Caring for the Catch by Tom Ohaus

Most anglers enjoy eating some of what they catch. Fish are nutritious, low in cholesterol and high in protein. Better yet, when properly cared for, they are delicious. The quality of the meal you bring back from a day's fishing will be directly related to how well you care for your catch. If you play by the rules, you'll bring home fish with a firm consistency, sweet smell, and delicate flavor. If you don't, even the cat might turn dinner down.

You Need a Plan

A living fish represents a wonderfully ordered organism. The moment that fish dies, bacteria and enzymes begin breaking down that order. Few foods are more perishable than fish. The odor that many people associate with our finny friends, that "fishy" smell, indicates spoilage. Fresh fish that have been properly killed, bled, gutted, and iced have hardly any smell at all. When a fish dies the bacteria in the blood, gills, gut, and intestines begin to multiply unchecked by the now inoperative immune system. The sooner we remove the source of bacteria and slow the rate of bacterial reproduction, the better. Also, digestive enzymes begin eating through the stomach walls of your catch as soon as it dies. These juices will eventually eat through to the flesh of your fish. If you want a good fish dinner from what you catch, you have to get the bacterial and enzyme spoilage processes slowed to a minimum. You need a plan and some tools. The basics tools for the job are: 1) A weapon for killing your catch. 2) A cooler or fish-hold large enough for your quarry. 3) Plenty of ice. 4) A knife for gutting and removing the gills. Starting with a weapon - a billy club is the most common. A firm rap on top of the head, just over the eyes, will put most fish into the next world in a quick and humane manner. An authoritative rap stops the fish from thrashing and beating itself on the boat or inside the fish box. The next step is to bleed the fish. The rap on the head makes the fish unconscious, but the heart continues to beat for a few minutes. If you cut a gill immediately after whacking the fish, the heart will pump most of the blood out. Getting the blood out of the fish immediately is important because blood spoils faster than the flesh. When you fillet a fish that hasn't been bled, the blood will flow into the flesh, increasing the chance of spoilage and diminishing from the appearance. Once you've bled your catch, the best thing to do is immediately remove the gills which are a major source of bacteria. You should also gut the fish to remove the digestive enzymes in the stomach and the intestines, another major source of bacteria. You should then get the fish on ice. When gutting, many people overlook removing the dark blood colored organ (it functions like a kidney) that rests against the spine above the other organs. To remove this, you cut the membrane that protects it and scrape it out with a spoon. Knives designed for gutting come with a spoon on the end of the handle. In the real world, most people don't want to take time away from hot fishing to gut fish. If you're amidst a hot bite and don't want to stop, you should still bleed and ice your catch immediately. You can then delay removing the guts and gills for a few hours without any serious decrease in quality.

Flake Ice, Please

Ice cools fish far faster and more efficiently than either cold air or cold water. It takes 37 pounds of ice water to perform the same cooling work as two pounds of ice. Cold air is even less efficient than water. For ice to work properly, you want it to have as much contact with the fish as possible. Flake ice not only makes more contact with the skin than cube or block ice, it can be stuffed into the gutted out visceral cavity of the fish to cool it from the inside out, too. How much ice you need to bring depends on the size of the fish you catch, the temperature of the water and the air, and the species of fish. A small salmon taken from cold water on a cold day requires very little ice. A big tuna, which has a body temperature above that of the water it comes from, will melt a lot of ice. Tuna go soft if not bled and cooled quickly. As your ice melts you want the water to drain out of your fish-hold or cooler. This water running off will carry millions of bacteria with it. Fish that is quickly gutted and properly iced will stay fresh tasting for a surprisingly long amount of time. I've kept salmon packed tight on flake ice three to five days and it still tasted fresh caught.