Bleeding salmon on small boat

[Tips Up]

My boat is 17.5 double eagle with fish hold in the floor.
This hold has small drain hole that leads to bilge and then I pump out.
I’ve tried bleeding fish in the hold but the blood is too much work to clean out and the bilge area gets pretty gross.

I try to have as little on board as possible to keep boat tidy and functional but thinking of bringing a 5 gallon bucket to bleed fish in first before dropping in the hold.

Anyone have other ideas or something that works for you?

 

[wildmanyeah]

I have herd that some guys gut the gills and let them bleed out in the net at the side of the boat.

 

[tubber]

Fish gets netted or gaffed and dropped into the fish tub, cut gills, detergent bottle bailer to provide a rinse, fish into the icy cooler bag, bloody water goes over the side.

 

[Fisherman Rob]

Bleed them in the engine well? Although trolling in a following sea sometimes you get waves slopping in there.

 

[ziggy]

I use a trough that hooks over the gunnels, bleed, gut and on ice. If the fishing is hot a also use a 5 gallon bucket to bleed them until I can clean them.
Google Coho cleaning trough for an idea!

 

[Tugcapitan]

Bleed them in the engine well? Although trolling in a following sea sometimes you get waves slopping in there.

Just have to be careful you don’t get pieces of gill and coagulated blood collecting around the bilge pump grate to the point that it becomes blocked. The coagulated blood will also ensure the bilge grate collects every ghost lost zip tie, toothpick and stray fishing line to create an awful mess that will rear its ugly head when you need it most....

 

[Karlo]

My boat has a two-foot-deep covered area forward of the transom and motor that drains through scuppers out the back of the transom. I have a shark hook on 4 feet of rope arranged so I can cut the gills and drop the bleeding fish safely into that "well" for a few minutes, then rinse it over the side, and drop it into the ice chest. A brush and bailer make instant work of getting the gore out of the area, and zero blood ever gets into the boat or bilge pump.

Works well, and if you're dealing with a large halibut, the shark hook in the mouth of a subdued fish and a tail-rope from the cut tail tied to a cleat forward secures it until you're totally ready to bring it aboard.

 

[Tips Up]

Thx. Halibut get bled in the water tied to the cleat on my boat. I don’t want a tub on board. Looking to not bleed in the bilge anymore.
I think I’ll try a 5 gallon bucket next.
Head down like a tuna. Bleed in bucket for 10 min. Then rinse and put in hold where I always have a bag of ice. Creates a bit of a cooler.
Hold worked great until I started bleeding salmon.
Thanks!

 

[Trophy]

Gill cut to bleed at transom then over the side for a rinse with a wire hanger through gill/mouth. Hanger has a lanyard attached just in case. Auto hand brush for a quick wipe up around transom. Try to keep boat extra clean as bears are our neighbours.

 

[getbent]

I have always just cut the piece of flesh at the throat and held them with one hand through the gills to the mouth and hold over the side of the boat...watch how they spray however as it can shoot quite far.
Tough if the bite is on...and how many people on the boat to reset gear and etc...the bucket may be the way to go.

 

[tubber]

5 gallon bucket will work. Careful dipping from a moving boat.

 

[Fish Camp]

cut gill ,rope knotted through gill and mouth and pulled between rigger line and hull ,hope wiskers dosn't take intrest in a smaller vehicle ,and remember to retrive fish before powering up,clean fish at prawn trap reset .clean prawns at crab reset .both put on ice and not in the same cooler as live crab and head back to camp to enjoy the rest of the start of the day.

 

[Corey_lax]

5 gallon buckets work great. And I’m surprised you don’t already have one on board. I always have one. Works great as a garbage can with a bag, bleed fish when needed, empties, etc. And when I’m prawning I put my ropes into two buckets so then I have multiple buckets on board. They stack nice so don’t take up much room on my 18’er

 

[Tips Up]

I have herd that some guys gut the gills and let them bleed out in the net at the side of the boat.

I may try this too but I have a rule on my boat that may interfere ... Fish gets pushed aside until gear is back in the water. Then clean up happens.
When the bite is on, its on. First priority is to get gear in the water and tack back to where fish was caught.
Often I will end up with 2 fish on the floor before I can get cleaned up.

 

[Tips Up]

5 gallon buckets work great. And I’m surprised you don’t already have one on board. I always have one. Works great as a garbage can with a bag, bleed fish when needed, empties, etc. And when I’m prawning I put my ropes into two buckets so then I have multiple buckets on board. They stack nice so don’t take up much room on my 18’er

Funny I just said to buddy on the weekend as were leaving. "Got Keys, bait, rods and gear. Feels like I'm forgetting something. Not sure why we used to bring so much **** that we don't need"
I used to have a fish tub because I did not want to clean the hold plus all sorts of other crap I did not need.
I try to be tidy and organized these days. Makes the little boat feel bigger. But I'm sure I can fit a bucket on board.

 

[RiverBoy]

My DE 185 came with an old school baby bath. i usually gill and bleed salmon in there, and then transfer to an iced cooler when bleed out is complete.this year i caught a 35 lb hali in 70’ of water. my partner gaffed it perfectly and i bonked and bled in the baby bath. there was zero room in cooler as it was full of 18-20lb chinook. fifteen minutes later the hali did it’s best zombie imitation and came to life covering my boat and us with blood top to bottom and one end to the other. it was a total crime scene. i’m still looking into kill bags but i can’t stomach how expensive they are

 

[Skins88]

I have left the fish in the net, cut the gills and dipped the fish over the side to rinse. Other times into the cooler and cut the gills. I have to clean the cooler either way. The blood stains on the side of the boat are cool, but a pain to clean up.

 

[SpringVelocity]

My boat is 17.5 double eagle with fish hold in the floor.
This hold has small drain hole that leads to bilge and then I pump out.
I’ve tried bleeding fish in the hold but the blood is too much work to clean out and the bilge area gets pretty gross.

I try to have as little on board as possible to keep boat tidy and functional but thinking of bringing a 5 gallon bucket to bleed fish in first before dropping in the hold.

Anyone have other ideas or something that works for you?

I use a bucket Graham. Slit fish invert. I use kill bags so no fish hold. Takes few minutes and done.

 

[fshnfnatic]

Check out my cleaning trough that I modified to attach to the gunnel with Ram Mounts in the "Modifications Your Proud Of" thread on page 9.Works slick.I use a length of tuna cord with a loop tied into each end, choked through the gill plate,and attached to a kleat as a safety measure in case the fish falls out of the trough while gutting.When not in use it just hangs off my splash pan at the back of the boat.Like SV I also use kill bags with frozen water bottles to keep the catch fresh and bag the fish as well before throwing them in there.Keeps the kill bags clean inside so no scrubbing them out when you get home.Just a quick rinse and they're ready to go.It's the slickest way I've found to deal with fish on a small boat.The cleaning stations at Cheanuh where I fish out of can get pretty gross sometimes so as far as keeping the bacteria count down,this system also wins.

 

[Pippen]

Bleed them in the engine well? Although trolling in a following sea sometimes you get waves slopping in there.

I was gonna say this too.......a quick line looped around the tails so following seas don't wash them out while they bleed out attached to one of your rear cleats would work well?

A couple of lengths of tuna cord/gagnon would keep them from going out the back. Not much different from bleeding out a big hali over the side of your boat; now you're just doing it in the engine well.