Curious if other folks have any tricks to bleeding bigger fish more successfully, beyond just cutting the gills and hanging the fish into the water to bleed out.

I've been super fortunate over the last few weeks to land some big fish--some of the biggest of my life. And it turns out, they're a lot harder to bleed completely. Both of my big salmon had a decent amount of blood in the veins of the belly meat, and toward the tail, when processing them. I like to scrape the carcass meat too, and a lot of it was bloody, making me less inclined to want to use it for sushi stuff, as the blood definitely has that distinct undesirable taste.

I know people cut tails, but I've never been able to make it work (i.e. get it to bleed) when when I've tried on big halibut. Do you have to cut all the way through the spine to make it work? Is there a noticeable difference with this method? Bummer is you can't get AOTY points for tail-bled fish! 

Another thing that I'm super curious about is "pressure bleeding." I saw a commercial guy explaining it on Instagram, and basically it involves cutting through the ribcage on the last few bones at the back of the belly cavity (above the fish butt basically), then taking a hose nozzle, presumably with seawater (he was underway on the boat), and basically irrigating the vascular system through the incision. It was amazing how much blood came out on an already-bled fish! I imagine it would not be good to do with freshwater though. Anybody have any insight or experience with this method? I really want to try to make an attachment for my manual bilge pump and try to do it OTW. It just looked like it worked so well.

Thanks for your insight and tips!

It’s tough on a kayak. I personally think the tail cutting is bullshit and looks stupid.

A few things you could try.
1) Don’t bonk them.
2) Keep them in the water, lest the blood clots
3) Use a really sharp not serrated knife to cut arteries. With a dull knife/pliers/fingers you are just stretching the blood vessels. Think of surgical tubing with memory: if you stretch it to tear it in half, the diameter and flow of liquid through it will be less than if you cleanly sever it.
4) Gut soon after bleeding. Run the knife tip along the spine, then use your fingers to gently pinch the ribs/belly like a toothpaste tube toward the spine. You’ll see blood from those vertical veins exit out through the spinal cut.

I cut the gills and bleed them in the water. I always intend to bonk them first but rarely remember to do that. Once the blood has stopped flowing, I gut and gill them.

I'd like to pressure bleed my fish. Silly, but I haven't yet because it requires cutting the heads off, and it's hard to get snazzy pics with headless fish.

Edit to add: Sounds like you know of a different pressure bleeding technique, I'll have to look into that. Also, if I do it, I'll probably use a saline solution. Also might be a cool way to 'infuse' the fish with flavors....

I used to fish salmon commercially and pressure-bled every fish. The results are amazing! It's one of those deals where it's easier to show that to explain, but I'll give it a go...

Once your fishhas been bled out for a few minutes on its own, cut the belly from anus to just past the pectoral fins. Carve out the gills. Once the gills are removed, sever the artery that runs along the spine, unless you cut it when you carved out the gills. When you're doing this the first time, it really helps to clean out the blood so you can see what's going on there. It basically looks like a very small white tube about 1/8" wide. Direct your flow of water into that tube. It doesn't take much water pressure to get it done quickly and properly. If you got it in the right spot and didn't cut any other holes in that artery, you should see the blood welling up and out of your belly cut. The blood that you see in the ribs should get pale.

***It's very important that you run the water BEFORE you remove the guts! It doesn't seem to work if you remove them first.

When the water starts to run clear, you're pretty much done and can finish gutting your fish. For those of you that don't know, the spoon part of those spoon knives you see at the tackle shop is for scraping the ribs and spine when you're gutting salmon. You can break the little crossover bits of bone that are back towards the anus and pump water in there to finish off your pressure bleeding.

This is the method that I used on salmon and the results are fantastic. Obviously it's much easier if you have an electric pump, but if you have a small bilge pump, you can probably do it on a kayak. I'm happy to demonstrate this method to anyone that happens to have an ungutted salmon handy!!

Mike

Side note - I’ve always cut gills and pointed the fish so blood spurted off mostly into the water, mostly because you always end up w a bloody yak and wetsuit  If you hit it right with the knife it squirts out like when you milk a goat

After an incident at hmb I started bleeding them into the hull for blood containment so I’m not trailing blood behind me

Not that much trouble washing out the bloody mess on land and actually end up w a cleaner stow space

I think there is something to the brain spike ikejime method. It also keeps the fishes heart pumping and also prevents rigor mortis I've noticed, easier on the fillet table. Plus I dont want the fishy to feel anymore once I choose to harvest it.

But I haven't had a fish big enough that cut gill membrane didn't clean out yet lol. I slice under the gills along that membrane (keeping the throat intact for AOTY fish lol).

Then I like Erics method of removing the entrails and gills at the same time on the water, way cleaner at home that way and water fills the cavity.

Are you going to pack a little submersible pump to pressure clean the fish? lol that might be a lil too crazy.

we fish for salmon on kayaks -- ain't nothing too crazy for us

Ain't that the truth!!!

I hadn't thought about the squeeze bottle before. That's a great idea! I know guys that used to use a small tapered pipette. Just slip it into the aforementioned artery that runs along the spine!

If you find the right connector, you could use a manual bilge pump connected to a needle for the pressure bleed.

I cut the gills on both sides and poke the membrane near the gills. Toss them in the ocean for about 15 minutes and most the blood is out. The bucket method only gets so much out  also, if it's a big fish, hold onto the game clip for a minute or they might be still strong enough to unclip it