Do you bleed out your catch?

[Finally Fishing]

I have read a bit about some guys bleeding out their catch. I have never tried it but I would if it makes things better at fillet time.
Where do you cut to get the best bleed?

 

[HTHM]

The base of the gills

 

[Puddle Jumper]

other than when i worked on comercial fish farms , i have never heard of anyone bleeding there fish.

what we did was reach in behind gill plate on one side and cut (knife) or with finger tare the gills, but don't rip them out.
then we places fish in a slurry of ice water

 

[G.Mech]

Other than a big mess, I don't see a lot of difference in bleeding vs putting the fish right on ice. I clean my walleye and bows on the water before heading in so they are not stored for long anyway. They don't keep very well at all in the livewell in the summer so I just fill it half full of ice and hope I have enough room. If you can't keep your catch cold it may be more worthwhile to bleed them out.

 

[angler]

I have a fish 'bonker'. A hit to the head does them in and straight onto ice.

 

[Reel Therapy]

We always bleed our pickerel. We find no blood in the meat when we filet them.

 

[Big Dave]

I have read a bit about some guys bleeding out their catch. I have never tried it but I would if it makes things better at fillet time.
Where do you cut to get the best bleed?

Usually my finger

I don't bleed my fish but lots of ice

 

[Donald86]

Bleed your picks and you wont ever go back, no blood in the meat and if you bleed them in a live well then put them in the cooler, the cooler is way easier to clean so is the table that you fillet them on

 

[Fish Farmer]

X2 Donald68, Thats what I do with my Walleye.

 

[BurfordBuzz]

I spent Saturday mornining with John from Hoteline fishing and he hung all our fish over the side of the boat and bleed and gutted them and the allowed them to drag along in the water for a couple of minutes to completely rinse the fish out beford putting the in the live well. I just had a feed tonight for super and it was by far the best pickeral I have every tasted. I agree with Donald68 that once you start to bleed your piks you will never go back!

 

[zxninja]

I too bleed all my pics.....or any fish big enough. Perch go right on ice and filleted 24hr later. Not even thinking about bleeding 150 perch.

 

[Big Dave]

I too bleed all my pics.....or any fish big enough. Perch go right on ice and filleted 24hr later. Not even thinking about bleeding 150 perch.

I bleed all my perch then hang em from the tail for 15minutes each

 

[Finally Fishing]

The base of the gills

Do you mean like you were going to fillet them? Or in the belly behind the gills.

 

[HTHM]

The skin at the joint of the belly and head, all the main arteries run through there.

 

[Walleye]

regardless of bleeding, freeze or store your fillets in milk.

Clark