Bitter, bloody tasting California halibut

I'm no biologist, so the following is based on my rather old memories and from the YouTube vids I've seen on the topic.

Clearly, the decapitation is the actual kill. The ikejime is all about a quick & highly effective bleeding, and we can see near the end of the video that the processed fish are substantially bled out. This appears to be more than I get when I rip the gills.  The parallel benefit is that the method also denervates the basal muscular controls which originate in the spinal cord, not the brain, and this shuts down the processes that lead to the lactic acid release and take up (more or less).

My understanding is the wire pierces the fascial membrane(s) along the spine which acts as the blood reservoir and provides a clear channel for its exit.


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Ikejime. Ikejime (活け締め) or Ikijime (活き締め) is a method of paralyzing fish to maintain the quality of its meat. The technique originated in Japan, but is now in widespread use. ... Furthermore, the blood contained in the fish flesh retracts to the gut cavity, which produces a better coloured and flavoured fillet.

It refers both to brain spiking and spinal cord destruction. Brain spiking is what I do. There's a guide for where to place your spike here:

http://www.ikijime.com

I'm grateful for the confirmation of effectiveness. Now how to aciheive on kayak without vomiting from looking down too long,  If you were to perform any part of this process aboard a kayak what would you do?

To the original question... Do you use a gaff? If so, depending on where the gaff penetrates, seems like you might pierce some internal organ. That could result in a bad taste, especially if the fish was gaffed near the belly.

Ikejime. Ikejime (活け締め) or Ikijime (活き締め) is a method of paralyzing fish to maintain the quality of its meat. The technique originated in Japan, but is now in widespread use. ... Furthermore, the blood contained in the fish flesh retracts to the gut cavity, which produces a better coloured and flavoured fillet.

A knife, ice pick or screwdriver can be used, but these folks have some cool specialty tools:

http://japantackle.com/tools-and-others/tools/extreme-ikijime.html

http://www.anglers-secrets.com/product/04cooking/ike-jime-wire-combo-long/

When gutting the fish, you want to avoid puncturing  the gall bladder. It's filled with nasty smelling and awful tasting bile. That could be the cause of the bitter tasting belly meat.