Harvesting Fish for Dinner

[Jigfishn10]

Sometimes I go out to fish and I get one early and I want to keep it, but I want to fish the rest of the day. It was recommended to me that I should gut the fish and get it on ice as fast as possible. Is there another way?

 

Just wondering what some of you do? 

 

[MN Fisher]

That's what I did in the canoe.

 

The 'new' boat will have a livewell...

[N Florida Mike]

Live well or ice chest. I clean em’ later and they’re fine…

[Jigfishn10]

BTW: I have no livewell. 

[T-Billy]

I don't gut 'em. Either keep 'em alive or ice 'em. 

[JustJames]

Just a suggestion, how about keeping last hour fish instead of first one you catch? Unless you plan to keep all the fish. Another way is floating basket, mark spot, come back when you done. 
 

I normally don’t keep fish, if I plan to keep, mostly crappie, I’ll wait until almost time to go home and pick only a couple that big enough. I gutted hook bass a few times, if I cannot remove the hook, I’d end my fishing trip right there. I don’t want to waste the fish by leaving in the sun or throw back in water.

[scaleface]

I keep them on wire clip stringer when fishing from a boat with elec motor  propulsion . The fresh water flowing through the gills by the movement of the boat keeps them fresh and alive al day . The bass never die unless they are bleeding badly to begin with . I clip the fish through the lower mouth , not through the gill opening .

[cyclops2]

I use a LONG plastic FISH STRINGER. I use the ones with about 6 snaps for piersing thru the skin at the front of the mouth and lip area. NOT thru to open gill areas.  The stringer also has a single Clip at the end in the boat.  All those metal clips allow for catch & release of earlier caught fish.............. BUUUTTTTTTTT 

 

DO NOT forget to pull the fish into a boat before moving out.. AAANNNDDD  Putting them into a Home Depot 5 gallon pail of water for no more than about 5 minutes. If  5 small perch  size. Change water every 5 minutes if still in a running boat.  I have kept them frisky all morning or all after noon this way in August.

[Dwight Hottle]

Bleed them & throw them on ice. Only other choice is keep them in the water if water temps are cool enough. 

[TnRiver46]

I just throw them into a cooler full of ice without gutting or bleeding, just a bonk on the head. Or stringer if I don’t have a cooler on hand. 
 

I learned once it’s somewhat illegal to fillet the fish while fishing 

[Skunkmaster-k]

I don’t gut them at all. Throw them on ice and let the meat firm up till the next morning , then fillet . 

[813basstard]

47 minutes ago, Dwight Hottle said:

Bleed them & throw them on ice. Only other choice is keep them in the water if water temps are cool enough. 

This

[Fallser]

When fishing locally with my buddies, usually a metal stringer.  Since most of the lakes we fish are electric motor only, we leave them in the water when we move unless we're in a weedy area.  When I was doing more salt water fishing, we always had a large ice chest, with a couple of bags of ice in it.  We'd put a bucket of salt water in it and make a slurry.  The only time I've used a live well, I use the term loosely, since they don't have anyway to oxygenate the water, is when I go up to NE Ontario.  Just have to remember to add fresh water to it every couple of hours.  

I'd have to check but I don't think there is any rule in PA that you can't fillet the fish and just bring home the fillets.  I usually wait till we get back to where we're staying before I clean them.

[slonezp]

You don't have to gut it, just throw it on ice

[Jigfishn10]

2 hours ago, Bass_Fishing_Socal said:

Just a suggestion, how about keeping last hour fish instead of first one you catch?

Valid question.

The fish I'm looking to harvest come from the Atlantic. The restrictions can be a bit confusing i.e, no size limit in territorial waters but 17" or greater in federal waters. I fish along that line so I basically obey the more stringent regulation. However, to get a fish that meets the more stringent regulation can be hard to get, so If I get one or two that I can share at dinner with my father, I want to make sure it's fresh to put on the table. I think I'll bleed the fish as Mr. Hottle & 813Basstard suggest.

[TnRiver46]

4 minutes ago, Jigfishn10 said:

Valid question.

The fish I'm looking to harvest come from the Atlantic. The restrictions can be a bit confusing i.e, no size limit in territorial waters but 17" or greater in federal waters. I fish along that line so I basically obey the more stringent regulation. However, to get a fish that meets the more stringent regulation can be hard to get, so If I get one or two that I can share at dinner with my father, I want to make sure it's fresh to put on the table. I think I'll bleed the fish as Mr. Hottle & 813Basstard suggest.

I’m having one heckuva deja vu. Have we already had a thread just like this with the same cast of characters posting the same answers ???

[Jigfishn10]

2 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

I’m having one heckuva deja vu. Have we already had a thread just like this with the same cast of characters posting the same answers ???

My apologies if this question is redundant, I haven’t logged in for a couple of months. 
I’ll have to make use of the search feature. 

[TnRiver46]

13 minutes ago, Jigfishn10 said:

My apologies if this question is redundant, I haven’t logged in for a couple of months. 
I’ll have to make use of the search feature. 

Hahaha nah post away buddy, it could have just been a mystery deja vu . I was asking to hopefully confirm that I’m not crazy……… magic 8 ball says too bad 

 

I literally thought it was me and you and slonezp having the conversation years ago, might have been a dream I had 

[throttleplate]

just do like the natives do in the philippines, gut it, cut it in half, pour a ton of salt all over it, nail it to a piece of wood and let it sit out in the sun for a few days.

[Jigfishn10]

2 minutes ago, throttleplate said:

just do like the natives do in the philippines, gut it, cut it in half, pour a ton of salt all over it, nail it to a piece of wood and let it sit out in the sun for a few days.

Up here that's called salt cod. It's actually faster to catch fresh than to flush out the salt on salt cod.

[N Florida Mike]

I would never advocate hanging fish on a stringer off a boat or your belt, after seeing a alligator snapping turtle bite a big bream in half . It was on a stringer on a friends belt. That’s the closest I’ve ever seen to someone walking on water! And the turtle was coming for seconds, lol.

At least dont do it down south!

I wouldn’t do it in saltwater either ( sharks, crabs, bluefish) 

[TnRiver46]

9 minutes ago, N Florida Mike said:

I would never advocate hanging fish on a stringer off a boat or your belt, after seeing a alligator snapping turtle bite a big bream in half . It was on a stringer on a friends belt. That’s the closest I’ve ever seen to someone walking on water! And the turtle was coming for seconds, lol.

At least dont do it down south!

I wouldn’t do it in saltwater either ( sharks, crabs, bluefish) 

I think snapping turtles are common in most of the US. I’ve had my stringer robbed by them many times but while it was tied to the dock not my waist haha. I’ve also had otters take fish off a stringer , they leave nothing 

[CrankFate]

I put them on ice. I don’t throw them directly on ice. I save old t-shirts and things like that and put a cloth over the ice and throw the fish on the cloth. You don’t have to do this, but I find the direct icing sometimes affects the texture of the meat, IMO. 

[Jigfishn10]

37 minutes ago, N Florida Mike said:

I would never advocate hanging fish on a stringer....

I wouldn’t do it in saltwater either ( sharks, crabs, bluefish) 

Nope, not recommended. My last trip of the season about less than 1/4 mile in front of me was a 10' thresher shark Beautiful to see, but we didn't catch up to it to exchange pleasantries. ?

[Deephaven]

3 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

I learned once it’s somewhat illegal to fillet the fish while fishing 

Interesting. As far as I know here you can fillet away, but you better keep enough skin/fin so that they can confirm the species.