# Improperly cleaned Red Fish?



## SteveCal (Jun 21, 2014)

I took an out of state family member fishing. He filleted a red fish but left a lot of red meat attached. I've always removed the red parts. 

They left for home but forgot the fish.

My question is, after thawing the meat should I remove the red parts? Will the fish taste O.K. with the red part left on?

I plan to cook it this week end (grill or deep fry) and hope it isn't ruined.


----------



## lastcast (Oct 12, 2007)

Trim when thawed, it'll be fine.


----------



## Snagged Line (Sep 30, 2007)

It is ruined.... Leave it iced down in a small Yeti cooler and I will stop by and pick up and properly dispose of both the Yeti and the offending Redfish......


Like Skip suggested, trim after thawing and cook...Send Photos of the cooked fish to the folks kind enough to leave behind....


----------



## Rickpcfl (Nov 12, 2013)

Like outcast said - trim it when it is thawed. It won't affect the taste at all.


----------



## badonskybuccaneers (Aug 19, 2013)

I agree with the above comments- freezing it will have affected it more than the leaving the red meat, lol


----------



## JoeyWelch (Sep 25, 2009)

Throw it all away and get another species of fish if your hungry. My opinion is a redfish isn't worth the trouble for food.


----------



## 60hertz (Oct 1, 2007)

In my experience the way a fish was handled PRIOR to freezing it has more to do with preserving good taste and texture than anything else.

In the rare circumstance that I freeze red fish, I often leave the skin ON the fillet - this way I can still do redfish "on the half shell" if I want.

Here's what I do with reds, trout, and flounder.

Keep them alive in the live well until I'm back at the ramp and have "landed" the fish.

On the way home I stop and get two 16 pound bags of ice. Drain 1/2 of the water from the live well and put enough ice in there to slowly kill the fish.

I like to clean them just after they have died and just when the cold water has firmed the flesh up.

Before I start cleaning the fish I get two tubs. I will put a nice layer of ice in one and clean tap water and ice in the second (I never use water directly from the garden hose on my fish!)

For trout and reds, I use an electric knife to cut the fillets and throw them into the clean ice bath. Once I've cut all of the fillets off, i use a fillet knife ( I have a CutCo fisherman's knife) and cut the ribs out and cut the skin off the fillet.

The fillets then go into the tub of clean ice. 

If I'm going to cook them within 1-2 days, I will transfer to a ziplock bag that I then keep in an ice bath in the refrigerator.

If I'm going to freeze the fillets, then I lay them on a shallow pan lined with wax paper in the freezer for 3 - 4 hours. Once they are frozen, I place the fillets into a vacuum seal bag and they get vacuum sealed. I always write the date, species, and body of water on the vacuum sealed bag

Similar process for flounder, but I just dehead and gut them. I usually butterfly flounder and stuff with crab and grill or bake flounder. Rarely will I fillet them.

Is this OVERKILL? Sure, but I firmly believe that taking care of fish PRIOR to freezing them preserves the quality of the fish more than anything.

When offshore, we just pile the fish into the fish boxes and keep them packed in ice until we arrive back at the dock.

I still clean them the same way I do inshore fish.


----------



## SteveCal (Jun 21, 2014)

Thanks for the replies. I'm gonna remove the red part and deep fry it this week end.

I don't have a Yeti Snag. I have $5.00 yard sale blue light specials.


----------

