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Any fish hunters?
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I have used my bow to harpoon some fish. Done some scuba shooting for striped bass as well.
Anyone hunt fish?
Anyone hunt fish?
Comments
If u catch ANY fish and immediately head and gut it,get it on ice, then fillet and cut out all the blood meat,I don't see how it could be bad.
Now, that said, when it comes to Bonita(little tunney)their IS NOTHING BUT BLOOD MEAT.
I had a Korean neighbor, years ago that was CRAZY ABOUT Bonita.
She wanted me to head and gut ASAP after catching(bleed out)and put on ice.
She'd have me fillet and cut out the really dark meat(U can see the darker bloodmeat in them, if u bleed'em immediately after catching)then she would soak them in either brine(as much kosher salt as warm water can dissolve,or buttermilk.
She would either stuff and bake it, or finger it up and fry it.
I never did sver try eating it.
She tasted good tho..[;)]
I have on occasion caught or speared one and smoked it. Not bad. But with Walleye, perch, bass, catfish, and lake trout just outside the harbor within a 5-20 minute boat ride, which I like a lot more, I usually don't bother.
Nice thing about Walleye and perch is, they are clean fish. You get them on ice right off, you don't have to gut or behead them for the meat to stay fresh. Though when I keep catfish I either toss them in the livewell and let them work some of the muck out of their system or else chop their tail off with a machete while they're still flopping to let some of the muck work out, then gut them.
I have a bow and there are lots of carp in the Holston river behind my house. The river is clear and shallow. In fact it is so clear and shallow that it is hard to stalk one. I may try it this summer. I just hate to think about cleaning a carp. I hear that they are good smoked. Ever try one?
The grocery store fish dept. around here sells smoked carp for $4.50 a pound.
I Ohio, I like to get them from inland lakes in the spring. I marinate them over night in a brine that includes brown sugar.
I use the same brine for steelhead trout and walleye I catch.
I freeze the extra in a vacuum pack like seal a meal.
I smoke the fish with skin on.
Any fish can be smoked, but species high in fat (oil) such as salmon and trout are recommended because they absorb smoke
faster and have better texture than lean fish, which tend to be dry and tough after smoking. Use seasoned non-resinous
woods: hickory, oak, apple, maple, birch, beech, or alder. Avoid: pine, fir, spruce, etc. or green woods. If heavier smoke flavor
is desired, add moist sawdust to the heat source throughout the smoking process. Control heat by adjusting air flow.
Ingredients I use. This brine is for fish that are eaten right away, stored in the fridge for up to 3 days or frozen. It does not dry out the fish and make it tough like a brine with more salt would do.
Preparing Brine:
Using 1 gallon of cold water in a plastic, stainless steel, or crockery container. Stir salt in 1 gallon of water until dissolved then add the sugars and stir again then add spices if desired.
Spices such as black pepper, bay leaves, seafood seasoning, or garlic, may be added to the brine depending on your preference.
I use:
* 1 and 1/2 cup kosher salt or non iodized salt( you can use up to 3 and 1/2 cups if salt is not an issue for you)
* 1/2 cup sugar
* 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
* 1 tablespoon crushed black peppercorns
To reduce the fishy smell, add 1 teaspoon of lemon juice per cup of brine.
Control temperature:
Hot-smoking - 90?F for the first 2 hours; 150?F for remaining smoking time.
Preparing Fish For Smoking:
Use only freshly-caught fish that have been kept clean and cold. Fish that have been handled carelessly or stored under improper
conditions will not produce a satisfactory finished product. Do not use bruised, broken, or otherwise damaged flesh.
If you catch your fish, clean and pack them in ice before starting home. When you get home, store the fish in the refrigerator until you are
ready to prepare them for smoking.
Different fish species generally require specific preparation methods. Salmon are split (backbone removed); bottom fish filleted; herring headed and gutted, and smelt dressed.
