As someone who frequents the river with a collapsable cooler with icepack in my backpack (which rarely does more than keep my garbage bags cold prior to filling with other peoples garbage when I leave fishless...but I digress), I'm always surprised by how few fishermen seem to keep their catch on ice.
I often see people winch in a beautiful chromer, yank it onto the rocks where it bounces around, no doubt bruising most of it's body before the wincher takes 5 or 6 bonking attempts with a nearby rock to finalize the tenderizing of what damage the fish didn't achieve itself. When the person then tosses the un-bleed, un-gutted fish onto the sand or better yet, one last rock where it sits for the rest of the days fishing I'm not surprised. I mean in fairness, these are often the same people that retain the next "smokeable" foul-hooked fish, exhibiting only minor tail rot - which I'm sure can be cut out...but again, I digress.
Before I get lost in a rant, what I'm wondering is what about the other fishermen out there. The ones who seem to be discerning in their retention, releasing the tail rot specimens and only keeping the odd chromer, which they softly land/bonk/bleed/gut, but then they just lay on the shore. Is keeping the fish cold really not that important? It seems like if you have the patience to only retain great looking fish then keeping it optimal for table fare would be a concern too? If it's sat on the shore for a couple hours is it really any better than the stale fish released before it? Also, what about the people who follow the same procedure, but then string the fish back in the water? Aren't they going to end up with something as mushy as the darkest Pink or does it also not really make much difference?
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Topic: Keeping your catch cold (Read 6030 times)