Thread: Been running a experiment on freezing fish.

I much prefer to butcher live crappies. Dead ones go mushy so quickly. We also wash the finished fillet immediately in cold water, which sets the meat and allows us to get out the last of the blood. Ice water is perfect as was already mentioned. Those fillets stay firmer longer than if not washed and thoroughly cooled as soon as possible.

We have long used a fish basket hung back in the lake to keep the catch lively, but then we never used to have livewells, and generally still don't. I prefer the fabric net ones over the wireones for crappies and bluegills, but don't use them for channel cats, since the serrated catfish spines will inevitably catch in them, shortening fish life and being a real headache to unload. I haven't used a stringer for years and don't intend to ever put a fish on one again.

No question in my mind that the vacuum sealer is the way to go. Here in Minnesota the limit for both possession and daily is ten and that includes frozen fillets as in possession; five fish or 10 fillets works well, but I normally use quart bags and that means fewer fish per bag if they are true slabs. Be sure to label the bags with date and number, too, since they keep a real long time when vacuumed.

There is less mess to clean out of the vacuum sealer if one at least stiffens the fillets on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper in the freezer. It only takes a little while and the quality of the fillets does not suffer at all, unless you forget them there. You also get the flattest possible finished bag which is then easier to store and keep track of in the freezer.

After I clean em I rinse them good then soak em in salt water for about 20 minutes then Take em out of the salt water and freez em. works great for me and they last for months in the freezer.My dad has done it this way way before I came along too so its not something new.

I also use a vacuum sealer. I lay the fillets out on a towel and roll it up tight to remove the water. No mess in the sealer .

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

sound like a great idea, dose it change tasty and do you then put in water or just a bag.

All the answers are good, but I'll share a secret that an old friend (since deceased) gave me many years ago. Mr Lenord was a commerical fisherman all his life and probably tried every possible way to preserve fish. He said it was very important to keep the fish cold from water to freezer and after you have washed your fillets and placed in the freezer bag add just enough lemon juice to cloud the water. This keeps the fillets fresh and firm until you cook them. I have done this for all my frozen fish both salt water and fresh and it works great. Try a bag and see for yourself.

I've always froze them in baggies, in water, but always added a little salt. I can't say I'd ever noticed any mushy fillets though. I do have a Food Saver, and plan to try the dry method.

I recently stumbled across this method on youtube... seems interesting.

The Best Way To Freeze Fresh Fish Fillets - YouTube

Originally Posted by NeonMoon

I've always froze them in baggies, in water, but always added a little salt. I can't say I'd ever noticed any mushy fillets though. I do have a Food Saver, and plan to try the dry method.

You will like the outcome. We have never gone back once we tried the Food Saver.

I also definitely agree with the previous post about cold water washing. We fillet directly into cold water to remove "body heat" which builds up in a pile of fillets that are not immediately cooled. That really is the same process that vegetable harvest uses to remove the "field heat" in produce, which you either do or you get immediate deterioration in vegetables, too. That in my mind is the most common cause of mushy preserved fillets. When all fillets are taken we then wash them good in cold water. They are then ready for either immediate cooking or freezing. We have never felt the need to add salt or anything else when freezing either, and we don't have a lump that either has to be thawed out completely or that you have to pry fillets off before cooking.

For convenience sake to get the flattest packages we then firm them up in flat layers on a cookie sheet over wax paper in the freezer before we pack them into the Food Saver bags. That also reduces the juice in fresh fillets that can cause a mess in the Food Saver itself. You end up with fillets protected from freezer burn for easily over a year, well sealed in a heavier bag than regular freezer bags, and a much more convenient form for packing either at home or for transporting. And you don't have to carry all the extra water with you either.

You can either use all of a package or open one for a part of its contents and then reseal a portion right back into the package and return it to the freezer with no deterioration of the remnant, thawing only what you will then immediately cook.

We have been doing this pair of techniques for years now and have yet to find any mushy or freezer burned fillet once you get a good suck and a good seal in place at the beginning. You simply write the date taken and the contents on the top margin with a magic marker or laundry pen.

Additionally if you get stopped by a warden on the road he can easily and quickly count your take and you get back on the road a whole lot quicker and with less messing around at the stop. Both you and the warden come away with better moods...

FWIW our experience is that wardens are much more likely to stop vehicles with out of state plates; so if you are transporting from an out of state fishing trip or are fishing out of state, it pays to be aware that you are more likely to get stopped and searched than local fishermen are, unless they are specifically targeting some local that they suspect of breaking limits regularly. Up here the limits are small, we get ten crappies total and twenty sunfish total; daily and possession limits are the same here and count together. Those are also the most common poaching arrests. So eat up or restrict your take. There is also a trick question involved: shore lunch. The fish you eat there technically count against your daily possession limit in a lot of places, including here in Minnesota; so be careful how you answer that question, if they ask you. American fishermen in Canada and on our walleye waters get tripped up by that one every once in a while. In Minnesota you can generally beat that in court, but not in Canada, especially if you are an American fishing across the border, but even if you do beat it, you will need to make the court appearance which is generally not something you planned for in your itinerary, and you do not want that on your Canadian record, if you plan to go back and fish there again.

All in all putting the two parts together at the beginning, the rapid cooling at butcher and the Food Saver flat packaging, does an excellent job of preserving the quality in fillets and let you manage the possession limits you take and keep frozen a whole lot easier than any other method we have used over the decades. Just be sure to label the packages with content and date taken, allowing a first in first out sort of "inventory" management.