When cleaning the catch...

[Chris Roberts]

I just need to know...  Is it just me, or do you guys put your fish on ice before you clean them all?  A buddy of mine keeps them in the live well and just filets them up right from there.  

Two things... I feel bad about fileting a living fish lol...  Maybe that's just me.  But I find it easier to filet them if they're stiff.

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

I clean at waters edge. I keep them alive until the last minute, when I dispatch them. Then, I scale them and de-gut. If I'm away from home, I'll have ice for them after cleaning.
Usually, I'm less than 15 minutes from the house, so a wet towel evapo-cools them till I arrive.

But I don't soak my fish; they go into bags and THEN into the ice. If I'm going to filet them, I do that chore at home.

[Donald Schmotzer]

 I unhook them as carefully as I can, and turn them loose, so they will be bigger when the next fisherman catches them.... ( on the rare occasions I keep fish, " usually when it looks like they will not survive"  I will put them on ice for the trip home )

.......Only kept 5 or 6 over the last couple of years.....Wife would rather I didn't cook them at home.....( However, I don't have a problem with anyone that keeps them to eat ( just hope they release the ones that are full of eggs. )......Don

[Tony Livingston]

Bluegill eggs are delicious, Don!

[JBplusThuy]

They sure are. I haven't eaten any in a long while because my 11 year old wants them all lol

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

I've tried roe, in the past. The preparation method was to roll them In egg and meal, then fry em up. To my taste, they were hideous. Waaaay too fishy and kinda flaccid.
I do like caviar, though - which is very different, of course.

To each his own.

[Tony Livingston]

I would agree that they are probably an acquired taste! I grew up eating them, and they are a delicacy to me.

Mmmm....tasty!

[Nathan]

Bleeding your fish can definitely make a huge difference on the meat, I fish for bluegill all summer long and in my life I think I have only ever kept like 3...so I don't really have this problem with panfish. I keep crappie occasionally though and I agree, the idea of filleting a fish live seems kind of cruel to me. I put my fish on ice or cut the gills (Which some might view as more barbaric) but just like hunting my intent is to make it as quick and painless as I can for the animal I am killing. Since most of the fish I eat is salmon, sturgeon and steelhead bleeding them is a must if you want good quality eggs and meat so you kind of have to cut the gills. I normally keep my fish on ice to preserve them after they have been bled, specially on hot days.

[Tony Livingston]

The very first cut I make when filleting a bluegill is right through the "shoulders", behind the head and deep enough to sever the spine. Nothing felt after that. Very quick.

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

That's one of my two methods. I prefer it because I need nothing extra outside of my basic cleaning kit:

Filet knife
Canadian Trapper knife
Larger hunting knife.
Scaling tool

My other way so to whack them on the head with a "priest," just a hand club.

[Johnny]

Never heard of "cut'n the gills", would someone explain it for me ??

[Allen Morgan]

"Cutting the gills" is the equivalent of "cutting the throat" of a mammal.  You are severing the arteries/veins that connect the heart to the gills.  The heart is usually located just inside the "throat", where the gills meet.  Depending on species, depends on what kind of cut you are going to do.

I typically only bleed catfish, and the various Morone species that I catch.  For the Morones, I just insert the blade of my knife between the gills and the "throat" area, and cut backwards.  I do not actually cut the gill filaments; I am cutting the blood vessels that serve the gills.  The fish will naturally exsanguinate.  Heck, sometimes, I actually cut the heart out, as the only things that really hold the heart in place are the very blood vessels I am cutting.

Catfish are a little more difficult.  There is a bony plate in that area.  I have the best results if I scrape my knife along that plate, inside the "throat", and wait until I start to see blood.

Trout, I insert my knife in the same general area, but with the edge facing towards the mouth, and actually cut the throat, severing it from the jaws.

I haven't actually had to bleed any sunfish, as I haven't kept any for my table since I started bleeding fish.  Honestly, a good pair of shears would do the job nicely.  Just cut like you are trying to cut the heat off, but only cut into the throat deep enough to sever the blood vessels.

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

I've heard of splashing vodka in the gills to subdue the fish before killing.
But I'm a little fuzzy on the cutting thing, too.