Pacific City hook-up this weekend

Great job Isaac! Your video's are getting better every time. Are you bleeding your fish? In the video it looks like your just putting them straight on the clip alive. How does the meat taste? How about anyone else.....Do you bleed your rockfish or not? Eitherway, GREAT JOB!!!!! It sounds like I missed an epic day.

I always bleed my rock fish before they go on the stringer and after I fillet them I wrap them in paper towel to draw out any more blood that may still be in the fillets.

I always bleed my rock fish before they go on the stringer...

But did you sever the head and tail, then thread a darning needle through the spine first? 


(sorry, I'm just jealous that I was not there)

Great job Isaac! Your video's are getting better every time. Are you bleeding your fish? In the video it looks like your just putting them straight on the clip alive. How does the meat taste? How about anyone else.....Do you bleed your rockfish or not? Eitherway, GREAT JOB!!!!! It sounds like I missed an epic day.

I am a little paranoid about bleeding the fish and still fishing more. Something about struggling fish and blood in the water feels a little inviting to company you might not want.
So I bonk, put on the stringer, and bleed when i am headn in and a little closer to shore. So far the fish have tasted great.

An easy process to alleviate your worries about attracting the landlord, bleeding your fish, AND keeping them nice and cool:

1) Catch fish.
2) Wood Shampoo(I didn't say take out your anger on them  , just enough to make 'em wiggle a little and shut 'em up).
3) Locate catch bag you brought with you.  This can be made of simply an old, large, dry bag or a nice catch cooler like Seattle Sports makes.  It should have some kind of freeze packs in it.  The blue ones that have the gel in them or water bottles with frozen water... doesn't matter.
4) As you are putting your fish in the catch bag, cut the gillets on both sides of the fish and make a cut at the tail if you feel like it. This way the fish can bleed out while in the bag.
5) Repeat.

This is the process I and plenty others on this site use.  It's simple to do and when I get to the fillet table my fish are always nice and cold and the meat turns out great.

DO NOT DRAG FISH IN THE OCEAN!!

(I'm not trying to say that someone was doing that on this trip, I just like to throw that in there whenever I can.   )

I don't think White Sharks hunt fish based on their blood trails. 

Scupper holes are there to let the blood drain out of my burlap bag. 

Like the man says "Ya pays ya money, ya takes ya chances"

-Spot-

I bleed my fish in the Ocean .... not worried about the landlord, but if I see a bunch of fur bags around i usually will throw the fish in the back of the yak. Get them good and deep chilled when I can. This will get the fish to go into rigor. When it comes out of rigor it is time to fillet. May take 4 hours may take 36... 

Rawkfish hit the nail on the head.  Anything short of this is inviting a potential visit from something higher up the food chain .  I've had Stellers right up in my wheelhouse that I know would have taken my stringer if it was hanging for sure, maybe even just sitting in the tank well.

Only thing extra I do is before I head in I dump my days catch out onto the deck of the yak and rinse the dry bag out (it will have lots of blood in it) then use the dry bag like a makeshift bucket and rinse the fish and the deck clean of any extra blood (usually takes less then a minute to do this).  Toss the clean fish into the clean dry bag  and paddle safely away from the chum slick and back to the beach.  As for ice I'm cheap, I fill food saver bags (I use the large rolls so I can customize length)  1/2 full of water.  suck some of the air out then seal and freeze laying flat.  They have a lot of surface area that helps cool the fish though contact. I just toss them back in the bait freezer at the end of the day. Usually get 4-5 trips before rockfish spines make them too leaky.

I don't think White Sharks hunt fish based on their blood trails. 

I once did a cage dive at the Farallons.  The boat said they specifically didn't use fish blood chum because whitey is keyed in on seals and sea lions and the fish blood never worked.  Not sure if it's the same up there in OR.  Instead they use seal silhouettes, you know, kind of like your kayak looks like!!! 

-Allen

I don't think White Sharks hunt fish based on their blood trails. 

Scupper holes are there to let the blood drain out of my burlap bag. 

Like the man says "Ya pays ya money, ya takes ya chances"

-Spot-

There will usually be a blood trail following me around, I don't hang fish in the water though, Mine go in the burlap and in the crate. I dip the sack in the water each time i put a gill cut and bleeding fish in there. Burlap has great cooling properties even when it's pretty warm out and for some reason if you air them out a bit they don't get veryl stinky.

+1 on the burlap. A bucket of warm soapy water helps loosen the blood clots and the upchucked bait. Keeps the sun from baking your catch. Get two bags cuz they're cheap and rotate 'em.

I tend to leave the bleeding till i'm back at the cooler.  no matter the case, we kayakers are only slightly higher on the food chain than surfers, and that's not saying much.

I think getting fish cold is more important, and still haven't quite figured out exactly how i prefer to do that.  a cooler of salt ice is definitely the best way to go....

I tend to leave the bleeding till i'm back at the cooler.  no matter the case, we kayakers are only slightly higher on the food chain than surfers, and that's not saying much.

I think getting fish cold is more important, and still haven't quite figured out exactly how i prefer to do that.  a cooler of salt ice is definitely the best way to go....

Can you get them to bleed out much after they've been dead for a while?

TTM - I have a couple cabs in the fridge that need to be cut tonight. I will try and get some pics for you.   

Cool.  But do a video! 

Great job guys.  I'm totally in the next time the weather report is lookin this good.

I switched from stringer/burlap, to big dry bag, two large frozen Gatorade bottles and a Weewee pad for puppy training. 
I bonk and bleed the same as Rawkfish does, as his fish always looked better than mine at the fillet table.  The Weewee pad works great to suck up the blood at the bottom of the bag while still out on the water.