Fish Meat Condition

[Stephen Lyda]

When i cleaned the bass fish for which i have been questioning.the meat was very mushy and i decided to just trash all of the fish meat and there were 5 of them wieighing 4.0 and higher.Was i right or wrong to trash all of the fish?They had been in a cooler for just over one day when i proceeded to clean the first fish.

[Delaware Valley Tackle]

 Welcome to the forum. I think it's fair to say the membership here is C&R by a wide majority. Fair warning: if you're for real you're gonna take a bashing for killing 20# of bass which are edible but hardly a delicacy. Second, I wouldn't eat any fish that's laid in a cooler for a full day.

[Brian Needham]

bass in the #1.25 range eat the best.

 

you probably should have cleaned them the same day,and chosen smaller fish.

 

but you learned your lesson, I suppose.

 

there is a large part of me that hopes you are just kidding and having fun saying you threw away a 20# sack of fish.

[SirSnookalot]

Did the cooler have ice in it?  Commercially caught fish are either flash frozen on the spot or packed in ice.  Once offloaded they are boxed then shipped to a wholesaler then on to a retail outlet, the process takes a couple days and the fish are fine to eat.  Always check the clarity of the eyes then for a vibrant color of the gills, the meat should not be mushy, although some species are much softer than others.  My dad owned a market for 30 years ( no one got sick that I know of lol) we sold lake Superior whitefish, lake Erie pickerel (walleye) lake perch and several freshwater species.  Ocean fish as well, flounder and sole 2 of my favorites.

[WIGuide]

Probably right to toss it. Next time if you are going to keep some, keep the smallest legal size you can and clean it right away. If all you have is a cooler with ice, then put it in a ziplock bag and pack that in ice instead of just laying it on top that way it's cooling all the meat.

[macmichael]

bass in the #1.25 range eat the best.

 

you probably should have cleaned them the same day,and chosen smaller fish.

 

but you learned your lesson, I suppose.

 

there is a large part of me that hopes you are just kidding and having fun saying you threw away a 20# sack of fish.

 

 

X2

[Fish Murderer 71]

Another fish murderer!

[SirSnookalot]

As I previously mentioned commercially caught fish are generally packed in ice and they are just fine, they may not be cleaned for a few days.

For our personally caught fish, who stops fishing to clean them?  I see just as many people take fish home in plastic bags as I do ice chests, the fish are fine when cleaned at home later in the day.  On the boat our dolphin, kingfish, triggerfish are kept in the boat well without ice, we clean them at home and they are perfect.  When I fished Michigan freshwater it was c&r, we owned a market and already had the fish.

 

I do think with most species the smaller sizes are better eating.  We don't fry fish too often anymore, bake or broil and on the grille is excellent.  We prefer the taste of the fish not the breading, batter or oil.............even an old sneaker tastes great breaded and fried, lol.  

[Lund Explorer]

I guess I can throw in my two cents worth.  The subject was that the flesh of these fish were too soft, however I would use a different measure to decide if these fish(or any fish) were okay to eat or not. 

 

What did they look like? 

 

In my experience, if a fish has been properly stored prior to cleaning there may be a little discoloring, but the fish shouldn't look bleached out.  Most of the sunfish family which includes LM or SM Bass shouldn't have an excessive amount of slime on them either.  It would be no different if you looked at an aged steak or piece of chicken.  Dead flesh starts to deteriorate the minute it dies, and proper refrigeration slows down the process.  

 

When I'm fishing for a meal, I always put my fish in a cooler that is relatively full of ice/water so that the fish are completely submersed until I get home to filet them out.  Kept in this fashion, I have been able to keep fish overnight when the need arises but I would more than likely clean them on the same day.  Other fish such as trout, salmon, or whitefish are always stored on ice and cleaned as quickly as possible.

 

Proper icing of your catch will make the fish somewhat easier to clean as they come out of the ice water somewhat stiffer, will slow down the deterioration of the flesh, and most importantly will assure you of the best table quality.

 

I'll also agree that many species of fish start to lose table quality as they grow larger.  With many species, you will also increase the risk of contamination from pollution.  Look into this on your State's fisheries website under consumption advisories.