How to kill/cull trout

ivansng

Well the days are drawing near for me to learn how to kill/cull trout. Never been fishing and/or intentionally kill (stab) a fish in my life, so please be patient with me...

I have read that some people cut the gills and let the fish bleed out, some hit it on the head, some use a brain spike, etc..
And it appears that depending on which method is used, flavour could be somewhat affected for different spieces of fish.

So my question is which method are the members of this forum using for rainbow trout??

Also do we need to stop feeding, salt the tank, etc before harvest??

Thanks.

KudaPucat

regarding feeding, any food in the last 2-3 days wont convert to meat, and they wont be too hungry... some ppl purge for a week before culling.
as for how, you can just pull em out of the water like some fishermen, and leave em, but I feel that's a touch cruel.
Easiest way for a novice is to use a fish knocker. Bang em on the head with something hard. Usually a piece of hardwood turned with a lathe to resemble an old Bobby's baton.

Quick is good for the meat, clean is good for the operator.
gut quickly and allow the carcass to drain if possible. A fish does not need to be hung long. blood in the meat alters the flavour.

gemmell

I use the cut throat and bleed in a bucket of water method. Its just the way we do our fish when we go fishing off the rocks, so it's the method I use at home too. I haven't been purging either, and I haven't tasted anything foul. I think ideally you're supposed to feed trout yabbies and crickets so that they get that "pink" flesh and a good taste to them. I have also read somewhere that you can grow them out in salt water for extra taste.

I have been killing them and popping them in a marinate of salt and brown sugar for half a day before smoking them. They taste pretty good to me, though I've never been able to reproduce how my GF's dad did it - they were unbelievably good.

Of course this is my first season of trout, so if someone knows how you're SUPPOSED to do it, I'll be all ears.

whitedog

I am just taking them out of the tank and leaving them. Partly because I am not sure I can bring myself to whack or cut a very alive and thrashing fish. I am working on that one.

Didn't purge, but lightly salted the tank. They tasted very scrummy!

Geoff2222

You should always bleed (by cutting throat) and then kill the fish immediatly. To kill, either break the neck for small fish or stab it in the brain for larger fish. Leaving the fish alive will cause the fish to produce adrenalin and other chemicals to move through the flesh as it lays there stressing and suffocating to death. I've done many comparisons on fish dealt this way compared to the "leave it alive till it suffocates" method. The flesh is always firmer and better tasting. It is also of benefit to put the fish on ice for 12 to 24 hours so the flesh firms up and you get less bruising when preparing. I always use this method (sometimes I don't bother icing) with all fish regardless of species. If you spend all that time and money growing the things then you may as well get the best you can out of them. Cheers...

MDP

I cut the throut and break the neck. This ensures the fish is killed quickly and bleeds out. The best way I find to slow them down to be able to handle them is to throw them into a slurry of ice water as they come out of the tank. This stuns them immediately.

jpcw

I just did my first one. Wacked it on the head with the blunt end of a heavy screwdriver. First one seemed to stun it but wasn't enough to kill it. Must say that it wasn’t as simple as I expected, it still struggled a bit but wasn’t as bad as having the poor thing thrash around gasping for air. Guess I’ll get used to it before too long.

Outbackozzie

I hold them very tightly with leather gloves on, and cut the throat - then wash and clean as per usual.

Leather gloves because one flipped on Gnash last year and he ended up with a deep cut from the knife.

jpcw

whitedog wrote:

I am just taking them out of the tank and leaving them. Partly because I am not sure I can bring myself to whack or cut a very alive and thrashing fish. I am working on that one.

Didn't purge, but lightly salted the tank. They tasted very scrummy!

Don’t think I can handle seeing the poor thing gasping for air. I had to do something to put it out of its misery.
I just finished my first one for diner. No Purge and no special salting, had to be the best tasting fish I have ever had.

Rick

Hold them tight if it is possible, bloody slippery slimy blighters, hook a finger in its gills and break its neck.

creative1

I hold mine with a tea towel :blackeye:

on the ground :wink:

Too bad

they don't slip any more...
Well, you do have to turn the TT so the scales
don't build up too much.
I use a small knife with a stiff blade and do the 'icki'
Until they 'relax' then they are dead.
The clean ASAP.

earthbound

Yep, I stick two fingers into their gills and pull the head straight back, snaps their neck and bleeds them in one go.

creative1

I do that with herring.
I will have a go tomorrow night.
Cheers EB :flower:

faye

Who was it that used their teeth and snapped their neck? Does anyone remember?
I find that trout die quickly out of the water and usually before I get them to the kitchen anyway. No stress.

Outbackozzie

Probably Gnash lol.

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