# To Bleed Or Not To Bleed?



## mattayogi (Feb 11, 2007)

Was chatting with Gunston this afternoon and somehow the topic of sharks and the need to bleed your catch came up.

I must say that I've found this a difficult thing to shark-proof and have adopted the basic method of slitting the fish's throat over the side and high-tailing it outta there quicksmart. Have also considered the idea of a large waterproof bag to butcher and stow my catch in.

What do you guys do? I've even heard that it may not always be necessary to bleed all pelagics.

Matt


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## RedPhoenix (Jun 13, 2006)

Unfortunately, due to the change in ownership of this web site and the lack of response by the owners to my requests to remove my email address from all administrative-level notifications and functionality, I have decided to remove my posts on AKFF. Thank you for the great times, the fantastic learning experiences and the many many fish. If you are desperate for the old content of this particular post, it is available below base64 encoded and bzip2 compressed.

Red.

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## Breambo (Apr 19, 2006)

I usually crack the fishes neck over the side, bigger fish I may cut. The vibrations of a distressed attract sharks more than a little bit of blood, so its probably best to dispatch the fish as quickly as possible, breaking its neck does this and bleeds at the same time.
I reckon if you start getting scared of sharks that attracts them. Everytime I start to freak about sharks I usually see one. If I remain calm I dont.


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## mattayogi (Feb 11, 2007)

Know what you mean about the fear thing, Breambo. I was out off Narrowneck at dawn earlier this year and was packing death thinking about sharks while rigging up and waiting for my friend to paddle out. I heard a noise and looked up and there only about 20ft away was a shark, just hovering in the water - I think looking at me. I did everything you're not s'posed to do like paddle off at a million miles an hour making as much noise as possible :? , a real patsie.

Matt


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## Dodge (Oct 12, 2005)

mattayogi said:


> I heard a noise and looked up and there only about 20ft away was a shark, just hovering in the water - I think looking at me.


Matt the noise you heard, was it by any chance the theme music from "Jaws" :lol:

Like Breambo I'm a head snapper and get a quick gush of blood then a quick rinse in the water and its over pronto rather than an extended trickle of gore


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## ManjiMike (Jan 24, 2007)

When I go spearfishing I anchor my flag/float. On the float I have made a big s/s safety pin and as soon as I spear a fish I swim to the float, hook the fish thru the gills onto the pin, remove the spear, break the fishes neck and then swim up current.
I agree with Breambo - the panic signals from the fish are transmitted thru the water almost instantly, whereas the blood will only travel at the speed of the current.
I used to swim and spear amongst sharks at Cocos Is all the time without any problems, because I would swim with the speared fish held out of the water as I made my way back to the dinghy,

Cheers Mike


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## DGax65 (Jun 7, 2006)

I think it's best to bleed oily fish right away. This maintains the quality of the meat. Ideally you would cut or pull out the gills and let it bleed out rapidly. After I pull the gills, I hold the fish up by the tail to make them bleed out as quickly as possible. After they bleed out, I'll give them a quick dunk in the water to clean them up and then put them in the fish bag. I try to paddle at least a hundred yards away from the spot where I bleed a fish. 
If the fish is flopping around on the kayak, I'll spike it to keep it from making too much noise. I've heard that spiking the fish will cause it's heart to stop and it won't bleed out as effectively. I don't know if that is true, as fish are fairly primitive and the heart might not stop pumping immediately. I've never heard it from underwater, but I can only imagine that a hollow kayak hull makes a very effective amplifier for transmitting sounds into the water. I actually got kind of worried once when I had a yellow tail thumping and bleeding on the deck. It was making so much noise, I was sure that every shark within ten miles was heading my way. :shock:


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## Billybob (Aug 29, 2005)

The only fish I bleed is tailor.

In my experience, bleeding makes little difference to the quality of the fillets, and in the case of spanish mackerel, dries out the flesh.

I've had this confirmed by pro fishermen over the years.

Un-bled fish like snapper, tuna and mackerel just have a more defined blood line. I 'head wrap' my fish in a damp towel as soon as I get them on board and it tends to shut them down pretty quickly.

The only benefit I know of to bleeding fish is that the fillets apparently last longer in the freezer. As I don't freeze my fish it's not an issue for me.


