One of my most enduring fishing memories
is from my too faraway youth, spent at Pines Beach. In those days
Pines Beach was, some 10 miles, yes it was miles in those far
off days, from Kaiapoi, which was about 30 miles from Christchurch.
(Nowadays Kaiapoi is virtually a suburb.)
My father, his mate, and I used to regularly drag
a net for flounder near the mouth of the Waimak river. Yes it
was the Waimak back then. Nowadays of course it is the Waimakariri
River. To indicate just how long ago it was, it was at a time
that I thought it was big and brave to be on the deep end of a
dragnet on a cold Christchurch morning. At least I have learned
a few things with advancing years. Being on the deep end is a
fate to be avoided, is amongst them.
When the flounder, and the point of this story,
hit the fry pan, the fish were so fresh, they were still twitching.
The taste was indescribable. Now given that childhood memories,
the good ones anyway, grow with the years of telling, the taste
sensation of truly fresh fish, is still with me. But too often
I see so called "fresh" fish served up, that is anything
but fresh. Unfortunately the perpetrators of this travesty are
the very people who should be enjoying the taste of truly fresh
fish, recreational fishermen.
Recognize this scenario? The team takes off at 5am,
by 6am they are on the spot, and with the change of light some
good snapper come aboard.
Into the fish bin goes the fish. There is a long gap to the next
fish, so a move is made.
By now the sun is well and truly up. A few more
fish hit the bin as the day progresses, but by 3pm they pack it
in. By 4pm the boat is cleaned out, and the filleting commences.
Filleting takes a while. The fish are slippery,
slime covered. The flesh is soft, hard to manage. The guts is
starting to honk more than a tad. By six o’clock that night the
fish fillets hit the fry pan, and everyone starts making noises,
about the delights of fresh fish. But fresh fish it ain’t! In
these circumstances the fish is better bought from the fish shop,
it is in better condition.
Same story as above but different group. They start
fishing at six, but as the fish come in, they are quickly spiked
through the brain. The fish go in the bin, but this time the bin
is filled with ice. During the breaks in the action, the fish
in the bin are gilled and gutted, and then back in the ice.
(Remember it is illegal (in New Zealand) to fillet fish on the boat,
they must be in a condition to be measured back at the ramp.)
When the team get home, filleting is a breeze. The flesh is chilled
to just above freezing. The flesh has a consistency somewhat like
balsa wood. The flesh is firm, and easy to trim close to the bone.
From the pan, it tastes good enough for the Gods.
The first group made just about every mistake there
is in the book. Leaving fish to die by asphyxiation, stresses
the fish, this leaves a taint in the meat. In it’s death throes,
the fish thrashes and bashes, the flesh becomes bruised. In the
absence of cool water, the fish heats up rapidly, as it’s cooling
system over loads. The bacteria in the fishes’ flesh, gills, gullet
and stomach, multiply rapidly. Out of the cool water, the warm
temperatures allow them to multiply at a fantastic rate.
I cannot remember my source, but I read somewhere
that fish just out of the water, left in the sun, decays at a
rate some 5 times faster, than a land animal in similar circumstances.
Leaving fish in a fish bin for some hours without
cooling is a cardinal sin. As you add more fish to the bin, the
accumulative effect of the heat build up increases, as each fish
is added. The fish at the bottom, literally begin to cook.
If you have no ice, at least cover the spiked fish
with a damp sack or towel, the thicker the better. As the sun
heats up the cloth, the water in the cloth begins to evaporate,
and you have set-up a fairly efficient heat exchange unit. But
this only works if the wet sack covered bin is in the sun. Covering
the bin and then placing it in the shade, builds a pretty efficient
oven. The wet sack actually holds the heat built up in the bin!
The wet sack heat exchanger is only a stop-gap. There
is no substitute for ice and heaps of it. If you half fill the
bin with ice, each fish can be covered as it comes aboard. In
the gaps between fish, take out the gills and gut, and pack the
cavities with ice. Iced down fish is far easier to fillet. Slime
levels are greatly decreased and the fish are far easier to handle.
The iced flesh is firmer and easier to slice. It is far easier
to fillet close to the bones, so less fish is wasted.
Another problem, with filleting ‘warm’ fish is that
the filleting process itself spreads the bacteria though the flesh.
The crap and corruption on your knife and hands spreads the bugs
and beasties like wild fire. This is especially bad if you plan
to freeze some fish.
It is no wonder so many people complain about the
smell of fish preparation, when the fish has not been kept properly.
The fish, by the time it is being prepared, honks. As well it
might, it is in advanced stages of decomposition. The difference
in smell between fresh well kept fish, and badly kept fish is
marked.
Fresh well kept fish has little odour, and what
there is, is a clean fresh smell. The other smell is plain awful.
Careful preparation of fish to be frozen is critical,
right from the moment it is caught. The more ice you use in the
fish bin the better the fish will be when you finally cook it.
This raises the subject of freezing fish, which
should be an article in itself. But here are a few tips.
Less is best! Do not freeze large
bags full of fish. Two or three fillets per bag is best. Do not
pile the fish in a heap in the freezer. Spread it out so each
bag freezes as quickly as possible. Trying to freeze great clumps
of fish can actually lead to the fish in the centre heating up,
due to reverse heat exchanging.
I have a sheet of 1 cm thick cast iron that I keep
frozen. When I want to freeze fish I place the fillets soaked
in salted water on the iron in the freezer. In just a few moments
the fish is sealed in a glaze of ice. The fish can then be bagged
and placed in the freezer. In fact I no longer bag fish for freezing.
The method I use is to pre freeze the fish on the iron as described
above. I then cover the fish in pre- chilled salted water in milk
cartons, and then freeze. The result is the best frozen fish I
have tasted.
Eating freshly caught fish is one of the joys of
fishing. But too often the fish is anything but fresh. An essential
part of every fishing trip should be to load up the fish bin with
heaps of ice. Only then can you guarantee that the fresh fish
is just that, fresh.