To Fillet or not to Fillet

[lampuki]

I, like a lot of fishos, am pretty fanatical with how I treat my catch.

Agree with most of what has been said. I would add:

1. Bleed fish on capture.
2. Once the blood is drained, placed in salt water slurry and make sure fish is not bent.
3. Fillet over the rib cage, not through.
4. Avoid/minimise any contact the fillet has with fresh water.
5. Small amount of fillets per snaplack bag, and record date.

[fishfeeder]

Looks like I am going to need to work on my filleting skills.

After reading through the information, it looks like cleaning the fish in salt water is the best and then get the fillets into air tight bags and on ice ASAP.

What are the rules over cleaning fish on the boat before getting back to the ramp.
Is it ok to fillet if you keep the skin on and the frames as proof of size and species ?

Fishfeeder.

[geeb]

Oh yeh I'm defintately going to try that on some wings, such a bloody waste not eating them.

Speaking of waste, was watching a Malaysian cooking show last night and they were eating the fish eyeballs, bit of a delicacy apparently...anyone tried them?

Ah the eyes in a baked fish are delicious - they must not be too dried out they need to be warm and jelly like.......and the wings and cheeks......as Scott nthQld said the wings and cheeks are just great - yum

A trick I was taught years ago by a publican that sold "fresh barramundi" - was to defrost frozen fish in the sink - but firstly half fill the sink with fresh water - mix in handfull of salt - leave the fish in its packet drop in the sink make sure it is covered by liquid then put ice on top - it defrosts slowly and tastes as good as the day it was caught

[Jarrah Jack]

With snapper now I just gut and gill and either bake it in the oven or wack it on the BBQ. I find the flesh steams inside the skin and scales and it tastes great. Also I don't have to do all that prep work. Just peel the skin off when ready to eat..Well worth a try I reckon.

[Scott nthQld]

FF the only fillet on board rule I know applies the Coral Reef Fin Fish (trout, cod, reds, emperor etc) and they state that a filet must be at least 40cm long and still have skin and Scales intact. Fillets cannot be returned to the boat once they have been removed (ie filleting at a cleaning table on one side of the creek, putting the fillets back in the boat and driving over to the other side to retrieve (apparently there's a few places like this in Bris, where there are ramps on either side of the creek, but only cleaning tables at one site).

I hardly bleed my catch now (except macs) as I have found a ready made ice slurry just just as good a job. As soon as the fish is caught, put it straight into the slurry live. The slurry will be so cold that the fish by insinct will draw all its blood into it organs, in order to keep them warm, and alive, leaving the flesh clean and white, probably more humane being anesthetised (sp?) rather than having their throat cut and left to die by bleeding out, straight into a slurry kills them in seconds. Doing it this way also preserves the fishes colour as if you just pulled it out of the water (which is good if you want to take photo's later, where as sometimes the colour of the fish will fade, or go completely white once they had been killed, bled then iced.