Best way to kill a fish?

[Dry fly magic]

I know not all of you keep your fish and I don't keep all of them either but sometimes I keep a couple trout for the dinner table. (Please dont flame me for this topic). Now for us who keep a few fish for the dinner table, what do you think is the fastest, easiest, and most eithical way to kill your catch? Usually with little pan trout I catch I hit the back of their head over a rock hard or take my thumb and push on their neck until it breaks. What would you do for bigger fish that you intend to keep? What do you think the best way to kill your catch is? Any thoughts and opinions are apprechiated.

 

[FlyGal]

Whack the top of it's head on a rock...it doesn't take much force.......If I mortally injure a fish, I quickly put it out of it's misery and do the right thing - eat it.

 

[axle27]

I will always consider my grandmother a saint (as most people do) but she dispatched a fish one time that scared the be-Jesus outta me (being all of 9 or 10 at the time).

I had caught some small sunfish and my grandmother said if I caught 3 or 4 to keep them because my grandfather loved fish. We were downstairs in her basement and she had scaled and cleaned 3 of the 4. The fourth was still kicking pretty good. He kept trying to get away, so my grandmother finally said, "That will be enough of that" and sent the filet knife right down between its eyes. Simply dispatched....my view of my grandmother was forever changed.

 

[wfosborn]

I have an old Abercrombie & Fitch knife that has a big metal ball on the end I use to bonk any fish I want to keep with. Then I cut their gills and bleed them out right away. Occasionally I've had a large fish that I couldn't seem to knock out so I just cut their gills and put them on a stringer in the water to bleed out. I don't know if that's the most humane way or not, but it's what we've always done . . .

--W

 

[MrEsox]

there are a few ways...the humane thing is to take a bunch of ice and biologic salt add it to some water then put the fish in there. The salt calms down freshwater fish and the ice helps put them down in a calm fashin. Not everyone would take that time. Things to do is hammer to the head, cut the gill area, a nail to the back of the head (splits the spine), holding in no water, I can go on...point is there are many ways to take a fish out, but how you want to do it is up to you.

 

[ACofOntario]

YouTube - How to kill a fish quickly

I had a bad first try, but I didn't miss on the second thrust.

I've seen fish revive way too often after being struck on the head. How can you know if they're merely stunned or not? Drive a knife in their skull and you know they're dead. For Pickerel/walleye I break their neck using my palm on their chin... by the time the nose touches the spine the neck is surely broken.

 

[MikeG]

My grandfather, who use to work in a butcher shop/fish market use to fillet all our fish when we go to Canada. He filleted them alive saying they tasted better that way. I just crack their spine.

 

[Rip Tide]

Gamey fish taste much better if they're bled before they die.
For those, I slit the gills

Back in the day a 'priest' was commonly used to dispatch fish

 

[BigNick]

Ok, so what happens when you only catch one fish? Not enough to eat but you've already knocked this suckers brains out. I know you trout boys do things differently than we do down here in the deep south but what about a fish stringer? Keep them alive in the water and at the end of the days trip keep or release. Hey, at least you don't have to worry about keeping the snakes away from them while they are on the stringer like we do down here. :icon_bigg:icon_bigg:icon_bigg:icon_bigg:icon_bigg:icon_bigg

 

[Frank Whiton]

Hi Dry fly magic,

Nothing wrong if you want to kill some food once in a while. One problem that I see is you want to kill the big fish. If you are going to catch and release it should be the big fish. Catch the smaller fish to eat. Wouldn't you want to repeat the experience of catching a big fish again? It might even be bigger the next time.

Big Nick,

If you catch one fish take it home and freeze it. You might catch more the next time. I assume that you are fishing for Bass and Bream where you are located. A stringer is not a good way to store fish. If you are in a boat you should use the live well. There are a couple of problems with rope stingers where you go through the gills. Most times you will damage the gills on the fish. If you didn't damage the gills you may have introduced bacteria into the gills. I just think the rope stringer should not be used.

The chain stringers that have individual hooks might be a little easier on the fish. You don't have to go through the gills to add the fish. There is still a problem that you have the fish suspended in shallow water that may be very warm. The fish can't move around and find cooler water or shade. If you are on the water for a long period the survival rate will decrease. Releasing a fish and seeing it swim away is not a guarantee that the fish will survive. The really bad circumstances is when you catch the fish early in the morning and you fish most of the day. That fish is going to be so stressed that its chances of surviving are slim.

