After you catch?

[limitlypps]

who's got time to bleed when they are jumping in the boat and you have 10 lines to tend to?
I do it salmon fishing but walleyes?....maybe but never have the time to while resetting lines, baiting hooks, getting fish out of nets,washing down boat for flies, servings beers etc... get my point? lol just too damned busy.

I'm in production mode and its up to others to do that stuff.

[wakina]

I bleed all walleyes that come on my boat! I put them in the live well and cut their throat at the base of their gills. I even do it if I have minnows in the tank for perching later in the day. I use a stand pipe that has a screen on top and turn on the pump and let it run all day, once full to the top of the stand pipe the water goes out the stand pipe back to the lake. The fish remain in the live well for about 10 min before removing to the cooler. The minnows are no worse than before as the water changes out very quickly.

[Capt Juls]

who's got time to bleed when they are jumping in the boat and you have 10 lines to tend to?
I do it salmon fishing but walleyes?....maybe but never have the time to while resetting lines, baiting hooks, getting fish out of nets,washing down boat for flies, servings beers etc... get my point? lol just too damned busy.

I'm in production mode and its up to others to do that stuff.

You can do it once you have your limit, or you can let one of the guys that are just standing around drinking beer do it while you're too busy.

[j-mar]

Thanks for all the tips, gonna try it.

[Madd Matt]

Some of the best guys in here cut their walleye, and some don't. I have no problem with admitting that they are much "whiter" when they are cleaned.

My question is if there is a difference in taste? I am not sure that I want to come up with a system while I am running 16 lines, and bags out each side, 7 other guys on the boat...

Secondly, I don't notice much of an issue while cleaning fish? Everyone talks about how much of a mess it prevents... Seems to me that its a potential mess in the boat (although some of you have system that keep it all in the Lake). When we clean fish though, we clean them, and hose down the table. It takes less than a minute to clean the entire table. I am sure that even if I bleed them out I would still have to hose down and wash the table...

So for me, it definitely doesn't change my clean-up time, it adds to something else to do and worry about while fishing. I know the fish is white when bled out... But I don't want to do it just to change the color...

So, my question is, does it change the flavor of the fish? Is the flavor change worth it?

-Matt

[faithwalker]

Easier than cutting them, just use a pair of pliers and yank a gill, they bleed out in no time. Although it can squirt a bit, saturday the boat looked like a murder scene from one of them!

absolutely but make sure you do it with fish in live well..they bleed all over.....big time...

[wakina]

Some of the best guys in here cut their walleye, and some don't. I have no problem with admitting that they are much "whiter" when they are cleaned.

My question is if there is a difference in taste? I am not sure that I want to come up with a system while I am running 16 lines, and bags out each side, 7 other guys on the boat...

Secondly, I don't notice much of an issue while cleaning fish? Everyone talks about how much of a mess it prevents... Seems to me that its a potential mess in the boat (although some of you have system that keep it all in the Lake). When we clean fish though, we clean them, and hose down the table. It takes less than a minute to clean the entire table. I am sure that even if I bleed them out I would still have to hose down and wash the table...

So for me, it definitely doesn't change my clean-up time, it adds to something else to do and worry about while fishing. I know the fish is white when bled out... But I don't want to do it just to change the color...

So, my question is, does it change the flavor of the fish? Is the flavor change worth it?

-Matt

I think it definitely changes the quality of the meat, like you said the meat is much whiter and that means there is much less blood in the fillet. That in turn means no soaking to remove the blood and no chance for the blood to turn rancid even while on ice in the boat. Not only does it remove the blood it also allows the fish to cool quicker once on ice. Now with that said lets take the example to the extreme, would you rather eat a chicken that had been sufficated to death and left to lay for an hour or two on ice or one that had been cleanly killed by chopping of its head and allowed to bleed out and then thrown on ice for an hour or two. I realize that neither one of the two extreme examples is very appetizing but one is definitely better than the other.

[Eyezcrazy]

I was thinking the same thing about venison, you don't want the meat to lay soaked in blood as it makes for a stronger taste. We feel the fish is milder tasting when we bleed them. We also take the time to thinly shave the outer layer where the dark side is just before we prepare to cook them, and it also make a huge difference to the taste.

It doesn't really take much time to cut them so it's not a time concern for me.

[limitlypps]

You can do it once you have your limit, or you can let one of the guys that are just standing around drinking beer do it while you're too busy.

you are correct in bleeding, I don't utilize a live well so its into the messy 5ft cooler it goes. Having a live well does have its merits.
Had a bud out near Hen yesterday almost hit a tree in the water, unfortunately I dodged one and hit another going out there, really sucks ,turned back, have to see if props took a hit today.

what also sucks is I caught almost all my eyes on just one color blade and bead combo and it broke on a 29 in hog second last fish, I unfortunately had but just one of those blades in my 1000 blade mix. Just one of those really goofy days.....

[Shelly J]

No live well on the Shelly J.WE use a 5 gallon bucket about half full of lake water,hold there head in bucket,snip there throat and leave them after a while or when someone has time throw on ice and change out water.Works good for us and taste better.