Keeping your catch

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Category: Fishing Tricks

Published on Monday, 08 August 2011 15:26

Written by Big Unit

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A tip on looking after your catch. After all the effort that goes in to catching a nice fresh fish it is amazing how many people don't bother to look after it. 
 
The 3 most important thing are:
 
1. For species like Tailor, Mackerel, Threadfin Salmon, Grunter & Trevally bleed them out quickly & don't let them thrash about which bruises the flesh. Gilling is the best method. 
   
2. For other species like Cod, Flathead, Whiting, Snapper, Blueys kill them quickly this stops amino acids being released & giving the fish a slightly bitter taste. I normally use a sharp spike & insert it through the brain or simply gill them.
   
3. Chill the fish down quickly. The method I use is to make large ice blocks & these I place in my esky then tip a bucket of saltwater over them prior to leaving or at the boat ramp. By the time you start catching fish the water is an icy cold slurry. 
 
Killing your catch quickly & icing it down straight away improves the eating quality of your catch out of sight. Its also important in this day and age to treat your catch as humanely as possible as authorities have already handed out fines to anglers for cases of inhumane treatment. Definitely worth the effort !

Skinning fillets improves the eating qualities of most fish.

Some species taste far better if skinned examples are Mackerel, Morwong & Bream are a few examples. Most people know how to fillet fish but many cannot skin them & it is very easy to do.

An important note is that if you want to skin a fish do not scale it. If you scale fish it will make it very difficult. Just fillet the fish as you normally would then lay the fillet skin side down on your filleting board. Slide the knife in between the flesh & the skin at the tail end of the fillet. Carefully work it forward into the fillet separating flesh from skin for about one inch. When you have done this you should be able to grab hold of the skin at the tail end.

Holding the knife at an angle of about 45 degrees & stationary pull the skin towards you sliding it gently from side to side. The knife will pass between skin & flesh no problems at all. There you have it one skinned fillet. Just remember the knife must be kept still during skinning. Its easy to do with practice.

Big Unit

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