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Topic: Throw out frozen guts, don't throw out frozen fish  (Read 1668 times)

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pmmpete

  • Sturgeon
  • *******
  • Location: Missoula, Montana
  • Date Registered: Jul 2013
  • Posts: 1989
Here's a useful fishing tip: Freeze fish guts before you throw them out, but don't throw out your frozen fish with the guts.

Amik traveled from Idaho to Flathead Lake in Montana for a week of fishing.  I fished with him for two days.  One day he brought back about a dozen big lake whitefish, after throwing back a bunch of smaller ones.  He filleted and vacuum packed them in his campground.  I brought the vacuum packed fillets home, put them in a plastic bag, froze them, and made arrangements to deliver them to him when he drove through Missoula on his way home.

I brought my fish home and processed them.  Here's Useful Fishing Tip No. 1: after you process fish, bag the guts and whatnot and put them in your freezer until garbage pickup day, so you don't stink up your garage. The night before garbage day, I took the bags out of the freezer and tossed them in the garbage.

A couple of days later, I went to the freezer to get the bag with Amik's filleted and vacuum packed lake whitefish, and they weren't there.  Dang!  I threw them out with the guts!  So here's Useful Fishing Tip No. 2: When you throw out your frozen guts, don't throw out the fish with them.

I feel terrible about this mistake, and am going to ship Amik some frozen smoked lake trout.
« Last Edit: August 05, 2018, 08:10:56 PM by pmmpete »


YippieKaiyak

  • Lingcod
  • *****
  • Location: Hillsboro, OR
  • Date Registered: Feb 2017
  • Posts: 349
omg that's hilariously sad.  Thanks for sharing.  I know its a bummer but I got a chuckle out of it. 
Kayaking without wearing a PFD is like drunk driving.  You can get away with it for a while, but eventually someone dies.


INSAYN

  • ORC_Safety
  • Sturgeon
  • *
  • **RIP...Ron, Ro, AMB, Stephen**
  • Location: Forest Grove, OR
  • Date Registered: Aug 2008
  • Posts: 5411
I'm not entirely sure how you got guts and filets mixed up?

My filets are nicely packed flat and sealed in a vacuum sealed bag so I can tell what kind of fish it is.  If I have guts from fish to deal with, they are just tossed in a ziplock bag, and then put in grocery bag and tied off and labeled "Guts" on duct tape.  Very easy to not mix these up.

 

"If I was ever stranded on a beach with only hand lotion...You're the guy I'd want with me!"   Polyangler, 2/27/15


pmmpete

  • Sturgeon
  • *******
  • Location: Missoula, Montana
  • Date Registered: Jul 2013
  • Posts: 1989
Amik's fillets were nicely packed flat and sealed in vacuum sealed bags, labeled with the kind of fish and date of capture.  But I put the fillets in a plastic grocery bag in preparation for handing them over to Amik when he came through town on his way home.  So they looked similar to the plastic bags full of guts, and when I dumped all the bags in my garbage can, it didn't register that the grocery bag didn't contain a single block of frozen guts.
« Last Edit: August 07, 2018, 09:43:35 AM by pmmpete »


sumpNZ

  • Sturgeon
  • *******
  • Location: Sedro-Woolley, WA
  • Date Registered: Nov 2011
  • Posts: 2304
I find plastic grocery bags don't hold up well in the freezer.  It's cold enough (at least in mine when set to the lowest temperature) to hit the glass transition temperature for that plastic and the bags tend to break really easily if you're at all rough in handling them.
2012 ORC 5th Place



Amik

  • Herring
  • **
  • Location: idaho
  • Date Registered: May 2015
  • Posts: 40
No worries Pete. The memories of catching those fish will far out last the few meals that went to the landfill.


IslandHoppa

  • iHoppa
  • Sturgeon
  • *******
  • Location: Camas, WA
  • Date Registered: May 2011
  • Posts: 1914
We gut and fillet our fish at the ramp and feed the entrails and carcasses to the gulls and bottom feeders, no waste, no smell and no angry dumpster owners. What am I missing?
iHop

"Of all the things that wisdom provides to help one live one's entire life in happiness, the greatest by far is the possession of friendship." Epicurus

Hobie Tandem Island. OK Tetra 12, Jackson Coosa


pmmpete

  • Sturgeon
  • *******
  • Location: Missoula, Montana
  • Date Registered: Jul 2013
  • Posts: 1989
I prefer to gut and bleed fish as soon as I catch them, and then put them in a cooler on my kayak.  I think this improves the quality of the fish.  But even when I gut my fish on the water, I have to deal with the carcasses after I fillet the fish at home.  I bag the carcasses and other scraps and throw them in the freezer until garbage day.

Unfortunately there is only one fish cleaning station on all of Flathead Lake, and it's at Blue Bay, on the other side of the lake from Big Arm where we were fishing.  And it would be bad form to fillet fish on a boat ramp and leave the carcasses there for the bears and birds.

I know an angler who had a nasty habit of sneaking his bag of fresh fish guts into the garbage can at a gas station while filling up with gas on the way home, which probably created quite a stink bomb.  I think that's impolite, and prefer to freeze my guts at home until garbage day.


INSAYN

  • ORC_Safety
  • Sturgeon
  • *
  • **RIP...Ron, Ro, AMB, Stephen**
  • Location: Forest Grove, OR
  • Date Registered: Aug 2008
  • Posts: 5411
I prefer to gut and bleed fish as soon as I catch them, and then put them in a cooler on my kayak.  I think this improves the quality of the fish.  But even when I gut my fish on the water, I have to deal with the carcasses after I fillet the fish at home.  I bag the carcasses and other scraps and throw them in the freezer until garbage day.

Unfortunately there is only one fish cleaning station on all of Flathead Lake, and it's at Blue Bay, on the other side of the lake from Big Arm where we were fishing.  And it would be bad form to fillet fish on a boat ramp and leave the carcasses there for the bears and birds.

I know an angler who had a nasty habit of sneaking his bag of fresh fish guts into the garbage can at a gas station while filling up with gas on the way home, which probably created quite a stink bomb.  I think that's impolite, and prefer to freeze my guts at home until garbage day.

Is it illegal to put the carcasses back into the eco system out there?   If not, find a stream away from houses and give them a toss into area of the stream that will not be too visible from the bank.  Let all the water critters have a free meal.
 

"If I was ever stranded on a beach with only hand lotion...You're the guy I'd want with me!"   Polyangler, 2/27/15


Zach.Dennis

  • Salmon
  • ******
  • Location: Beaverton, OR
  • Date Registered: Aug 2015
  • Posts: 799

 find a stream away from houses and give them a toss into area of the stream that will not be too visible from the bank.  Let all the water critters have a free meal.

I need to do this.  My garbage smells terrible after each trip and my wife is pissed because the smell can linger into the house  :-\ >:D
2021 1st Place ORC
2023 1st Place ORC


C_Run

  • Sturgeon
  • *******
  • Location: Independence, OR
  • Date Registered: Apr 2011
  • Posts: 1214
This reminds me of the time I incinerated all my wife's posters from her classroom. She said she was "storing them" in the wastebasket. Ooops!


 

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