# bleeding tuna?



## Mr. Mike (Oct 4, 2007)

best cut to bleed a tuna until the heart quits beating?


----------



## sniperpeeps (Mar 5, 2011)

You can pretty much see what to do here, however I would recommend putting him in or over the box first and as soon as you make the cut drop him in ice water


----------



## samoajoe (Dec 28, 2010)

Or hold it overboard...


----------



## Captain Woody Woods (Oct 2, 2007)

I'm not so sure about the above way. Anyway, anatomically speaking, you don't want to take out a vital (heart, lungs (gills) ) when bleeding a fish. Where the pectoral fin folds flush with the body, there is a little groove. At the top of this groove is a ridge; less than probably a quarter of an inch under this ridge is a group of blood vessels similar to our carotid artery. You can nick this with just the tip of your knife; I use a box blade so I don't cut too deep. It is easy to see this "artery" once you start cleaning the loins off of the body. You can press on it and it will often still spurt blood as if it is still alive. It is fairly big; 2 or 3 toothpicks can probably fit inside this artery. This way, the heart and gills remain intact the heart does a pretty good job of pumping all of the blood out of the body. Don't bother hitting the fish on the head with a bat; the bat is a complete waste of money and just makes a big spattered mess on the underside of your gunwhales. Once you commit to grabbing a fish by the head (and tail if it is big enough) just slide it into the fish box ASAP and then deal with packing it in properly after it has calmed down.


----------



## Head Kned (Mar 21, 2011)

Captain Woody Woods said:


> I'm not so sure about the above way. Anyway, anatomically speaking, you don't want to take out a vital (heart, lungs (gills) ) when bleeding a fish. Where the pectoral fin folds flush with the body, there is a little groove. At the top of this groove is a ridge; less than probably a quarter of an inch under this ridge is a group of blood vessels similar to our carotid artery. You can nick this with just the tip of your knife; I use a box blade so I don't cut too deep. It is easy to see this "artery" once you start cleaning the loins off of the body. You can press on it and it will often still spurt blood as if it is still alive. It is fairly big; 2 or 3 toothpicks can probably fit inside this artery. This way, the heart and gills remain intact the heart does a pretty good job of pumping all of the blood out of the body. Don't bother hitting the fish on the head with a bat; the bat is a complete waste of money and just makes a big spattered mess on the underside of your gunwhales. Once you commit to grabbing a fish by the head (and tail if it is big enough) just slide it into the fish box ASAP and then deal with packing it in properly after it has calmed down.


Do you cut it before you put it in the box.


----------



## MSViking (Oct 11, 2007)

As Capt woody said, it only takes a very very small cut to do it right, like 1" wide and 1/2" deep or so is all it takes in the right spot. Also Agree on the bat, a bat has no place on a tuna! but we do ice pick them in the soft spot of the head, ends the argument instantly!

Robert


----------



## KPTN (May 21, 2009)

if you ice pick them or hit them with a bat would that not stop the heart and lessen the bleeding?


----------



## MSViking (Oct 11, 2007)

In my experience ice picking them does not reduce the blood flow, I realize in theory it should, but reality is they bleed out very quickly if cut correctly. A wildly flapping tuna does more damage to it's meat and your deck if allowed to go nuts, an ice pick to the head ends that argument quickly.

I also have a lot of respect for big fish like tuna and attempt to minimize any suffering they might go thru.

Robert


----------



## KPTN (May 21, 2009)

MSYellowfin said:


> In my experience ice picking them does not reduce the blood flow, I realize in theory it should, but reality is they bleed out very quickly if cut correctly. A wildly flapping tuna does more damage to it's meat and your deck if allowed to go nuts, an ice pick to the head ends that argument quickly.
> 
> I also have a lot of respect for big fish like tuna and attempt to minimize any suffering they might go thru.
> 
> Robert


i could certianly see why you would ice pick them just wondered if it impacted the bleeding.


----------



## Captain Woody Woods (Oct 2, 2007)

MSYellowfin said:


> In my experience ice picking them does not reduce the blood flow, I realize in theory it should, but reality is they bleed out very quickly if cut correctly.


If you're talking about ice picking them in the head, it has no affect on bleeding the tuna.




KPTN said:


> if you ice pick them or hit them with a bat would that not stop the heart and lessen the bleeding?


The whole principle behind the bleeding thing is you want to use the beating heart to pump the blood out of the body via the small incision you've made. You don't want to kill (brain-dead) the fish because then the blood remains in the body. If you cut a tuna 30 minutes after it's been in the box, blood will not come out. Gravity doesn't just draw the blood out.

(quick background-tunas are WARM BLOODED-the concept behind bleeding is that you get the body chilled as soon as possible, via pumping the warm blood out as well as icing the fish as soon as possible)




Head Kned said:


> Do you cut it before you put it in the box.


 
It doesn't matter. Cut it before you put it in the box, cut it after you put it in the box. I usually prefer to do it before just so the warm blood doesn't melt the ice. But if you're in the middle of a hot bite (and you're not worried about your ice surplus), just throw the fish in the box, cut it, and get back to action.


As far as killing the tuna, there is a soft spot on top of the head (feel for it on a dead tuna); this is where the brain is, and if you can stick an ice pick (not a knife) right through there, that should penetrate the brain and kill the fish. We then (only if you're way over-obsessed with caring for your fish (not necessary) ) insert a 3 or 4 foot piece of 400 or 500 pound mono with the tip cut at an angle and this runs along the length of the fish's spine-effectively servering it to prevent it from shivering. If you google this, the commercial guys (especially with bluefin) seem to think that a whole bunch of lactic acid builds up and affects the taste, blah blah blah. Maybe true in big bluefin. I kill a fair amount of yellowfin each year and the number one thing that is of crucial importance is getting the fish cooled down asap. You can always tell a tuna that has been properly iced down versus one that hasnt-the meat on a cold fish is very very firm to the touch. The meat (I'm talking about once you've cut the 4 loins off of the fish) on a fish which hasn't been properly iced is somewhat like jello-mushy, and is not holding together along the grains. If you're going to be paying top money for a charter or to fish on your own boat, you may as well take good care of the meat.


----------



## EmeraldCoast (May 1, 2010)

That small incision does a very good job of bleeding out the tuna, and goes a long way to making the meat better. One thing that I have not heard mentioned here is once the artery is cut, put the tuna in a bucket or tub (depending on size) and the fish will pull in saltwater and will go a lot further to clean out the blood


----------



## Captain Woody Woods (Oct 2, 2007)

EmeraldCoast said:


> That small incision does a very good job of bleeding out the tuna, and goes a long way to making the meat better. One thing that I have not heard mentioned here is once the artery is cut, put the tuna in a bucket or tub (depending on size) and the fish will pull in saltwater and will go a lot further to clean out the blood


Any tunas that can fit in a bucket should probably be released


----------



## MSViking (Oct 11, 2007)

Here is our buddy Capt Woody and a "bucket sized" YFT


----------



## Captain Woody Woods (Oct 2, 2007)

Mmmmm....perfect bridling sized snack for big girl


----------

