Most merciful way to kill your catch?
- Thread starter saganco
- Start date
Then why kill them at all? As a serious fisherman I know it's much more satisfying to see your catch swim away.
You can always buy frozen fish in a store if you want to eat them!
Fresh fish taste ten times better and doesnt have the preservatives the mass market fish have.
I always give the fish a few good hard whacks on the head with the fillet knife and begin gutting and filleting.
I have issues with with trophy fishing (i.e. let the body rot to make a mold), but I have no issues as long as it is eaten. There's nothing wrong or dishonorable about actually eating what you catch and kill. Just respect the animal and go about what you do. That's my philosophy, anyway. I catch and release mostly (assuming you can, as some fish die on their way to the surface if they are reeled from depth--in which case I always have the intent to eat them. I feel bad, as sometimes these fish are young and not necessarily legal to keep, but I keep them anyway, since for me it would be a waste of life to just throw it back). I will occasionally go out with the intent to catch and eat, though.
Just my 2 cents.
When it all comes down to it why are you worried about the pain of killing the fish?
When you just made it fight for it's life as you dragged it kicking and screaming to the surface after it impaled itself on the shiney steel barb you so cleverly masked as a bit of dinner in front of it. I would suppose the whole dragging the fish to the surface after it has had a sharp hook rip into it hurts a tonne.
When we went fishing we just smacked them on the head till dead. After all it is a fish that is about to be eaten for dinner. Or if it is hard to kill a fish, just go to the supermarket and get one ready to eat.
When it all comes down to it why are you worried about the pain of killing the fish?
When you just made it fight for it's life as you dragged it kicking and screaming to the surface after it impaled itself on the shiney steel barb you so cleverly masked as a bit of dinner in front of it. I would suppose the whole dragging the fish to the surface after it has had a sharp hook rip into it hurts a tonne.
When we went fishing we just smacked them on the head till dead. After all it is a fish that is about to be eaten for dinner. Or if it is hard to kill a fish, just go to the supermarket and get one ready to eat.
Coming from the pacific northwest and being a salmon fisherman, you really have to be concerned about the blood inside of the salmon fouling the taste of the meat.
I'm sure of a humane way to kill anything, and I'm almost positive the way we bleed out fish uphere has to be one of the most inhumane ways of killing a fish.
However, its a source of food and to get the best taste from your catch you want to bleed out a fish immediatly after it has been caught and you decide to keep it.
to bleed out the fish you do not want to kill it first, the whole process of bleeding out a fish is done by the fishes heart.
you can bleed out (without killing it immediatly) a fish two diffrent ways,
insert a filet knife BEHIND the gills and slice the main artery of the fish that runs along the spine. letting the heart pump all of the blood out of the body.
or you can cut a vertical slice right behind one of the gill plates deep enought until blood begins to come out of the wound, again letting the heart pump out all the blood.
Don't think bleeding out a fish is a humane way of killing the animal its far from it. It just happens to be a widley used practice to preserve the flavor of the meat.
the most humane way of killing a fish that I can think of is to play catch and release then let it get eatin by something else.
My suggestion to you would be as follows.
Focus less on the humane style of killing the fish, and more on preserving the fishes flavor.
That way when its time for dinner the fish tastes so good there won't be anything left of it and the little guy didn't get killed for nothing.
catch what you use, not what you can.
I'm sure of a humane way to kill anything, and I'm almost positive the way we bleed out fish uphere has to be one of the most inhumane ways of killing a fish.
However, its a source of food and to get the best taste from your catch you want to bleed out a fish immediatly after it has been caught and you decide to keep it.
to bleed out the fish you do not want to kill it first, the whole process of bleeding out a fish is done by the fishes heart.
you can bleed out (without killing it immediatly) a fish two diffrent ways,
insert a filet knife BEHIND the gills and slice the main artery of the fish that runs along the spine. letting the heart pump all of the blood out of the body.
or you can cut a vertical slice right behind one of the gill plates deep enought until blood begins to come out of the wound, again letting the heart pump out all the blood.
Don't think bleeding out a fish is a humane way of killing the animal its far from it. It just happens to be a widley used practice to preserve the flavor of the meat.
the most humane way of killing a fish that I can think of is to play catch and release then let it get eatin by something else.
My suggestion to you would be as follows.
Focus less on the humane style of killing the fish, and more on preserving the fishes flavor.
That way when its time for dinner the fish tastes so good there won't be anything left of it and the little guy didn't get killed for nothing.
catch what you use, not what you can.
Great advice and taste IS the reason for catching them mostly (obviously there's only so much one can legally put in one's freezer, so there will be some catch and release). Can't wait till the boat can get in the water come spring time!
I use a hatchet to lop the head off of the fish except for catfish, those I nail their head to a tree.
You can lop the head off of a catfish from the skull to just behind the pectoral fins, throw the head in the sink and it will swim around for about a half hour.
You can lop the head off of a catfish from the skull to just behind the pectoral fins, throw the head in the sink and it will swim around for about a half hour.
