers dale

cheers dale

[cormorant]

Food safety australia and the state fish markets all have section on the websites that show details into food handeling and studies. Look for the Food safety one regarding seafood stores and storage as I have read it and it is good and up to date especially of fridge an dfreezer temps for best life of fresh and frozen