Proper handling after the catch, storing until cleaning, cleaning, and storing after the cleaning are so very important for good tasting fish. There are few fish that are not delicious when properly cared for.
We had a church pastor who brought some autistic/ADD/ADHD kids, and some of their parents and grandparents to our ponds this past Saturday and Sunday evenings.
One of the grandparents asked how long I'd been fishing and how often we eat fish. I told her that it goes back to before I was born - looking out my mother's belly button at a bobber! We joked about it, but I told her I could never remember a time in my life when I wasn't fishing or eating fish. I'm 66, quickly heading 67. My wife and I eat fish about twice a week. We have many recipes. Our recipes range from the equivalent of steak or pork chops (fillets or steaks), to McNuggets (beer-battered fish chunks), to hamburgers (fish patties using crab cake recipes), to soups/stews (our favorite is fish poached for 8-minutes in homemade tomato/jalapeno/onion salsa), and smoked fish (think jerky).
As one of the kids caught a 3 lb. channel cat we had our first lesson in preparing a fish for dinner. We threw it in a cooler of ice and water in the back of my UTV. I explained why I was doing what I did, starting with it being humane way for the fish to die in peace. We got several other catfish, a few eating size LMB, and some nice HBG and BG from the two ponds.
When it got too dark to fish anymore, we took the iced cooler of fish to my cleaning station. It is a sink at the edge of the woods, down hill from the house. By then, the fish were all dead, or at least comatose. All watched as I filleted and skinned them. We went through anatomy and identification lessons. We examined the skeletons, gills, and heads of each type of fish. We looked at the air bladder, intestines, stomach, liver, and heart. One of the catfish hearts was still pumping. We found good sized pariah sunfish (offspring of my HBG) in some of the catfish stomachs. We mostly found fish food pellets in the stomachs and intestines.
The rinsed, skinned, and boneless fillets went back in the cooler of refreshed ice water. We took the cooler into my "game kitchen" where we half filled the large stainless sink with at least five gallons of water, and then added about a cup of kosher salt (non-iodined is OK too), and a bunch of ice cubes. Wew stirred it up and let it sit for a while as they played pin ball.
The bluegill and LMB fillets went straight into the sink. The channel catfish fillets were cut down the lateral line, and the dark red meat was carefully sliced out from the top and bottom halves. It can be very strong tasting due to the heavy concentration of blood. Soaking in saltwater helps take out the remainder of the blood.
The catfish bellys were skinned inside and outside. They are like lobster.
The fish were divided up and put into zip lock bags filled with water and about a teaspoon of kosher salt. All the air and bubbles were squeezed out of each bag.
Everyone went home with sealed bags of fish in water. All were told they could keep the fish for a day or two in the bags before preparing them for dinner. If not, they should be frozen. They will retain their freshness for several months. Freezing them in a water bath without any air prevents freezer burn and drying. When thawed, they are hard to distinguish from fresh fish.
All species are a little different. There are only a few kinds of fish that aren't good, either because of bones, or very strange tastes. Saltwater fish, like puffers, need special attention because there are parts of them that can cause poisoning. But, most everything else can make a pretty tasty meal.
Last week my wife and I enjoyed a number of different kinds of ocean fish we caught when we were at the beach. Bluefish, speckled trout, flounder, croaker, etc. By themselves they are good. Mixed with fresh caught shrimp (head still on), clams, etc., they sure are hard to beat in a low country boil.
Ken
