Guide To Fishing And How To Keep The Fish Fresh While Fishing

Everyone likes fresh fillets from the fishmonger. Else, if you have decided to keep this cool activity in your own hands. You should also know how to keep the fish fresh while fishing and enjoy a yummy meal with lots of health benefits preserved. Decisively, you can keep the fish fresh either by keeping it alive which may be complex or to gut them immediately once they die. 

After all, you don’t want to deteriorate their fleshy part and make it prone to bacteria. No one else wants it. This is the main intention to keep lured gutted fish as fresh as possible.

Accessories Needed To Keep The Fish Fresh While Fishing

Let us take a look at what would one need while going fishing. While professional fishing requires a lot of specific tools, below are the basic that could be termed as essentials for fishing. These essentials can be easily obtained at besttroutfishinglures.com with excellent quality guaranteed.

Tackle Box

A tackle box is your toolbox. It contains all the essentials that will help you do the actual activity. It provides extra line, hooks, bobbers, sinkers, plastic worms, and other lures as well.

Container For Live Bait

Next, what you need is something to lure the fishes. The fishes cannot be tempted just by using plastic worms or traps. More results are registered when the bait used is live to catch the fish. The smell of raw and live worm acts as the best bait.

Icebox Or Bags

One of the most needed accessories. You cannot just catch and the fish and be done with it. It needs to be preserved until you get back home. You cannot preserve your catch without ice zip locks or ice box.

Landing Net

A landing net is a useful accessory and comes in very handy. The use of landing net is that it gives you an angler which helps you get the fish on boat sooner by using the net.

First Aid Kit

Safety comes first. While fishing can seem usually safe sport, it can cause you injuries if you get too carried away. Always carry a basic and equipped first aid kit with you when you go fishing.

Let us discuss the first part of keeping a fish alive as alive fish is one key to keeping it fresh. Here you go!

Keep Fish Alive

As I said earlier, it is a bit complicated to keep them alive but you may be able to keep them alive by following different methods given below.

Make Them Dormant

Firstly, I want to tell you that it will not work in case of larger species of fishes. For smaller fishes, you can immediately make them go dormant by keeping them in flaked ice in a cooler or a bucket. It is important to keep them in plenty of space and position them upright to stay longer. Well, you may not be able to realize when fish dies. Have a look at alternatives given below.

Retain Them In Basket

Baskets are available that works similar like stringers except for the intrusiveness of loops. You can opt to keep them in suitable size basket being lowered in water that will also prevent them from getting free as baskets have self-closing latches. This method has its drawback because the inner wire of the basket can also cause bruises if the animal is struggling.

Keep Them In A Stringer

The point here is to keep the stringer lower in order to keep your catch submerged. Again, this method is suitable only subject to the condition that water should be cold because warm water can expire the fish immediately.

Preserve Them In Live Well

Live wells are like containers that you can easily lower in water and hold your catch effectively. This method holds a good rank above all. Choose them depending upon the size. Well, they may be expensive.

So, these are some of the ways to keep your catch alive in order to keep them fresh. As you can see all of them suffers from their own drawbacks. No worries! We can shift to another way of keeping them fresh which is much effective in case you have immediately gut the fish.

Keeping The Fish Fresh

Fishing is a long and patient activity. Once you’ve caught a fish, another one might take a long time. Even if you plan to get home after the first catch, fish can get rotten by the time you reach home. So you need to be equipped with the required thing to keep fish fresh. Below are some of the essential tips and methods on how to keep the fish fresh while fishing.

Kill It Immediately

A lot of people put the fish for cooling and let it die slowly. No, don’t do that. It will just ruin the quality of the fish. Once the fish is with you, kill it immediately. It is favorable to kill the fish with a straight hit to the head or eye with a pointy tool. If you leave the fish to die slowly, the stress it will be under will affect the quality of the fish, and you wouldn’t want that.

Wash It Thoroughly

After killing the fish, you need to wash the fish. Clean the fish thoroughly. Make sure that all the blood of the fish is drained out before starting with the storage. Storing the fish without washing or cleaning it will again affect the quality of the fish. If you want to keep your catch fresh and productive for a longer time, then you must wash it until it is clean.

Keep It Cool

This could be termed as the most crucial step. The only way to keep your fish fresh is by keeping it cool. There are quite a several ways to do this and we have stated a few common ones below. When the fish is cold and kept in a freezing environment, it can be used up to the next five days, depending on whether anything else led to the deterioration of the quality. Below are some of the methods to keep the fish cool while fishing:

Icing

Icing the fish is the best way to keep the fish fresh. It can be kept fresh for a long time, depending on the arrangements. The most common way to ice it is to use a cooler. Ordinary coolers are insulated coolers. Fill the cooler with loads of ice. It is known that crushed ice works a lot better than ice cubes. Make sure to cover the fish with loads of ice. It is advisable to keep the drain plug of cooler open so that water is drained out. Water ruins the taste of the fish.

Refrigerate

It is easy to refrigerate the fish in place of freezing it. That also helps to keep the fish fresh for quite a long time. To refrigerate the fish, first, clean the fish nicely. Next would be to dry the dish with paper or towel. Now, wrap the fish in a waxed paper and keep it on ice. This will keep the fish fresh for almost two days. Refrigerating works better for large fishes. Also, you can use aluminum foil or plastic wrap instead of waxed paper.

Freeze

Freezing fish is a very common method. This is also the way to keep fish fresh for the longest time. A technically frozen fish is known to even last for 12 months. The way to freeze fish is first to clean it. Next, you need to place it in a Ziploc bag that is freezer safe. It must be ensured that while placing the fish in the Ziploc, all the air is drained out of the bag. A good tip would wrap the fish in a foil and freezer paper before freezing.

Follow either of these three methods as this is your answer to how to keep fish fresh while fishing.

Keeping Up With The Bin

Assuming you have chosen one of the methods and kept the fish for cooling in the insulated cooler, you will need to maintain revisiting the cooler bin. If there is more ice needed, it should be added. If there is excess water, it should be drained out. Taking basic care of the cooler would ensure that nothing big or important is missed out. Continue tracking the cooler progress and be aware of any changes.

Do Not Overstay

While you can store the fish for long in the cooler or by freezing the Ziploc. It is advisable that care should be taken not to overstay for a longer period of time. You don’t want to risk the quality of fish. If after reaching home, there is any indication that the fish quality has been compromised, throw it away. Never consume a wish that might have gone bad. It can lead to serious issues and illness.

Conclusion

This was the short write up to help you know how to keep fish fresh while fishing. If you are a beginner, this guide will help you prepare for the things you might need. Fishing is often seen as an activity that people choose to bond over and come closer as a community; it is a fun, exciting, and surprising activity. Take note of little care, and it will be a fun fishing trip for the next time. Happy fishing!