Slashing Stripers???

[FlyLie]

Observed this earlier today, but don't understand the purpose. Can anyone explain it to a newbe? It went like this; a guy drifting down rods caught a nice striper and put it on a stringer tied along side his boat. He the lifted the fish from the water and slashed it deeply with his knife some where behind the gill area.

I'm sure ther's a good reason for doing so, just need a little education.

[mhall]

The only thing I can figure out is he was trying to bleed out the fish before cleaning it. Stripers do bleed alot, but this is only a wild guess as I've never heard anything like this before. Maybe he's a striper serial killer, lol.

[PRO V LE]

Very common practice with saltwater fisherman, my friend from Florida would do the same thing here when we caught stripers. It does work the filet's will be much more white.
It works with catfish also.

[striperjoe]

Observed this earlier today, but don't understand the purpose. Can anyone explain it to a newbe? It went like this; a guy drifting down rods caught a nice striper and put it on a stringer tied along side his boat. He the lifted the fish from the water and slashed it deeply with his knife some where behind the gill area.

I'm sure ther's a good reason for doing so, just need a little education.

The correct way to do this is just slice the red gills do not cut them in two, just get them
bleeding and they won't be such a mess. Never take time to do this but was told about it from a Lake Michigan fisherman.
Most guys want to get rigs back in water as fast as possible.

[thunderstorm]

It works!! I use a pair of game shears instead of a knife.

[HURRICANEBOB]

Very common practice with saltwater fisherman, It does work the filet's will be much more white.
It works with catfish also.

We used to do this while fishing for Stripers in the Cheaspeake Bay. Works in salt or fresh water, but I always felt it worked better in salt water, as salt water tends to leach out the blood.

The down side of doing this in salt water, in the Chesapeake Bay, was that I had some pretty nice Stripers bit in half when the sharks got a scent of the blood trail I was creating. Not a problem around here.......ah.....I think......well maybe like really big gar and stuff...........or like a really big flat head............or like that 95 lb Blue that other guy wrote about on the board.

Oh........gross.......what if ya did this in the Ohio, and a whole bunch of like lamprey eels like came up and attached to your Striper.....ooooooohhhhh. Or just normal river eels decided to follow the blood and start chulmping on your striper........ooooooohhhhhhhh grrrooooosssssssss.

[HURRICANEBOB]

Maybe he's a striper serial killer, lol.

Naw, they caught that guy....you are think of "Jack the (st)RIPER")

[aceoky]

I've always called it "clipping the gills" and yes it makes a huge difference on the quality and taste of all fish IMO. The gills are like lungs in mammals and clipping them is "instant bleedout" (if done while still alive) It's Very important afterward to get them right on plenty of ice!

IF you've never tried it I recommend giving it a chance and would almost wager that once will be enough (after the fish fry) to get you doing it at least most of the time.

[HURRICANEBOB]

a guy drifting down rods caught a nice striper

What body of water....?

[FlyLie]

What body of water....?

Lake Cumberland

[JD7.62]

Like the others have said, its to make the fish taste better. If youve ever filleted a true bass (hybrids, whites, and stripe) you should have noticed that dark meet around the back bone that isnt as flavorful. That is called the "blood line" and bleeding out a fish will reduce that. Also quickly dispatching a fish before being put on ice reduces the amount of lactic acid build up in the meet and should make it firmer.

[JUSTINHALL]

All big fish taste much better when you bleed them out. It also makes it easier to clean them as well.
Even on small mouth bass if I am going to clean about 10 small mouth for dinner the big females really need to be bled out to taste the best. The big females in the 4-6 pound range full of eggs do not taste as good unless you bleed them out. Just kidding no need for the hate mail just kidding, all jokes aside all big fish taste better when bled out. This makes a big difference on salmon if you catch and eat them. They bleed like a stuck pig when you cut their gills.
The reason for cutting the gills is they will continue to pump until all the blood is out versus a cut on the skin or fin that will clot and eventually stop bleeding.