Doc's Perspective on Keeping Your Catch Fresh

Have you ever brought home a stringer of fish, cooked them up following your favorite recipe, and then found out that they were almost inedible? Rest assured that you're not the only one who has had fish go bad. Fishermen on overnight trips to Chandeleur, in particular, have complained of a "fishy taste" in their freshly-caught fare.

What you do with your keeper fish during the first few hours after the catch will largely determine how tasty they will be once they reach the table. Cleaning the fish immediately after catching them, of course, will result in the best possible quality in your fish dishes. If you have ever had the priviledge of eating fish just hours after they were caught, you will know what I mean. Discriminating palates can instantly distinguish between fish that are truly fresh, those that have been kept on ice for a day, and, of course, those that have been frozen and thawed. Unfortunately, cleaning fish immediately after catching them is both impractical and, in some cases, impossible. So called "heads and tails intact regulations" have seen to that. There are still lots of ways that a fisherman can guarantee that his catch is first-rate when it reaches the table. On short, early morning trips, I keep my fish in a fish basket rather than on a stringer. This keeps them alive indefinitely. In fact, they even reach home alive. Then I am able to dispatch the fish and clean it right away. One can do no better. On longer trips, it is advisable to at least gut the fish and remove its gills. Removing the scales or skinning it will further help to eliminate any taste problems. If the entrails or gills in particular are left in the fish for any length of time, the chances of spoilage are dramatically increased.

It takes only half a minute or so to efficiently gut most any fish if you follow the following method:

Take your fillet knife and insert it in the anal opening on the underside of the fish. Slit the skin forward from there to the V-shaped area (isthmus) where the forward part of the belly meets the gills. Put your finger into the gills and around that V-shaped area and pull sharply to the rear. Gills and all or most of the entrails will come out. Then, with the fish upside down, take your knife or a thumbnail and rake it against the backbone to remove the dark blood from the sac around the backbone. That completes the cleaning process unless you also have the time to scale the fish.

The best part about this procedure is that it is simple, takes little time, and complies with the "heads and tails intact regulations" that more and more states are starting to implement. One more important point fishermen should remember is that more fish are ruined on the trip home than at any other time. It is most important to keep the temperature down, and by immediately icing the fish that's easily done. The problem usually arises once the fisherman returns to the dock and removes his fish from the big ice-chest of the party boat for the long ride home. A twenty-minute trip home with the fish in nothing more than a plastic bag will surely result in less than a quality seafood dish once it's prepared. Seafood cookery is tough enough for anyone; and they shouldn't have to use gallons of lemon juice to remove the "fishy taste".

One final point: the fish should never be packed directly in ice if you are interested in quality. The ice will melt; and the fish, left lying in the water, might deteriorate and become soft and mushy. It is far better to place the fish in a plastic bag, making sure that the air is pushed out, and then placing that into the ice chest.

By following these tips, you will keep your catch cool, dry, and most importantly tasty, when you get home. . .