Thread: Cleaning Fish (crappie)

I keep them on ice for two days, lots of times. Normally wait til the next day.

I would clean the next day. I'll venture to guess that with all the guts/intestines intact, this could impart some bad voodoo to the taste of the meat IMO

I will go against the grain here...every other week, I have 5 or 6 days off and will start catching fish on day 1 or 2 and not clean them until my last day off...NEVER had a problem, never been sick from them, other than may fresh fish, you cannot tell the difference!

They stay completely covered with ice the whole time...I do make sure of that!

Originally Posted by bassadict69

I will go against the grain here...every other week, I have 5 or 6 days off and will start catching fish on day 1 or 2 and not clean them until my last day off...NEVER had a problem, never been sick from them, other than may fresh fish, you cannot tell the difference!

They stay completely covered with ice the whole time...I do make sure of that!

I make sure I got some water in there also.........

Clean em when I get home that day, got to cause I'm gonna catch some more tomorrow if I wake up.

Hmmmmm..... my wife normally cleans um up nice, as soon as we get home

Originally Posted by Sack531

Hmmmmm..... my wife normally cleans um up nice, as soon as we get home

now that's a keeper for sure!

I usually clean mine as soon as I get the boat backed into the garage. Might want some of them for SUPPER!!!!! Just the way I do it.

From experience in restaurants fish if properly handled when caught can go 7 to 14 days on ice with no problem. Fresh water fish max 7 days and salt water fish max 14 days. The fish must be immediately caught, gutted, rinsed inside and out. Then packed in ice with ice layered between each fish. The ice chest drain plug must be left open. So no water is allowed to accumulate in the bottom of the chest. Every 12 hours the fish must be re-iced on top. Every 3rd day transfer the fish to another ice chest to ensure ice is layered between fish. When used the fish are filet then immediately cooked. I learned this from a French Master Chef. As long as water and air is kept from the flesh it will prolong the spoiling process. You can also filet fresh caught fish and wrap each filet individually in plastic and layer in ice with the same process. It will only hold for half the time. 4 days for fresh water fish and 7 days for salt water fish. Fish iced and kept dry is at a temperature of 32 degrees but is not frozen.

I do things different than most of you. When I get home I put my fish in a 5 gal bucket and cover with water and put in refrig in shop. Have waited as long as 3 days to clean with no problems. Usually I try to clean the next day but don't always make it.