Fish as Food

[Sperls]

I have a very basic question, but I am not sure how to structure it:

What is a good (humane?) way to kill Sunfish and keep them until I clean them? How about River trout?

Backstory: Loved fishing as a kid. Used to fill buckets with Sunfish, but I am certain there was nothing humane or sanitary about how we cleaned them. No serial killer stuff, just ignorant kids.

As an adult I have fallen back in love with fishing. I have begun to ALSO fly fish. I have been releasing my catch, but not out of a moral stance, more over the river I fish is stocked and most times I landed a fish it wasn't going to be either a trophy or a meal. Also, I have read that recently stocked fish taste of the cat food that they are fed - any truth to that?

Thank you!

[CopperKnight]

We always kept the trout on a stringer (a chain with giant safety pins that go through the gill and mouth and keep them alive in the water).  Otherwise we just hit them on the head and cleaned them. 

I have never run into a trout that tasted funny like that, but I doubt I've picked any up right after they were released.

[Jason Akers]

I'm not sure about the taste thing.  I do feel like they would taste better after a week or so eating natural foods.

I honestly never thought about killing them.  I did the same thing CopperKnight did, put em in a bucket or on a stringer and filet later.  Geesh I'm feeling kinda bad now.   

[Sperls]

Sorry - I hope I did not come off as the "sensitive" fisherman. My brothers and were just looking back at the way we handledthem as kids and it got me thinking... Reading too much fly fishing literature will warp you as well. 

When you are in a river do you tie the stringer to the shore or yourself? When fishing pan fish: just a bucket to keep them alive until you can clean them?

[CopperKnight]

I either tie the stringer to a tree or bush that is near the shore.  If I tie it to myself I know I'll trip over it.

For panfish, I just whack'em in the head and drop them in a cooler until I get to them.  It's not more than a couple hours if I catch them right away.  Never had a problem waiting that long to clean them.

[Jason Akers]

Sorry - I hope I did not come off as the "sensitive" fisherman. My brothers and were just looking back at the way we handledthem as kids and it got me thinking... Reading too much fly fishing literature will warp you as well. 

When you are in a river do you tie the stringer to the shore or yourself? When fishing pan fish: just a bucket to keep them alive until you can clean them?

Nah, not at all.  Its good to think about things like this.  I became insensitive while hunting sometimes and I'd have to take breaks.

Basically, I use the bucket 95% of the time.  Fill it with water, drop fish in.  You want them to live but if they don't I don't freak out much as long as I'm not in the hot sun for like 6 hours.

Jason

[WayneH]

I have a cheap walmart cooler just for holding fish.  I fill it with ice and drop the fish in as I catch them then make sure they're covered.

By the time I get home, the fish are still alive, but so cold they can barely move.

Now days, most of the fishing I do is in the shallows with my kids.  They prefer to catch lots of tiny fish over a few big ones.  We throw them back then buy fish at the store on the way home!

[bacpacker]

We always used a stringer, whether fishing from the bank or from a boat. Since my dad got a little nicer boat with a live well, we will keep them in there with the areator going if we keep any. Most times we just catch and release. I'd just about as soon catch them again later.

[BZHound]

We throw them back then buy fish at the store on the way home!

I don't like this plan. This is the SelfSufficentGardner site. You are hopefully here because you want to be self sufficent. I don't want to discourage you about fishing or hunting or gardening, but when you do these things, you do have to consider the outcome. In this case, I think you could teach the kids what "food" is. They could understand that food doesn't always have to come from the store. Teach them the whole process. Fish is food.

[WayneH]

Well, most of the fishing we do is in cow ponds.  I wouldn't eat anything out of them.

They have helped me clean fish.   That doesn't mean that we want to take home everything (or anything) we catch.

You're making assumptions about me and my family from a very small window into my life.
What gives you the idea that my family doesn't know what food is and where it comes from?  My oldest son even ran a trap line last winter!

[BZHound]

Well, most of the fishing we do is in cow ponds.  I wouldn't eat anything out of them.

They have helped me clean fish.   That doesn't mean that we want to take home everything (or anything) we catch.

You're making assumptions about me and my family from a very small window into my life.
What gives you the idea that my family doesn't know what food is and where it comes from?  My oldest son even ran a trap line last winter!

Sorry. I didn't mean to assume anything about you or your family. I was wrong. I will try to remember there are no hard and fast rules about this kind of stuff, and I thought if you caught a fish, threw it back, and stopped at the store to buy fish, it didn't make sense. I'll ask more questions next time so I can further the conversation instead of making people mad.
I'm truly sorry.

[BZHound]

I hope I didn't kill this thread. Sometimes it's hard to know all the details and you just make assumptions.