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Topic: I caught my first "keeper"!  (Read 2638 times)

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Live2Fish

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  • Date Registered: Jul 2014
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Could you explain "cut the gills?" We read this on the internet but couldn't find any further descriptions or pictures. Does it mean cut the part completely off, the part that opens and closes with the gills inside? Or does it mean put a knife into that part and try to cut up the gills themselves? Or something else? We were kind of lost on exactly what to do and would like to do that next time, on the kayak if possible. Sorry for the beginner questions!
Knife to the gills works.  I just hook my finger around a couple and pull. It can get messy with certain fish but dead is dead. 


  • Cabeza de Martillo
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  • Location: Costa de Oro, BCS
  • Date Registered: Jan 2011
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Could you explain "cut the gills?" We read this on the internet but couldn't find any further descriptions or pictures. Does it mean cut the part completely off, the part that opens and closes with the gills inside? Or does it mean put a knife into that part and try to cut up the gills themselves? Or something else? We were kind of lost on exactly what to do and would like to do that next time, on the kayak if possible. Sorry for the beginner questions!
Knife to the gills works.  I just hook my finger around a couple and pull. It can get messy with certain fish but dead is dead.

This.....if you have a glove just stick your fingers in and grab a couple and pull till they break. The fish will just bleed out soon thereafter.

Yes, it was very tasty for dinner last night, and there's plenty left for lunch today too :-) 

We had hoped to cut it up and pan fry the pieces for fish tacos, but after well over an hour trying to kill and process it, went for baked fillets with seasonings. We'll be watching some videos before our next fishing trip to find out how to deal with the fish after bringing them home. This guy would NOT die. We hit it in the head with a hammer 20+ times, just above the eyes, and it just kept "breathing" (I know it wasn't breathing since it wasn't in water, but it's gills were moving.) We also tried to find the soft spot in the head to spike it, but couldn't find anywhere we could penetrate! Finally had to just cut the head off with a very sharp knife. Gutting it wasn't too difficult, but after that we had a hard time figuring out how to cut it up, there were lots of tough bones; I couldn't even get it cut in half vertically because of all the bones along the spinal column. Finally I just cut through the smaller bones into somewhat fillet shaped pieces and seasoned and baked it. The bones slid right out after baking. I need to get a better idea of how to do this before our next fishing trip!

 :smt044 :smt044 You will laugh about this post a year from now. Too bad you didn't have a GoPro... footage of this would have been priceless.
Pronounced in Spanish  ka·be·za de mar·t·yo
Translates to Hammerhead in English for my Gringo amigos.
....and yes that's me with a 6ft. green moray in the avatar.

"Spearos before Hos" - Silent Hunter

"Give your son a fish and you'll feed him for a day.
Teach him how to spearfish and he'll feed you for a lifetime" - Cabeza de Martillo

Proud Papa of ...........
2018 JAOTY Lucas aka Baja Ninja
2018 JDOTY Noah aka Silent Hunter


crazyfisher

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congrats on the fish. Fresh fish is awesome :)

don't try and pull the gills on a lingcod!! unless you have gloves on. I cut the gills on the lingcod over the weekend and that sucker was still alive after an hour in the water! lol


rockfish

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Congrats on a nice cabby!
Those are not the easiest to process, I gut then throw them on the grill whole and pick the meat off the bones...
rockfish and ling are much easier to fillet and process into smaller pieces :)
Less Mental than before, Still savage AF tho <3

IG: she_savagly_gardens


LizN

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  • Date Registered: Aug 2016
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Thanks for the tips, going to print those out so we have them for next time.

So, we thought it was a black rock fish, based on comparing it to the ID guides we had printed out from CDFW, and because it didn't have any teeth. Another fisherman said it looked somewhat like a lingcod, but it didn't have any teeth. One of my Facebook friends said it's a cabezon, however it had lots of scales and the guide said cabezon don't have scales?


  • Cabeza de Martillo
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  • Location: Costa de Oro, BCS
  • Date Registered: Jan 2011
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Congrats on a nice cabby!
Those are not the easiest to process, I gut then throw them on the grill whole and pick the meat off the bones...
rockfish and ling are much easier to fillet and process into smaller pieces :)
Not a cabbie  :smt075

Looks more like a grass rockfish.
« Last Edit: October 10, 2016, 01:15:14 PM by Cabeza de Martillo »
Pronounced in Spanish  ka·be·za de mar·t·yo
Translates to Hammerhead in English for my Gringo amigos.
....and yes that's me with a 6ft. green moray in the avatar.

