Quote Originally Posted by NIMROD View Post
Keeping them cold from start (catchin) to finish (freeze'n) could help . I always try to put fillets in ice water when cleaning. Then after rinsing , place in ziplock, add a little ice water , squeeze out air and most of water with out crushing fillets, then freeze as usual. I never have any complaints.
Some folks keep Crappie on ice too long or let die in livewells and they will turn mushy fast.
The most important first step is just what is said above. Clean your fish as soon as possible and keep them alive and active right up to that point. Then we fillet directly into cold water - that sets and stabilizes the meat as well as cooling it down - then wash them to get out any remaining blood. If you fillet fish that have been dead too long, you will almost certainly get mushy meat and you can feel it when you do the filleting. On ice is not anywhere near as good as butchering live fish. If you do not cool the meat immediately it will actually heat up warm enough to feel and then you also get unnecessary deterioration. The best next step though is the vacuum sealer. Those bags are heavier - lighter bags breathe too much - and there is nothing surrounding the fillets in vacuum bags to burn in the freezer either. Just be sure they are dried as carefully as possible or you will be sucking juice with your sealer and that may interfer with the seal. A quick freeze flat like on a layer of wax paper on a cookie sheet and then vacuum sealing works real well for us. They don't have to be frozen hard, just enough so there is no loose juice to get sucked into the sealer.