Catch Management

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Catch Management

Category: Equipment, rigging & preparation

Published on Friday, 20 May 2011 07:43

Written by Jay Penfold

It's one challenge to catch your keep, yet another to keep your catch. Be it the humble Flathead or a hard won Yellowfin Tuna, dispatching the catch and caring for it are more or less the same. Fresh fish has to be handled carefully and quickly to maintain optimum table quality and food safety.

When a fish is hooked, fought and boated, the central nervous system releases endorphines, adrenaline type substances that affect the flavour of the final fillet. Step one is to land your fish and dispatch it carefully and quickly. The less time the fish is alive out of water panicking the less chemical activity that may spoil the quality of the fish.

A more serious issue is temperature. The absolute ideal, according to the Department of Primary Industries, is to store a fish, freshly caught, bled and gutted, sealed in plastic to avoid contamination and laid in a slurry of salt water and ice, as soon as is possible.

For the kayak angler, this may not be as easy as it sounds, especially without a sizeable esky on board or ice. The important thing to do is keep your catch as cold as possible and remove the gut as soon as is practical without putting yourself in danger from conditions, critters or the sharpness of your knife in a heaving sea. How you store your catch depends much on the environment you fish. An ice box filled with ice and salt water may suit the estuary angler, but is no proposition for an offshore situation. Personal choice could see a simple wet hessian sack or old towel wetted repeatedly and covering fish in the rear well to keep a fish cool all day. There are insulated deck bags, thermal bags, Supermarket freezer bags, tackle management bags with catch liners, bags for all seasons, occasions and all sized fish. Many AI owners simply place a large fish on the trampoline to be cooled by the wet ride home.

Even though you may have killed and bled your catch, the flora in the stomach, skin and gills at ambient air temperature will live for some time. The quick removal of the intestinal tract will help to stop this decay in it's tracks

All fish benefit from being bled, particularly oily fish like tailor, trevalley mackerel and tuna. The most effective way to bleed a fish is to cut out or through both gills. If this is done before clubbing or brain spiking (Ike Jima), the fish's beating heart helps the process along. If the weather is warm, blood clots much faster and the table will not be as good. If possible, bleed the fish in cool water, over the side of the yak. I now bleed all of my catch as a matter of practise. It also cuts down the number of escapees.

According to the Department of Primary Industries of Northern Territory:

"Gutting of your catch should be done with the utmost care. Whatever you do, remove the entire intestinal tract complete: do not rupture or puncture. This will prevent the micro -organisms that live within the gut to contaminate the flesh.

At high temperatures, fish will pass through rigor mortis rapidly. The muscle contractions will be violent and cause the muscle blocks to "gape" or fall apart when filleted, and loss of natural juices will result. This will be evident by severe drip loss when frozen fillets are thawed. If fish are well iced, rigor mortis will be gradual, resulting in better quality. Never straighten a fish that has been bent during rigor mortis because this will simply tear the flesh apart. Allow the fish to relax by allowing it to come up to room temperature before attempting to straighten."