"Spearos before Hos" - Silent Hunter

"Give your son a fish and you'll feed him for a day.
Teach him how to spearfish and he'll feed you for a lifetime" - Cabeza de Martillo

Proud Papa of ...........
2018 JAOTY Lucas aka Baja Ninja
2018 JDOTY Noah aka Silent Hunter


rockfish

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Dang, I guess the cell phone picture failed me, upon further review, yes looks like a grassy.

I stand by my assessment of cleaning cabezone though :)
Less Mental than before, Still savage AF tho <3

IG: she_savagly_gardens


  • Cabeza de Martillo
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  • Location: Costa de Oro, BCS
  • Date Registered: Jan 2011
  • Posts: 7707
Dang, I guess the cell phone picture failed me, upon further review, yes looks like a grassy.

I stand by my assessment of cleaning cabezone though :)

You've been cleaning grassys like this all along  :smt044
Pronounced in Spanish  ka·be·za de mar·t·yo
Translates to Hammerhead in English for my Gringo amigos.
....and yes that's me with a 6ft. green moray in the avatar.

"Spearos before Hos" - Silent Hunter

"Give your son a fish and you'll feed him for a day.
Teach him how to spearfish and he'll feed you for a lifetime" - Cabeza de Martillo

Proud Papa of ...........
2018 JAOTY Lucas aka Baja Ninja
2018 JDOTY Noah aka Silent Hunter


rockfish

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Dang, I guess the cell phone picture failed me, upon further review, yes looks like a grassy.

I stand by my assessment of cleaning cabezone though :)

You've been cleaning grassys like this all along  :smt044


 :smt004
Less Mental than before, Still savage AF tho <3

IG: she_savagly_gardens


Live2Fish

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  • Location: Eureka
  • Date Registered: Jul 2014
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Thanks for the tips, going to print those out so we have them for next time.

So, we thought it was a black rock fish, based on comparing it to the ID guides we had printed out from CDFW, and because it didn't have any teeth. Another fisherman said it looked somewhat like a lingcod, but it didn't have any teeth. One of my Facebook friends said it's a cabezon, however it had lots of scales and the guide said cabezon don't have scales?
Fish ID gets easier with every fish :fishing2


  • Cabeza de Martillo
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  • Location: Costa de Oro, BCS
  • Date Registered: Jan 2011
  • Posts: 7707
Dang, I guess the cell phone picture failed me, upon further review, yes looks like a grassy.

I stand by my assessment of cleaning cabezone though :)

You've been cleaning grassys like this all along  :smt044


 :smt004

 :smt008 :smt002
Pronounced in Spanish  ka·be·za de mar·t·yo
Translates to Hammerhead in English for my Gringo amigos.
....and yes that's me with a 6ft. green moray in the avatar.

"Spearos before Hos" - Silent Hunter

"Give your son a fish and you'll feed him for a day.
Teach him how to spearfish and he'll feed you for a lifetime" - Cabeza de Martillo

Proud Papa of ...........
2018 JAOTY Lucas aka Baja Ninja
2018 JDOTY Noah aka Silent Hunter


Fisherman X

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Once you start catching bigger fish (lingcod, cabezon), you won't bother keeping the smaller rockfish. Not much meat on their little (and numerous) bones!

Yeah, maybe - but I think certain species, even thought smaller, have particularly good flavor and texture. I really like Black rockfish tacos!
-Success is living the life you want-
Joel ><>

Hammerhead avatar in memory of CdM


LizN

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I made fish tacos for lunch today with the left overs; tasted great!



Eastbay-Joe

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Congrats on the fish! wait till you catch a whole limit of 10 fish (plus lingcods) and then trying to cleaning them all!  :smt044
2016 Hobie Revo 13.....I'd rather be fishing...

To my grandfather, who taught me how to fish, miss you grandpa...


crash

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The quickest way to kill your catch is to perform ikejime.  The spot to spike or ice pick is different in each different species.  The rockfish are easier to spike from the side.  there is a handy ikejime website, here is the link for black rockfish, which will be the same spot on your grassy.

http://www.ikijime.com/fish/rockfish-black/

Bleed and bonk is the most common method though.  Just stick a knife in the gills and cut a few, turn and do it again on the other side, put it on a dive clip, pump it in the water a couple times to get the blood flowing out, bonk it over the head with a club, then put it in a wet burlap sack or fish kill bag.

Both bleeding and ikejime will improve the quality of the meat over just tossing it in the bag and letting it suffocate.  Unstressed animals taste better and fish are no different.

As for how to fillet, youtube has several videos on the subject but its probably best to watch a few people do it since there are several different ways to accomplish the task.  Hang out at a fish cleaning table for half an hour and you'll get an education.
"SCIENCE SUCKS" - bmb


 

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