Dealing with fish once in the boat

B

breausaw

New member
This is a quote from another forum and it got me thinking, how do you guys handle the mess created bringing a lot of fish over the side?

Quote and link to forum: http://forums.outdoorsdirectory.com/for ... y.php?f=21

A friend of mine has a 22-ft. C-Dory. It's a great boat and gets good gas mileage, but it doesn't have scuppers either. It's a pain to have to keep turning on the bilge pump to clear the water when you're cleaning up after catching and cleaning fish. Pieces of fish, bait, etc. keep clogging the thing and you have to keep cleaning it out so it'll pump again. Plus, I don't like the idea of having a boat that can sink if you're taking on water and the pumps can't keep up or don't even work (dead battery for example). And I guess you'd have to make sure water doesn't gather in the boat when it's on the trailer, too.

Having never fished from a CD I have ideas, but would like some feedback from the group.
I bleed my fish(usually by tearing the gills) so I’d have a bleeding tote or simulate container for that, then toss the fish into a separate cooler with ice to hold until cleaning. I have background in commercial fishing and processing, so have a good idea how take care of my catch.
On a good day its wouldn’t be an exaggeration to be haling 2 to 3 hundred pounds of halibut over the side in an afternoon ( 3 people fishing with a 50lb average, 2 fish limit), that’s a lot of fish and blood to be dealing with.
Sure I’ll be taking some friends out fishing next summer and we plan on filling the freezer ourselves, so guess I’d better get my act together, at least in my head as how to deal with the fish once it brought over the side.

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I have a 17 gallon bait tank mounted on the stern. I gill the fish and slip them into the tank. After they bleed out, I put them in the cooler.
At first, I was concerned about the bait, but I've lost very little bait doing this. The water clears within a few minutes.
With albacore, I spike the brain and tie a line around the tail, hang them over the side and cut the gills. After bleeding out, I put in the cooler. Same could be done with halibut.
Yes- I have had to fight off a few blue sharks :oops:
 
Yea, I thought about bleeding the beasts overboard. A removable cleaning table across the stern seems to be another option others have used but have yet to find a good picture in the massive photo albums.
I like the Dogondory transom cooler mount Idea also, suppose I guy could remove that and place the cleaning table there when anchored up.
 
Hi fishing brats

I use a cooler for my fish. I bleed them in there and just close the lid on them. The fish goes from the water to the cooler. At the end of a good trip I need a helper to lift it out and go to the fish cleaning station.

One of my fishing buddy's cut himself trying to clean a fish on the boat, so we wait till we get back. Try the Rada fillet knife - sharp.

My cooler is a commercial grade ice box so it is durable. It cost around $200 and can hold a nice sized salmon. The cooler also doubles as a place to sit.

If I go tuna fishing I use a 2 x 4 x2 commercial fish box. It puts blood on the deck and makes a big mess. But the fluids stay near the transom if you have enough weight in the stern. I don't mind. Every thing gets cleaned when I get home.

Have fun fishn!

1tuberider
Jeff
 
breausaw":cx6hnvbu said:
This is a quote from another forum and it got me thinking, how do you guys handle the mess created bringing a lot of fish over the side?
Click to expand...

So far with my fishing skills its not a problem :cry !

Cheers,
Tom
 
I don't bring halibut into the boat until they are bled. After gaffing or harpooning I put a line throung their gills, rip the gills and tie line to a cleat. My bleeding line has a 12" long steel rod attatched to the end, like smaller stringers have, to make it easier to shove the line through the gills and mouth.
 
Jay,

I've never had a problem with the bilge pump getting clogged by pieces of fish and baiit. I also have both bilge pumps on automatic switches so they come on when the water gets deep enough. Even with liberal use of a small bucket to clean up after each fish, I don't think I have ever had more than a couple of gallons of water in the boat. I generally bleed my fish by a knife through the gills while they are in a square 32 gal garbage can. If they are big and take up too much space there, I leave them tied off the boat and let the ocean flush away the blood. Everything goes on ice for the trip back unless we are only heading to Seldovia, where we willl clean them and put them on ice.

I have the removable floorboards and any big chunks of bait generally get stuck under there before they ever get close to the forward bilge pump. I also keep my kicker 6 gal tank between the transom and the floorboards and it traps big pieces going to the rear bilge pump.

I generally quite fishing when one of three things occurs. The garbage can is full and the last fish has to be kept on the deck, 6 fish for 3 of us, or the tide is running too fast to keep fishing and the water is piling up.
 
For salmon I just cut the gills and let them bleed out in to the motor well. When they are done I place them into a cooler or a fish bag cooler. Wht I wan tto know is if you are gone and on the water for a week how do you handle the fish? While at ululete last year we had to use the marinas cooler. the problems was that we wanted to stay two nights there and three nights on anchor then two more nights there again. Well they want us to take our catch with us when we left each time. I was willing to pay of storage on the days we where gone but they said no we had to pay for moorage for the whole time. next year I will bring a large cooler and strap it to the top or something. most people there are not sleeping on there boats but in the motel or in a camper. how do I keep the fish cold for a week. I have heard of the salt on the ice trick but have never tried it.
 
