Pros of bleeding fish

The majority of people already know how much better meat quality is when you bleed a fish...but for sure some people don’t 

Saw a few pics on IG recently that made me cringe...awesome anglers by all accounts but their pics of cutting up their fish made me sad...

Bleeding and leaving in the water so the blood can drain and not just coagulate in the body will vastly improve your meat quality....

Here’s a few collages I put together that make a good case for bleeding...first three are pics from IG compared with some of my pics...last one is just some of my pics from this summer...

 

Sincerely,

Jim

I’m with you Jim!!
Much nicer meat quality!
I think it comes with experience, I know I didn’t do it for the first year or two but now always on my bigger fish , the smaller rockfish I don’t but maybe I should???
I wonder how the commercial fishermen do it?

Scotty

Not to mention, your fish are bigger as well

I would do it for quality fish (salmon, halibut, maybe nice lings or verms) but I'm really not sure how much of a difference it makes in taste. I wasn't able to tell bled vs non-bled rockfish apart. It certainly looks nicer without the blood and maybe would preserve better. Most of the time the blood seems to coagulate in the gut cavity, not the meat. Also it seems like the blood/bloodline amplifies the fishy flavor, but I think whitefish are not that fishy tasting.

Curious if people notice a real difference in taste.

Curious if people notice a real difference in taste.

I think there is a difference, even for rockfish.

Thankfully learned from this forum, bleed and brain everything.  Gut and ice ASAP.

100%

Yes! And, if you can gut the fish, and immediately put it on ice, that's even better...

Bleeding really helps remove the "fishy" taste from the meat. This is really apparent in salmon...but maybe not as much in rockfish.

Also, I like to hang my fish upside down when bleeding so gravity pulls the blood down and out.

...This is really apparent in salmon...but maybe not as much in rockfish.

That's what I used to think, but now I'm convinced it makes a big difference for everything, including rockfish. Since my older kid is allergic to seafood, we give a lot of fish away, and some of those recipients have commented on the great quality of the fish since I've started cleaning and icing them right away...

Like NowhereMan said, gutting and gilling as soon as possible helps also...the quicker all that junk is away from the meat the better...

Here’s a little (kinda obvious but may help someone) trick I use to get all the guts out of a Halibut...

Just slice a semi circle up from their butt and pull out all the junk...can leave roe in its little slots to eat later if want but the little gut pouch is all right there and easily comes out...the filets won’t be affected at all, and the head and collars will be fine for whatever recipe you choose to go with...I usually do it on their white belly side so the top side looks clean for pics 

 

Sincerely,

Jim

One of my friends states that he doesn't bleed fish because it seems like a lost in nutrients, and most times cannot discern any flavor difference anyways.

Just for the record I bleed all my fish as soon as I get them but I thought that this was an interesting point

The con of bleeding fish OTW...sharks can smell blood miles away 

I've got a pair of braid cutting scissors from Berkely, and they work really well for a quick snip on the gills once they're on the stringer.  they are on a retractable leash on my pfd and haven't had any rust issues ever vs every pair of pliers I've used.  if I took care of the pliers more I'm sure they would be great, but I don't have to take care of the braid scissors at all other than a quick rinse of water. also a very sharp knife on my pfd, but it isn't blunt nosed so I try not to use it very often.

I definitely agree on the bleeding and gutting as soon as practical, even for rockfish and others.

I did an experiment several years ago with small mackerel and sardines, bleed and gutted some immediately just like a mini tuna and left some whole, all on ice right after catching. Big difference in taste, bled fish tasted like something you would want to eat and the others tasted like bait.
Have done the same with rockfish and it does make a difference. Obviously keeping fish cold also make a huge difference.