Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss Freezing Fish Filets

To freeze fish filets, I use a method which I'm pretty sure I picked up here - put them in a ziplock bag and add enough water that little or no fish meat is exposed to air inside the bag, then stick them in the deep freeze and leave them there until ready to thaw and cook.. I usually freeze about every other batch of fish I catch during the warm months, then fix them during the Winter. (I don't ice fish. We might have ice thick enough here for ice fishing every third or fourth year, and when we do I'm already cold from spending 2-3 hours a day taking care of cows and horses.)

Last Winter I missed one package of frozen filets, which turned up earlier this month when I moved stuff around in the freezer to make room for half a steer. Last night I cooked that batch of bluegill filets, from August 2023, and they were perfect. That's the longest I've kept any fish frozen with this method, and it worked great.

Theo, my grandmother used to freeze the fish in the cardboard milk containers filled with water. I fillet the fish and vac seal them. They last for a LONG time that way. I have some Walleye fillets that are 2.5 years old and still taste the same.

My grandparents used to bring home BG filets from Canada in milk cartons filled with water. But we always ate them pretty soon after they got back home.

Great info Theo.

I picked that tip up from my grandparents, they also used milk cartons and even bread sacks, doubled. They will keep for an extended time. I will also add some table salt to the bag.
Works great for Shrimp as well, I recently made a trip to the Gulf and picked up several pounds that are in the freezer.

That's how my dad always froze fish (in water). Ziplocks and milk cartons were both fair game.