I have found that you can't just yank everything in the boat to deal with it. It's just a matter of changing your habbits a bit. Sometimes it seems like I'm fussing with the fish a lot more but it's worth it. With halibut I gaff or harpoon them, cut the gills and bleed them in the water. Then drag them into the cooler. I don't know what you will do for storage with 300#'s of halibut on board.

Salmon as you know are real messy with their scales so they get bled over the side or motor well.

With Albacore I gaff and bring into the motor well. I brain spike, and poke the arteries near the pectoral fins and put head first in a bleed tank that's strapped to the swim deck. I try to do everything over the motor well since they get blood everywhere.


A bigger problem than fish guts with the bildge pumps is monofilament. People have the habbit of throwing the small peices on the floor when they tie new rigs on ect. THis might work on some boats but I've had mono get caught in the bilge impeller.


So basically you have to become the Martha stewart of the sea. :lol:


You can see my "bleed" bucket in the photo. This was albacore fishing.
Tuna_fishing_2_7_31_2007.sized.jpg
 
Bleed Salmon in the splash well then into the cooler on ice, or if you won't be out long(1-2 hrs)as with Seward Silvers its splashwell them drum. Big Butt get bled in the water.
The blue plastic drum on the left holds 26 10# av Silvers or 6 halibut to 100#, ok a couple hundred pounders & 4, 20-50lbs

SewardSilvers.jpg

If I go out for a week or so I release fish until 1 or 2 are hooked bad & get kept on ice for dinner then quit fishing for the day. :mrgreen: :beer
 
I generally quite fishing when one of three things occurs. The garbage can is full and the last fish has to be kept on the deck, 6 fish for 3 of us, or the tide is running too fast to keep fishing and the water is piling up.[/quote]

This is all good stuff.
Yea, I use to gut halibut in 15 to 20 seas on a narrow beam 66 footer, but I was much younger and we had a lot more room. With the CD I’m more inclined to clean my catch on shore or sitting on the hook in dead calm water.
 
Dan,

Here is what the rule says:

"Until brought to shore and offloaded, no person may fillet, mutilate, or otherwise disfigure a halibut in any manner that prevents determination of the number of fish caught or possessed."

Basically that means if you leave the upper and lower half of the filets on each side in one piece, there shouldn't be any issues since counting the number of filets and dividing by 4 equals the number of fish.

As long as you can tell how many fish are involved, there shouldn't be a problem in cleaning them.
 
tpbrady":73ewfhzg said:
Dan,

Here is what the rule says:

"Until brought to shore and offloaded, no person may fillet, mutilate, or otherwise disfigure a halibut in any manner that prevents determination of the number of fish caught or possessed."

Basically that means if you leave the upper and lower half of the filets on each side in one piece, there shouldn't be any issues since counting the number of filets and dividing by 4 equals the number of fish.

As long as you can tell how many fish are involved, there shouldn't be a problem in cleaning them.
Click to expand...

That is open to interpretation. How it is defined will be on the ticket :lol: :mrgreen: :beer Common sense does not apply!!
 
My halibut get a 410 slug in the "ear" and then a line through the gills and tied to a cleat. Gills cut to bleed out. The water is 48F so I leave them in the water to keep cool. Keep a close eye out for sea lions.
Salmon are a bigger problem. After netting I bring them into the boat, unhook them and cut the gills. Let them bleed out on the deck and then put them in a wet gunny sack. I dump a bucket of water on the sack every 15 min or so to keep the fish cool. The dual bilge pumps keep the deck pretty well clear of water/blood.
I ask people to wear rubber boots when they come fishing with me.
That system works well for me and has for over 24 yrs. in the Cook Inlet.
I am already anxious to get started again but the winter needs to pass by first.
 
I thread a 1/4" rope through a 3/8" stainless tube about 8" long. I tie the ends of the rope together. This makes a loop with the pipe sliding on the rope. I use the tube to push the rope through the gills and out the mouth. I bring the pipe back through the remaining loop. The pipe then becomes a handle to pick the fish up and over the side to bleed him out. You can hang the rope on the clete for an extended bleed while you are getting your line back in the water.
Forrest
 
You Brats on the left coast really have problems. I put my catch in a small plastic zip lock sandwich bag and then in a igloo six pack cooler on ice and clean them when I get home. :lol:
 
The 25' has a raised back deck so the problem is the deck drains will clog instead of the bilge pump. I bonk and bleed on the deck then pack in ice within minutes for all my fish. To bleed I slice both sides of the gills several times then hold the gill plate up while one of the crew pours water through the gills. This keeps the blood flowing and from clotting into those wonderful blood pancakes that clog up the drains.
Have this thing about putting a fish back into the water that I worked so hard to get out of it in the first place and just one more thing to remember before you head in. Seen more than a few boats up on plane with halibut surfing in the wake....

stevej
 
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