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## Astro (Nov 27, 2006)

i have a "kill towel" that i use to bleed the fish into so that the blood is contained and does not enter the water...

btw has anyone used bloodlines as bait??? try it
it was very successful when i ran out of bait, don't bait fish very much at all and if i do it's live bait only.....


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## Phoenix (Jan 12, 2006)

I use a sharpened screwdriver which I stab the brains of the fish, and then head-wrap in a dam towel to minimize the amount of blood entering the water.

The affects of this are;
* much less cruel, as it is an instant kill
* Slows the metabolism right down and hence will slow the rate of decomposition


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## keza (Mar 6, 2007)

I don't bleed my kingfish but i might bleed a sambos and bonito.
For me the main thing is to kill the fish fast, the longer you leave them to stress the more lactic acid goes into the flesh and the stiffer they go.
I have ice packs in a soft eski, i kill the fish as quick as i can, throw it on ice and usually when i get in the fish are still soft and bendy. On occassions if my killing wasn't as successful i find the fish has gone hard.
If i bleed i would just let them bleed in the eski.

A few years ago i was at southwest rocks and had caught several bonito, i had bled them and the yak had blood all over it, i saw a boat working a school of fish and paddle about a k out to them, when i got there the guys said they were leaving because a large great white had just arrived on the scene. :shock: 
I looked at all the blood on my yak, turned around and tried whistling a happy turn all the way back.
I now keep a clean yak.

I usually knock my fish on the head, do you think an unsharpened cross head screw driver would do the job better ?


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## wopfish (Dec 4, 2006)

I brain stab the fish with my divers knife - and then chuck them in the bucket behind which sits in the crate. Anyblood stays in the bucket. I have in the past when the crate has stayed at home let flat head stay in the rear storage area where scupper holes enables a few inches of water for the fish to be alive. The straps stop the fish getting away. So my fish are alive when I land.


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## Peril (Sep 5, 2005)

Spikers and thumpers - where do you aim? I'd like to be able to gill the fish, bleed it then deliver the coup de grace without snapping the neck, which can ruin the photos


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## ManjiMike (Jan 24, 2007)

Peril said:


> without snapping the neck, which can ruin the photos


It probably makes it bigger for the brag mat tho' :lol: :lol: :lol:

Cheers Mike


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## wopfish (Dec 4, 2006)

Above the eye or in between the eyes. It takes a few seconds for them to sleep - but in general not too bloody. Flat head can be harder - thick skulls. Like I said brain stabb and chuck in the bucket - they calm down there and drift off.


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## sbd (Aug 18, 2006)

I do bleed kings, and think it affects the flavour significantly. Not sure that it's lactic acid that makes the fish go stiff (rigor mortis), but lactic acid will certainly degrade the quality of the flesh so best to dispatch them fast (also probably better not to use too light line as lactic acid is generated during the fight as well).

I thump (with my natty little brass donger, really need a bazzoo upgrade at some point), then bleed. The thump is quick so it's handy with struggling fish- I aim just behind the eyes, and the fish will shiver then relax if it's hard enough, and then cut the throat latch. Even post whack there is a large amount of blood from this. Ideally, I think it should be bled just above the tail wrist as well, but I don't do/know how to do this.

The guy at my local tackle shop reckons the best thing to do with kings is fillet them immediately, and dump the fillets into a seawater/ice slurry to extract almost all the blood, but I think this is out of the question on the yak, probably good for pristine fillets though.


ManjiMike said:


> Peril said:
> 
> 
> > without snapping the neck, which can ruin the photos
> ...


Why not just do this? 8)


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## wopfish (Dec 4, 2006)

Hey SBD did you know its also illegal to fillet your catch at sea - in case you take undersize fish and dispose of the evidence


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## Jesse_Ape (Oct 17, 2006)

I am a spearfisherman...

Call me crazy but I bleed, gut and gill ALL my fish in the water; even big spanish. I stab them in the brain before I do any of that but (ijiki I think it's called)

IN my experience unless you have heaps of burly in the water it won't matter too much. It's the vibrating fish that are the problem the vibrations will atract more predators from furhter away than a little bit of blood ever will.

Bleed (and brained..it stope them stuggleing) fish notably do taste alot better and they freeze alot better too. I freeze fish because I catch too much to eat in one day 8)


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