Cutting the Gills

[dsafety]

Not that I have yet experienced the need but why is it that some people cut the gills on a large fish they plan to keep?

I am planning to go out Friday AM at the shores and hope, that this may finally be my day to catch something worth keeping. If cutting the gills is important, I need to know what to do.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Bob

[Corey]

Cutting the gills serves to let the fish bleed out, which makes for better tasting meat. Also the fish will die more quickly which is more humane for the fish. It's easy to do, just take your pliers or dikes, and cut or rip a gill. If you see lots of blood , you were successful.

[esdees]

Cutting the gills helps to drain the blood out of the meat. As soon as you get the fish tied down, take a knife or dikes and cut through the gills. Some people rip them out completely. Don't get your hands stuck in the gills... that's no fun. Good luck.

[THE DARKHORSE]

Cutting the gills is essential for quality table fair. I don't like to rip out the gills, as I feel they bleed out much better with a couple cuts on different gills. Dikes work best, but I just use regular pliers. Just grab a gill with your pliers and twist till it squirts out, but it will bleed much more if you don't cut or break all the way through the gill. Corey mentioned the humane aspect, and I couldn't agree more. Speaking of humane, nothing beats the Halibut Bat, it ends the suffering instantly, after a couple of really hard thumps to the brain. It's really the least you can do, to minamize the suffering. Orrrrrr, enjoy the next thirty horrible minutes, while the fish oh so slowly sufficates, while begging to be placed back in the water. Buy a freaking fish-bat and think of sitting in traffic while doing a very good deed ( a couple of good whacks and ).

[aguachico]

I have seen and now practice cutting the bottom gill arches closest to the heart on ONE, not both, gill plate. You can hear the heart pumping out the blood squirts as it hits the yak. Then I drop it over the side and watch it gasp out the last remaining ounces of blood. The meat is in great shape.

[tylerdurden]

Tilt the head downhill too. Let gravity do the work after you slit the gills. If you slit the gills and keep the head up, the tail portions of the meat will be full of blood.

yt need to be bled.

wsb taste fine either way from my experience.

Halibut, bleed it so the damn thing will die. They don't die easy.

[kurt]

If you do choose to bleed a WSB, don't use your hand to pull the gills, and be very careful. Their gill rakers are extremely sharp.

[SDLivin]

Originally Posted by tylerdurden

Tilt the head downhill too. Let gravity do the work after you slit the gills. If you slit the gills and keep the head up, the tail portions of the meat will be full of blood.

yt need to be bled.

wsb taste fine either way from my experience.

Halibut, bleed it so the damn thing will die. They don't die easy.

Any experience with Albacore, Yellowfin, Bluefin, and Dorado. I don't recall on the overnight or 2 day sport charters, the fish being bled.

[madscientist]

Most tuna I've seen hit the deck start bleeding profusely anyway. On a private boat I bleed everything. I agree with Tyler on WSB, except that unbled fish will have more visually noticeable black blood lines in the meat.

With halibut I don't think it really matters, and even bled they'll still hop around 30 minutes later. I stopped clubbing fish years ago after realizing it doesn't make much of a difference. If you want to kill it immediately use a spike to the brain (a gaff works in a pinch).

The other advantage of bleeding OTW is the filleting process will be much cleaner.

[dgax65]

Originally Posted by SDLivin

Any experience with Albacore, Yellowfin, Bluefin, and Dorado. I don't recall on the overnight or 2 day sport charters, the fish being bled.

Many of the long range boats spike and bleed the tuna as soon as they hit the deck. A lot of the boats have also installed RSW systems and rubber mats on the aft decks. The mats prevent bruising of the meat when the tuna are thrashing around. The boats are trying to do what they can to preserve the quality of the meat that you bring home.

Spiking and bleeding are common practice with commercial boats that sell to the Japanese market.

There is some good info at this link
http://www.spc.int/Coastfish/Fishing.../Sashimi_E.htm

There are a number of things that you can do to maintain the quality of the fish that you catch. Obviously, you can't do everything suggested in that publication, but you can bleed and spike your catch and put them on ice. Even bonito and barracuda will be fine table fare if you handle them properly.

[tylerdurden]

Most party boats bleed fish. Most times the gaff shot is good enough. Often the pinhead clips a gill as he staples your number to the fish and it often goes unnoticed. Spiking the brain also keeps the fish from flopping around and bruising the meat. Many party boats do this too. It works much better than a club and is instant.

The cattle boat I go on at least once a year has a kill box for the tuna/yt/dorado to sit in for about 5 minutes after they are gaffed and numbered. Then they go straight into the cold storage until fillet time. Cold fish are easier to carve up. On a PB we keep a saltwater/ice solution to dump fish into as soon as they are bled out. Kayak fish will always be slightly lesser in quality because of the lack of large amounts of ice.