Fish Care 101: 6 Tips for the Freshest Fish at Home

While catch-and-release fishing is widely popular, most anglers still relish the opportunity to cook up fresh fish they’ve brought home. But what they do with those fish, once in the boat, makes an enormous difference in flavor and firmness of fillets on the plate. Simply unhooking fish and throwing fish into a fish box or cooler with no ice, to flop around and slowly die, guarantees minimal quality and often an unpalatably strong flavor.

Taking care of fish properly isn’t difficult and the rewards are high. Here are five easy ways to ensure those fish dinners you have at home are just as good as you imagined they’d be.

1. Getting Your Fish On Board

You may think fish care starts at home, but it starts as soon as the fish hits the deck. More specifically, how you get the fish on the deck can have a big impact on the quality of the meat. Since fish are living animals, the way they are treated can affect the meat in the long run. Gaffing a fish is a classic way to get a fish onboard, and AFTCO has been making gaffs for many many years. If you are interested in this method, consider reading our How to Gaff A Fish blog.

However, we also recommend two other options. The reason we recommend these options is when you gaff fish, although the easiest and most common way, it creates a large hole in the meat of the fish. This introduces bacteria quickly into the meat, which can cause it to spoil. Gaffing a fish also stresses the fish out, which can cause it to secrete stress hormones through the meat, making it less firm and more likely to spoil. For these reasons, we recommend using a landing net or grabbing the fish with your hands.

These are not always options, which is why gaffs are needed. However, a landing net can cradle a fish making it difficult for it to escape and not stressing it out as much. Grabbing by hand is the best method, but if done incorrectly, it can be dangerous and give the fish a chance to escape. Having a good pair of gloves to grab fish is highly recommended and AFTCO’s Utility Gloves and AFTCO’s Release Gloves are great options to get a good grip of a fishes tail or the gills to bring the fish on board.

2. Killing Your Fish

Whatever your preferred method of killing fish you intend to eat is, do it immediately after pulling them into the boat. There are two great reasons for this: First, it’s the humane thing to do. Just tossing them into a fish box to slowly suffocate and desiccate is unnecessarily brutal. Also, such stress can degrade the quality of the flesh. Second, for the next step — bleeding — you need to deal with an inert fish, not one flopping around wildly.

The most common method of dispatching a fish is with a fish bat or other long, heavy object for the purpose of administering a solid whack or two on top of the head. That’s typically enough to stun the fish. If stunning fish is your preferred method, keep a fish billy within arm’s reach of the cockpit.

Less widely used but arguably preferable is the method called ike jime. This method, of Japanese origin, this is the quickest and most humane method, and is proven to keep the fish’s flesh in the best condition.

The angler pushes a knife with a stiff blade, a sharp Phillips screwdriver, or a special ike jime tool into the fish just above and behind its eye, then wiggles it around. If placed properly, the tool penetrates the fish’s brain, killing it immediately, and the fish will go limp. Check out the complete guide to Ike Jime.

3. Bleeding Your Fish

The easiest way to guarantee high-quality fillets is to simply bleed any fish you catch right away. Failing to do so is the surest way to produce fillets that are darker in color and have a strong, "fishy" flavor. Blood is a conduit for rapid bacterial spoilage of the flesh. Get rid of the blood immediately, and fillets will stay lighter in color and milder in flavor.

Ryan Griffin making the cut.

Some anglers bleed fish by making a deep vertical cut just behind the gills. However, for most fish, an easier and more effective approach is to slice through the narrow area at the throat, between the gills. This severs the vein that runs from the heart to the gills, and blood should start pumping out immediately. It is best to do this with the fish in water—over the side of the boat or in a fish well or bucket—since the fish will bleed out much faster than in the air (while also keeping blood from spraying into the boat).

4. Cooling Your Fish

As soon as your fish is killed and bled, the next critical step is to cool it down immediately. "Ice is key," says Robby Gant, AFTCO's tackle brand manager. "The more the merrier: We try to bring a pound of ice per pound of fish we think we'll want to keep," he says. If you'll be boating large fish, such as tuna, invest in a quality kill bag if your boat doesn't have an insulated fish locker of sufficient size. Gant points out that a cheap kill bag won't keep your ice solid for long.

Whatever you put your fish into, if you're fishing in coastal waters, add saltwater to the ice. Saltwater freezes several degrees colder than freshwater. "The saltwater along with the ice makes an unbelievably cold slurry to surround your fish and give you the best product," Gant says.

Prime tuna specimen enjoying a post mortem ice bath. Photo: Ryan Griffin

5. Freezing Your Fish

At home, if you have enough fish to freeze, remember that air is your enemy. Air that is sealed in with fillets will cause freezer burn and promote deterioration fairly quickly. A vacuum sealer will keep fillets without air, and they can be fine to eat even a year later. If you don't have a vacuum sealer, Gant suggests you approximate its function by using heavy Ziploc or similar plastic bags. Put a serving or two in a bag, then, without zipping it completely closed, force it down into a bowl or bucket of water while keeping the corner of the top with the opening just above the surface. This will force the air inside the bag up and out. Then zip it up when all the air is out. "Done correctly," Gant says, "once you pull the bag out of the water, the plastic should have formed tightly around the fillets."

Again, a vacuum sealer is the best option, but this method should give you at least two or three months of good fish. To store fish in the freezer, lay them horizontally to keep the fish or fillets straight. Freeze one bag at a time until it is frozen solid, and then you can stack them on top of each other. Learn more about Vacuum sealers in our "9 Secrets to Vacuum Sealing Fish".

6. Use A Good Fillet Knife

A high-quality, purpose-designed fillet knife means better, cleaner fillets and offers both convenience and safety. “I prefer razor-sharp German stainless steel,” says Capt. Andy Mezirow, who operates Gray Light Sportfishing out of Seward, Alaska. A fillet knife less than razor sharp leads to ragged fillets, wasted meat and too often cut fingers. The skipper cites AFTCO’s fillet knives as the best he’s used in his long career. Some of the attributes that make these knives so effective include: Böker German stainless steel blades with corrosion resistance and a non-slip handle designed for optimal anatomic and ergonomic grip.

Mezirow uses the 10-inch AFTCO knife for most of his fillet work, particularly salmon. But he’ll use the 8-inch when filleting smaller, thick-skinned and heavy-boned bottomfish, and the 12-inch for halibut or large tuna. For anglers who fillet fish less often, he points out that shorter blades are easier to control.

Mezirow adds, “I use a diamond steel to sharpen my knives during the season, then send them off to be professionally sharpened in the off-season.”