Ikijime upgrade

Nice resource. I just tried to brain a hali and completely missed. but I noticed that harder skull structure before it was filleted. those guidelines should help thanks.

I have never tried "braining", but will the fishes heart still pump all its blood out? I usually just keep scissors with me and cut the gills on both sides, and then gut and put on ice. However, I'm all for doing anything that will give me the best eating flesh.

I have never tried "braining", but will the fishes heart still pump all its blood out? I usually just keep scissors with me and cut the gills on both sides, and then gut and put on ice. However, I'm all for doing anything that will give me the best eating flesh.

Guess I should have checked out the web link first, it explained everything!! Awesome info. I will definitely be changing my method for securing great table fair!!!

i got this stabby stabby from a garage sale a while ago and wanted to use it for brain spiking. Just worried about rust, but also my ti tanto dive knife on my vest is easier to pull out and use for rockfish. Maybe ill bring the benchmade if I fish on boats.

If you are throwing the fish which you catch in the rear cargo area of your kayak to fester in the sun for hours, using a spike and a wire to perform iki jime steps on the fish is a waste of time.  I think that bleeding fish by cutting their gills and immediately putting them in ice in a good cooler will do more to protect the quality of the fish than spike and wire procedures.  With large fish, I also gut them so I can get ice in their body cavity.  A damp burlap bag doesn't keep fish nearly cool enough to preserve the quality of their meat.  I strap a hard sided cooler in the rear cargo area of my kayak to carry fish.  And because the ice in a cooler will tend to end up on the bottom of the cooler, under all of your fish, I put at least half of my ice in a mesh bag. After I dump a fish in my cooler, I pick up the mesh bag and plop it down on top of the fish.

To demonstrate the importance of bleeding fish, you can do an experiment.  Next time you go fishing, bleed half of the fish which you catch by cutting their gills or clipping the gills with shears, and let them bleed out on a stringer in the water for five minutes.  I think that you'll see that this simple step clearly improves the quality of the fishs' meat.

Copy that, as you may suspect, the fish bag and chill, burlap, or ice the cavity on board is a must.  Bleeding is a minimum meat quality step.  A “no brainer” so to speak and is certainly step 3 in the iiijime process.  If I were to step it out it would go...

1. Brain
2. Wire
3. Bleed
4. Gut
5. Pack cavity with chill bags or ice
6. Wet burlap in hatch or killbag on deck.

All actions are expedited with fish on game clip secured to kayak.

Trick for me is to get it done in 8 minutes flat before I throw up from head down type work that can trigger my swaying disease...

I am going to try this on trout first and work my way up to the more aggressive species.
My halibut yesterday got the fishing pliers (needle nose type) treatment.
I use my pliers to stab through head, remove hook, rip out gills.

I am going to try this on trout first and work my way up to the more aggressive species.
My halibut yesterday got the fishing pliers (needle nose type) treatment.
I use my pliers to stab through head, remove hook, rip out gills.

Boom!  If things go well I’ll get footage of a salmon attempt on da yak...

I did this last week with the trout I caught. I used a smaller aluminum carabiner attached to some rope and then to my kayak. I attached the trout (around 12" - 13") to the carabiner and then unhooked it. I used a wet towel to grip the fish, brained it, ran the wire, bled the gills, let it swim free for a minute or two while I set up for my next fish and then threw it in an ice slurry in a small Titan cooler until I got home. I gutted them all when I got home and filleted them all - including the two my father-in-law caught. The flesh was so much cleaner with the ones I ikejimed than the ones that he caught.

I felt a lot more comfortable attaching the fish to the clip and rope than doing it without. I think I'll be doing the same thing with any salmon I bring to the 'yak; I'll just have to use my larger kill bag with ice.

Fred "True" Trujillo

My kit showed up today.
Ordered it from Lumica. $27 shipped.
The instructions are clearly printed. 

My kit showed up today.
Ordered it from Lumica. $27 shipped.
The instructions are clearly printed. 

When you're doing it on the yak keep an eye on that wire.  The ocean loves to drink em'.  Stoked for you.

When you're doing it on the yak keep an eye on that wire.  The ocean loves to drink em'.  Stoked for you.

Nothing a bobber on the end won't cure.

When you're doing it on the yak keep an eye on that wire.  The ocean loves to drink em'.  Stoked for you.

Nothing a bobber on the end won't cure.

Pearls of wisdom. Too bad I didn't follow through.
Had the bobber in my tackle bag. Forgot to attach it.
Went through the head on a ling. Saw it quiver as I went down the spinal cord with the wire but wanted to go through the tail as well just to be sure.
Got the cord exposed, went to grab the wire....what wire?
Must have gone overboard.
Cleanest ling meat I have had. That thing is no joke.
Bummer part is now they are on pre-order.
No telling how long it will be before I get it replaced.

When you're doing it on the yak keep an eye on that wire.  The ocean loves to drink em'.  Stoked for you.

Nothing a bobber on the end won't cure.

Pearls of wisdom. Too bad I didn't follow through.
Had the bobber in my tackle bag. Forgot to attach it.
Went through the head on a ling. Saw it quiver as I went down the spinal cord with the wire but wanted to go through the tail as well just to be sure.
Got the cord exposed, went to grab the wire....what wire?
Must have gone overboard.
Cleanest ling meat I have had. That thing is no joke.
Bummer part is now they are on pre-order.
No telling how long it will be before I get it replaced.

Brah!  So sorry...you have the spike at least.  Try the ikijime federation website... I’ll try to find a link...