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Onboard Cleaning (Gutting) Ocean Salmon

12K views 25 replies 20 participants last post by  roosevelt  
#1 Ā·
Don't want to hijack the 'salmon fillet" thread, so......


This is a reminder for some, new for others.

For the best quality, ocean-caught salmon should be properly bled, and gutted soon after landing. Gut contents can begin to decompose quickly, and in some cases will damage the meat. This is especially a concern if fish have been feeding on krill. You will know they are feeding on krill by the reddish-orange fluid draining from the vent.


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I'm not exactly sure what the chemistry / biology is, but partially digested krill causes some kind of bacteria / spoilage reaction. Warmer temperatures (either no ice, or simply a warm day) will accelerate it




After gutting, you may now pack in ice (especially the belly). Now you have little to no blood in your ice chest; just beautiful product.


When gutting salmon, be sure to remove excess blood by scraping / pushing the veins along the rib bones by using the back of the spoon or blade. This is demonstrated in this video

https://youtu.be/u9bz9ZPOTMc?t=3m25s

Note how they are using a small hose at the 3:45 mark, to push water into the circulatory system & flush out the blood. This method is detailed here:

http://www.washingtontrollers.org/cleaning.htm


Do you want your pictures to say: "I care about my fish so I clean them on the ocean"
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Or do you want them to say: "My fish had a belly full of krill for 6 hours"
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(btw, note the use of a Swiss Army Knife. if you don't want to spend the $10 on a salmon knife with built in spoon, just tie an old spoon to the handle of a short knife).
 
Discussion starter · #3 ·
Discussion starter · #9 ·
Thank you Dave, All! :flowered:

By the way, I learned this the hard way. For my first 10 years charter & commercial fishing, I never had a "known" issue with salmon quality. Then on one particular trip....involving a large number of biting fish....that happened to be full of krill.....and not keeping up with the gutting..... I got a phone call several hours after delivery, explaining that I would not get paid for about half the load because they were "belly burned."

I felt devastated, and that lesson stuck with me. So I can share it as in "don't do what I did."

----------------------------


Hi Ron! :wave:

Happy New Year to All! :yay:

Go Stanford! :smash:
 
Discussion starter · #25 ·
Might want to work on having the regulations changed. Right now it states that you can not mutalate fish to where the sex or size cannot be determined so we are essentially breaking the law
That's b.s. Hank. Ocean-caught salmon have not returned to the river to spawn yet. Therefore they have not had sex yet. Therefore sex has been determined: "none"