Caring for your catch

[Volvo]

Okay , just wanna check out what most do to care for their catch prior to bringin it home??..Spike n on ice, wash,Gill Gut and on ice, straight in an ice Slurry prior to ice , or just straight drop in the ice???..
I cart along an extra , smaller ice box along with me which turns into an ice slurry box for droppin ye fish in for a tad, prior to being put in the main Fish esky(box)..
So far have found this the best method which suits me for keeping the fish not only firm n fresh but less bruising on some Fish also....
Also dont end up with as much melted ice bottom of my main box at trips end as the Fish are cooled down ample prior to being packed in the main box..
Used to spike but dont bother no more....
Cheers

[dfox]

I do the same pete, have a brine tank or esky with salt water and ice. Put the fish straight in there no spiking, when the cold has killed it and the fish has been cooled down i put them in the main box...foxy

[whiteman]

Step 1: put into large plastic garbage bin to retrieve hooks, lures and contain the thrashing. Cut and bleed for 5-10 minutes if necessary.
Step 2: into the large esky which is lined at the bottom with frozen bottles of water. No brine.
Step 3: catch enough for a few feeds and go home.

[Heath]

If its a mackerel, cobia, ytk, Wahoo etc its knocked on the head ASAP to stop it thrashing around. A few snaps are taken first. We then cut the throat latch down all the way to the backbone. You'll hear a spurt sound as you cut through the artery. We have a 40L bucket with a bit of water in it, we stick the fish head first into the bucket to bleed out. After 5mins we put it in the kill tank. In the kill tank we have several 5L ice blocks. If its the first fish to go in, a few Litres of water is thrown in the kill tank, so when the fish is put in there is cold water all around it & sloshing of the water cools the whole fish. At the ramp the fish are scaled, gilled & gutted. Except again for mackerel, Cobia etc, the heads are removed & the fish gutted leaving a barrel. After cleaning all fish are put back into the cold water of the kill tank & stay in there until we're ready to prep them at home.

[wessel]

On this topic. Why do some not use ice blocks or cubes but rather keep the catch inside the esky with frozen bottles of water. Some reckon that the ice water affect the quality of the fish???

Another urban legend or is there some truth in it?

I find that the bottles bruise fish like barracude very easily

Wessel

[Jeremy]

you wouldn't be eating barracuda would you Wessel?

Jeremy

[sharkbait]

Why do some not use ice blocks or cubes but rather keep the catch inside the esky with frozen bottles of water.

Ice from shop cost money >

Homemade ice from freezer not cost money

Seriously though the bottles do bruise fish if there are only a few and they are rolling around whilst under way, I stack about 8 in tight along the bottom of the icebox and they don't roll, therefore don't bruise.

Kris

[Heath]

I also find that my iceblocks made from salt water, last longer than the freshwater ones.

[Volvo]

With mackeral n black king i have a wee length of rope spliced to the side of my targa support which is made from solid Aluminium piping(try find a piccie later and upload).Now, the other end of that wee length of rope has an eye spliced on it for the following reason ..
When i/we catch us a Mackeral or Black King , Always!! try gaffe it via the head , thataways the other person or the person not in charge of the gaffe grabs the fish by the tail,grabs the eye of that wee length of rope and turns the eye over the rope creating another hitch??, eye, or whatever so when placed over the tail of the fish it takes up tight ..Know what i mean ??? ?????????....
okay, once this is done and before removing the gaffe a knife is quickly inserted into ye fish's rectum and sliced all the way down to the throat(throat sliced also) or thereabouts and let hang over the side to bleed..
everyones hands are free now and i also carry a small gut knife onboard which the end is rounded and sharp for scraping down the backbone after guts have been removed into the oggin ..
Bucket of water or a hose can then be used to really scrub or clean the backbone n gut cavity down, fish cooled off and covered in cured ice.....
Nice white clean meat which reatins its yummy taste ...
Cheers

[wessel]

Jeremy

Yes mate, we do eat the small rat barracuda. Black bar barracuda I think they call them. They are plagues out here sometimes.
The big ones over 1kg we throw back, that will be the Great Barracude I think it is called, Bio-accumulated poisons and heavy metals etc in bigger and older fish is a known problem out here. Have some good fights on light with 10 kg toothies.

I am also aware off the risk of what we call "red tide" - You guys downunder have some fancy name for it that I can not even pronounce never mind spell We are very fortunate in that we never get red tides in this area - but then never say never hey.

What is equally dangerous is when you leave a tuna in the sun for too long and then eat the thing. Certain species of oily fish develope a type of bacterial prolifiration, of which I have no idea what it is called, where the toxins excreted by the bacteria in the dead fish causes a neuroligical paralysis in the unfortunate individual that eats it.
Not a nice way to die apparently.

Any other reason you may have asked whether we eat barracuda? Generally we try to keep away from the two headed ones, genetics and all that as you know


Wessel

[Jeremy]

Wessel,

you got it, I was referring to the risk of ciguatera poisoning. Toxin from a dinoflagellate which accumulates in certain fish. Barracuda are a no no down here. I guess the smaller 'cudas up your way don't carry it.

Cheers,

Jeremy