The following preparation steps can be applied to any fish:
Remove scales by scraping against the grain with the dull edge of a knife.
Remove head, fins, tail, viscera.
Wash body cavity with running cold water to remove all traces of blood and kidney tissue (dark red mass along the backbone).
Split the fish by cutting through the rib bones along the length of one side of the backbone.
For large fish, remove the backbone by cutting along the other side of the backbone to produce two fillets or boneless sides. For small fish,
the backbone can be left attached to one of the sides.
Cut the sides of large fish into uniform pieces about 1? inches thick and 2 inches wide. Small fish halves can be brined and smoked in one
piece.
Preparing Brine:
Using 1 gallon of cold water in a plastic, stainless steel, or crockery container.
Spices such as black pepper, bay leaves, seafood seasoning, or garlic, as well as brown sugar, may be added to the brine depending on
your preference.
Use 1 gallon of brine for every 4 pounds of fish. Brine fish in the refrigerator, if possible.
Keep the fish covered with brine throughout the brining period. A heavy bowl can be floated on the brine to keep the fish submersed, but do not pack the fish so tightly that the brine cannot circulate around each piece.
Place the fish skin-side down on greased racks in a cool place to dry. Not the refrigerator. The fish should dry for 2 to 3 hours or until a shiny skin has formed on the surface or until the surface of the fish is dry and matte-like. A fan may be used to speed the process.
Place the fish in a homemade or commercial smoker. The temperature of the smoker should be kept at about 80?F, and should never
exceed 90?F. If a thermometer is not available, the temperature may be tested by hand. If the air in the smoke-house feels distinctly warm,
the temperature is too high.
Smoke the fish until its surface is an even brown. Small fish that are to be kept 2 weeks or less may be ready in 24 hours. Salmon and other
large fish will require 3 to 4 days and nights of steady smoking. To store longer than 2 weeks, smoke all fish a minimum of five days; for
larger fish, at least a week or longer.
The smoker should not produce a lot of smoke during the first 8 to 12 hours if the total curing time is 24 hours, or for the first 24 hours if the
Hot-Smoking:
To hot-smoke fish, follow steps 1-6 under Preparing Fish for Smoking.
Brine ?-inch-thick fillets for about 15 minutes, 1-inch-thick pieces about 30 minutes, and 1?-inch-thick pieces about 1 hour. Brining times
can be adjusted to give the fish a lighter or heavier cure.
After brining, rinse the fish briefly in cold running water.
Place the fish skin-side down on greased racks in a cool, shady, breezy place to dry. The fish should dry for 2 to 3 hours or until a shiny
skin or pellicle forms on the surface. The pellicle seals the surface and prevents loss of natural juices during smoking. A fan will speed
pellicle formation.
Place the fish in a homemade or commercial smoker. For the first 2 hours, the temperature should not exceed 90?F. This completes the
pellicle formation and develops brown coloring.
After the initial 2-hour period, raise the temperature to 150?F and smoke the fish for an additional 4 to 8 hours. The length of time will
depend on the thickness of the fish, and on your preference for dry or moist smoked fish.
Generally, ? -inch-thick pieces are smoked for 4 hours, 1-inch-thick pieces for 6 hours, and 1?-inch-thick pieces for 8 hours.
Store fish in the refrigerator. Or freeze using a vacuum pack like Seal a Meal
We'd take a big can of whole kernel corn and shoot loads of it out into the deep hole behind the dam at the mill pond we lived near.
Then thread kernels onto all 3 sides of a treble hook and just enough split-shot to cast to where we had shot the loose kernels.MAN, we used to pull some lunkers out from under that spillway.The occasional "millroach"(that was what pop called'em) was a fringe benefit and great cooked just headed,gutted and scaled.
We'd wrap the whole carp in newspaper and put them in moms big IH chest freezer.Then pull one out,as needed for snapper bait, and hacksaw him up.
Mom didn't mind,as long as they were well wrapped in the paper.[^]