01-18-2014, 06:18 PM
[#0000FF]I don't take the time to bleed out the whities. Not really necessary on those small fish. A lot of the red color is natural to them when they die...especially if confined in a closed area. Their fins and tails tend to color up then...and it looks like they are bloody.
I do not let my fish sit on the ice to get sunburned and frozen. Bad combo. I put them in an orange Home Depot bag, inside my sled. They stay plenty cool without freezing. See the attached pic.
As for frozen fish having a whiter color than the fresher ones, that is due to the molecular changes that occur when fish flesh is frozen. Don't know if you have ever had frostbitten fingers but they look whiter than the nonfrozen ones. Probably the freezing and expansion forces the blood out of the capillaries. Just guessing.
If you do prefer to bleed your catch as you catch them a simple cut through the gills will do the job. That is a good idea for trout and some other larger bloody fish. The flesh stays firmer and tastes better when bled out and kept cold. On some larger species you can also make a cut around the base of the tail. That is a vascular area that helps the fish to bleed out more quickly.
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I do not let my fish sit on the ice to get sunburned and frozen. Bad combo. I put them in an orange Home Depot bag, inside my sled. They stay plenty cool without freezing. See the attached pic.
As for frozen fish having a whiter color than the fresher ones, that is due to the molecular changes that occur when fish flesh is frozen. Don't know if you have ever had frostbitten fingers but they look whiter than the nonfrozen ones. Probably the freezing and expansion forces the blood out of the capillaries. Just guessing.
If you do prefer to bleed your catch as you catch them a simple cut through the gills will do the job. That is a good idea for trout and some other larger bloody fish. The flesh stays firmer and tastes better when bled out and kept cold. On some larger species you can also make a cut around the base of the tail. That is a vascular area that helps the fish to bleed out more quickly.
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