Thread: Blood on fillets

I put my crappie catch on ice for a day making sure to drain the water off as the ice melts. After a day on a bed of ice cleaning is bloodless.

Find it quicker to take a pair of needlenose plyers grab ahold of few gills and give them a twist get the blood flowing in a hurry!

Usually do not have trouble with blood on crappie fillets. Try when making your first cut behind the gill plate flap and the pectoral fin do not go so deep so that it draws blood. If you don't go deep the fillet should be bloodless. I have heard of some fishermen that cut the tail of the crappie so that they bleed out quickly, but I only do that with catfish. (hanging the fish tail down so that it bleeds out through the tail) When filleting crappie, I do not cut through the rib cage, that could be a reason the fillets have little or no blood in or on them. I just work down the spine and the rib cage and toward the tail to finish.
Husker

If you really want your fish to have the best flavor here's what u do: in your ice chest add a lot of ice, add some water to make a slush and add a lot of salt.. This brings the water temp down around 32, then put the fish in as you catch them. What this does is sets up hypothermia in the live fish and the blood leaves the meat and goes into its organs. This method is how they do for tuna that is going to be sushi . Been doing this for years and it really makes a diff, in how the fish tastes... Try it and pass it on.

Drop fillets straight in cold water and blood rinses off easy. I don't want mine sitting getting hot while I'm filleting the rest.

What I do is when fileting my fish is when I take the meat off the fish I put them in a tub of water until I have all the fish done then get another tub of clean water and cut the the ribs off and put them in the clean water. The reason I do all this is cause it help to cool the meat down, keeps the blood off the meat and also keeps the flies and bees off as everyone know how bad they are at the leaning stations. My filets are the cleanest I have ever seen and taste very good too. As a hunter too, you always have to cool the meat down as fast as possible. Give this method a try and see what you think.

If you go by my previous method there won't be any blood in meat when u filet it. I have been told by a meat packer that you don't want to soak meat of any kind(fish or game) in water that it lessons the flavor of it.

Originally Posted by Pgwilliamson

If you go by my previous method there won't be any blood in meat when u filet it. I have been told by a meat packer that you don't want to soak meat of any kind(fish or game) in water that it lessons the flavor of it.

Well, I hope that's not true because when I freeze my fish fillets I Freeze them in water so they don't get freezer burn...I haven't noticed I difference in taste though but they also don't last long in my freezer.