Frank

 

[BigNick]

Hey Frank, no I'm talking about wade fishing. I use my live well when I'm in my boat and if I don't catch enough to cook I just release them at the end of the day.
I guess since we are talking about trout vs pan fish here, there would be a difference in how we put them on a stringer. With pan fish you never go thru the gills, kills them dead, you put it thru the thin lower portion of their lip thru a thin membrame that will not hurt them. They'll stay alive all day but when it's warmer you do have to watch out for snakes feeding on them. But I don't guess trout have this membrame since their mouths are completely different. I had in mind trout fishing and wading but I don't know how the stringer thru the gills would affect them.
Hey, that's what makes this forum interesting, people from all across the county read and post. Nothing wrong with hearing how people in other places fish. Makes it interesting.
Big Nick

 

[Ard]

I know not all of you keep your fish and I don't keep all of them either but sometimes I keep a couple trout for the dinner table. (Please dont flame me for this topic). Now for us who keep a few fish for the dinner table, what do you think is the fastest, easiest, and most eithical way to kill your catch? Usually with little pan trout I catch I hit the back of their head over a rock hard or take my thumb and push on their neck until it breaks. What would you do for bigger fish that you intend to keep? What do you think the best way to kill your catch is? Any thoughts and opinions are apprechiated.

I have tried all the standard methods of dispatching salmon and found that using my Gerber speed blade with a spear point is the quickest. Bar None!

Use a stout knife with a sharp point and drive it directly down through the skull / spine / brain all in one stroke. Job done and believe me they are dead not just stunned. This also serves to bleed the fish out.

I know someone will of course challenge my method but I kill in the vicinity of 100 or more salmon per season and will stick to my guns on this one.

 

[dmwphoto]

vicinity of 100 or more salmon per season and will stick to my guns on this one.

.357 will do a nice job..... just kidding

 

[Ard]

DMW,

I heartily agree! I might add that nothing alerts the other anglers in the area of your success quite like the report of a magnum.

Fro all you new people remember, aim for the head so you don't ruin the meat.

Ard

 

[sonicimpulse]

I use a plastic stringer that is very easy to clean when I'm done using it. What I do is hook the fish threw there bottom mouth. I added an extra 10 foot of rope so they have room to move around. When I'm fishing the rivers I make sure I keep them in an area I already fished so I don't spook my next hole. When I head back to the car I have a cooler with salt water and ice ready for the fish. There usually dead by the time I get home so I don't have to do any crazy slaughter and or destructive stuff and feel bad about what I'm doing.

 

[Ard]

Sonic,

I think the idea was how to kill them in a humane fashion. Your way sounds like a slow, confusing and cruel death compared to a blade through the brain.

 

[KRD]

If i know I am fishing for dinner, I come prepared. I catch it, then use my Ka-bar and one good wack usally takes the head right off and clean it right there. I like to get the guts out ASAP. never thought of letting them bleed out. How do you cut the gills to do this? Does it kill them right away?

 

[Ard]

KRD,

I've seen people cut the gills on salmon to bleed the fish but it doesn't appear to kill em right away. My stab in the spine / brain kills em about as quick as your method and if I remember I cut the gills also after the braining. I've got to leave the heads so that I have something to carry the fish by on the walk back to camp or car.

Bleeding them out helps to eliminate that coagulated blood in the meniscus under the spine and along the spine itself.

 

[FrankB2]

I caught a HUGE stocked trout last year, and whacked on the head with
my knife handle....about 5 times . I thought he was out (I had to
wrestle with this fish after getting him to the bank), but about 15 minutes
later, I saw him flopping around on shore. I gave him another whack so he
would hold still while I stabbed in in the brain. That should have done it, but
I must have missed! That guy started wiggling again on the walk back to the
car. A mother, father, and little girl walked past me on the path, and I was
holding a fat 15" bloody and wiggling trout with a length of 0X leader material
(I don't carry a creel). I don't know if that girl will ever attempt to fish in her
life .

 

[Tracker12]

I keep vry few fish these days but when I do it is with a cut thru the gills so they can bleed out. Much better table fair when done that way especially with salt water fish.