Filleting Stripers

Status
Not open for further replies.
Chuck, I just got back from moving my Son, to Oregon. What nice country that is. But I never got to fish, and they were talking about King salmon, 35 to 50 lbs. And I watched a guy catching crab, in the ocean, and on the bridge's there. Well I find out after getting home, that you can catch the crab, with a hand line, or a rake, like the guy I watched in the ocean, with out a fishing license. I will be going back to Oregon, for both.
 
I try to bleed every fish I fillet striper or other. For sure less mess when filleting, No doubt about that. Bleeding does not really affect the red meat line in any significant way. I always fillet it off before cooking. If you can't taste the difference in the red line meat and the white, I would wonder if you have taste buds. You can see the difference in the fillets, they are much whiter when bled. I think they do taste better, probably hard to tell when seasoned and deep fried or cooked up most ways. It literally only takes a second to bleed a fish. You can either stick/cut with a sharp knife in the throat area or rip a gill and drop into live well . If the fishing is so fast and furious you can wait until it slows down but it takes longer then because you have to sort through them. We sometimes will bleed stripers on a stringer over the side before we put them on ice. We have even used a large plastic tub with lake water to bleed them, (the kind with a lid, they can thrash around and it can get messy. Just change out the water as needed and put fish on ice after they are bled. For smaller fish that will last in the live well for a while, we bleed them on the way in to fillet. We started doing it years ago after a saltwater commercial fisherman told us about it when we were helping him on his boat. He said that the fish buyers wanted them bled out and that the fish lasted longer as well as tasted better??? IMHO it is well worth doing and we try to do it on all fish we keep and fillet.
 
marty ament said:
Sounds good that is exactly where we are headed. Well be there Sunday to Wednesday loadin up.
Thanks for the tip, think I need to bring a back up fillet knife?
Click to expand...
I'm all about the electric but hated the cord so I finally bought the Rapala Lithium and it didn't burn up but after filling the freezer we switched to tubing and goofing off so it depends on your staying power. Have fun! By the way the left hand wall of warm spring next to the little rock pile was also a good producer mid day and had some shade.
 
I have cleaned a lot of Striper's, over the year's, and have never eaten a red piece of meat. I just cut it out. But when I bled them, I honestly, could not tell a bit of difference. And the way I fillet them, the scale's, are the biggest mess, I use a regular knife, not electric. I dont use a live well, everything I keep, go's right on ice. The biggest thing, I was saying, is a lot of people think if you bleed them, you wont have red meat, and that's just not the case. And the extra time, is not worth it to me. But all you bleeder's, bleed on. But maybe a bunch of us should get together, and find out, who has those super taste bud's, and can tell the difference. LOL
 
opinions on carcasses? if camping in more remote areas of the lake and filleting a large number of fish at camp is it best to make a trip to a dumpster or bury the carcasses away from camp?
 
If camping in a remote area on Powell, throw your carcasses into the water....then, watch at night with a light as they disappear with ravenous catfish! Don't make the presence of carcasses any more burdensome than necessary!
 
ohh never thought of puncturing the bladder, I just hate having to fight my dogs away from rotting carcasses that wash up ashore. thanks! assuming I even catch enough to have to worry about that. lol
 
cfulton said:
I do basically the same thing as Treetop. I don't slit the gills with a tool/knife, I hang the fish over the open live well hatch and reach behind the gill plate, hook a finger around one gill and pull it until it breaks. Then I immediately drop it into the live well. When fishing slows I then put them on ice or filet them. I have a filet board in the center ski well that mounts on the side of the boat. Pull out my 12v electric knife and go at it. Works great, no blood in the board or boat. I do not cut the filets so close to the skin as to leave a large red meat area. I only have the red strip remaining which is cut out before cooking. It peals out easily. Chuck
Click to expand...
This ^^^^. Stripers aren't very toothy, hook a gill with a finger as your dropping it in the cooler / live well, and quick snap of the wrist pulls the gill and drops the fish, doesn't take any extra time once you get the hang of it and much cleaner.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top