To Bleed or Not To Bleed?

[Poodroo]

Hi All,

On a recent trip out with my uncle I came to realize that whatever fish he planned to keep he bleeds. There have always been fish like tailor that are a must but what about reefies? He swears that it makes the world of difference and when we got home he showed me a comparison of snapper fillets in the freezer. On one shelf he had fillets that were from snapper that had been bled and on another shelf filltets from snapper that had not been bled. Admittedly there was quite a difference in colours with the fillets from the bled snapper appearing much whiter but my question is can you really taste the difference? Personally with reef fish like snapper I have always put them straight into the ice slurry and the fillets have always tasted pretty darn good to me. So who out there bleeds their catch?

Poodroo

[Poodroo]

I forgot one option. Can one of the mods please add a third voting option :-
Sometimes Bleed Fish depending on species.

Thanks,

Poodroo

[mod5]

I forgot one option. Can one of the mods please add a third voting option :-
Sometimes Bleed Fish depending on species.

Thanks,

Poodroo

Yep, done it.

[revs57]

I'm a bleeder

[Imfiik]

I don't bleed em . I brain spike them then into ice slurry.

[ifishcq1]

Depends on the fish .. mackerel and stuff like that do ... whiting don't..Poo you are right there is a noticable colour difference between bled and unbled even in reefies...DPI recon iki-jima because it kills the fish quicker and the flesh is supposed to be more tender and less chance of bacteria getting into your fish.. buggered if I know, fish always tastes good anyway

SL

[For Steve]

Iki Jimi for me.

For mackerel and tailor I'd Iki Jimi and bleed.

[tunaticer]

I bleed fish with a bloodline and do not worry about bleeding ones that do not have a bloodline. Anything I take is put straight into a ice slurry either straight away or immediately after it has bled and stopped spurting. I do not mind bloody ice slurry. As long as the fish goes into the slurry as soon as possible after deciding to keep it or not.

Jack.

[Vindicator]

Yep I bleed all reefies.

Cheers
Kezza

[Burley_Boy]

Brain spike always, bleed sometimes, but haven't made it out to catch a feed for yonks gees not even the first season Snapper yet. Need to fire myself and go fishing!

[Mark-P]

The one reefy i do bleed is the Painted sweetlip ( morwong ) & it makes a hell of a difference IMO !!!

Mark

[whatscracken]

I bleed any fish that I plan to keep

[plaztix]

Mackeral, tuna and tailor are the only fish i usually bleed.

Have had snapper thats been bled next to one that wasn't and the bled fish did look nicer when filleted. Couldn't tell the difference when eating it though.

[trueblue]

I bleed everything, but there is bleeding, and then there is bleeding...

I was taught by a master fishing guide in Townsville how to prepare a fish best for the table, and it really works if you take the time. Works expecially well for barramundi.

The fish that has just put up a good fight has a heap of adrenalin and 'fight' chemicals surging through its body and has also pumped its blood out around its body as hard as it can to sustain its fight.

Ryans method is to catch the fish, and then lay it on the deck under a towell or empty sack or the like until it mostly stops moving. Don't be concerned about it going off in the heat because it is still alive (albeit dying). This allows the fish to go into a life saving mode and retrieve all of the blood back to its vital organs to try and prolong its life. Hence, less blood in the flesh.

Then, you can slit its throat and bleed it till it stops spurting, then chuck it into a super cold brine in a kill tank. The super chill will then suck the remaining blood out of the flesh and you get the cleanest fillets that I have ever seen.

I usually prefer to eat red emporer to Barra, but done Ryans way, the Barra wins hands down.

I'll admit that it is a lot of trouble to go to and i don't often do it, but when i do it really improves any fish.

Cheers

Mick

[rat_catcher]

I bleed evrything I am going to keep....but then again I don't go whiting fishing so I guess it doesn't matter! For me it is the usual mixed reefies, spaniards and cobia that get kept.