Political Crossfire Forums

Question for the fishermen here. Do you have to gut a fish right away after you catch it or can you throw the whole thing in a cooler full of ice to preserve it? Is it like a deer where if you don't field dress it it turns bad?

You have about 72 hours

The ideal is to keep the fish alive until you're ready to process it. If you're bleeding it, the best time is right away, while it still has a blood pressure to aid in getting the blood out. But...you really need to have good ice in this case, and cool it down right away.

Honestly, I've never had any trouble just waiting. A lot of guys are big believers in bleeding...but I've never had a gamey fish so I don't know what the fuss is really about.

ice should work....my ancestors would just put them on wet grass, but we were talking trout.

Yeah stringer is way to go. Don't forget to squeeze the blood out of the gills

This was me for a very long time haha. I used to be really good at that shit. Haven't filleted a fish in about a decade though. wonder if i could still do it.