Bleeding your catch v2.0

Author: JayPenfold

Category: Technique & strategies

Created on Wednesday, 23 November 2011 21:51

Written by Jay 'Yakfisher' Penfold

Catch management when kayak fishing for me is an ongoing saga. The latest detail for me to get my head around has been the issue of blood pooling on one side of the fish as it lays in the kayak. I'm aiming for a nice clean bloodless fillet for superior table quality, even more so considering I eat much of my catch raw or cooked by other means than heat. As I come to expect much higher quality fillets for my dishes, I'm becoming acutely aware of how the handling of the fish affects the meal on the table. 

Today's field test of a new bleed technique was a stunning success. I tail roped a 2.3 kg GT after cutting the gills and throat latch and hung it from the RAM tube mounted portside near the Mirage Drive. When I filleted the fish I declared it to be the best bleed done so far of any fish I've ever bled. No blood left pooled on the underside fillet as if left in the footwell flat. I'm going to adopt this as a standard practice from now on with fish that can be tail roped, or even those that can't (like flathead) I figure I could use a crab pot bait pin or something similar to replicate the result by pushing it through the sinewy tail tissue, or make secondary cuts around the tail to allow some purchase for the cord. For larger fish, to stop them dragging in the water, I'm thinking of utilising the mast hole on the Revo, placing a 1.2 meter length of aluminium or stainless tubing in there to hang the fish from. This way even the 5kg jewies will get a decent bleed and stay out of the water, therefore not creating drag and slowing the sprint home down to get the catch cleaned into the fridge. The fish need only hang for 5 or ten minutes to do the job.

A few questions remain for me, should this simple use of a caribiner and 200kg nylon cord have a breakaway component like a zip tie in the most possible yet unlikely event that a curious shark might follow the blood trail to the kayak and attempt a free feed? Could this system be utilised offshore for pelagics like Tuna that require a very thorough bleed?