Fish Bonking

[Mike Carey]

I'll bonk to keep the fish from thrashing and spraying me with water and blood from the cut gills.

[Bodofish]

I just put them on a stringer, cut the gills and let'em pump it all out. They's dead before you know it.

[natetreat]

The knock on the head paralyzes them, but doesn't kill them. Bleeding the fish removes the fishy blood taste from the meat of the fish, if it stays in the meat it coagulates and give the "muddy" taste that you'll find. If you are going to eat the fish, you want to bleed it out.

If I am fishing from the bank sans-cooler, I like to keep my fish alive on a strong stringer and then do the killing at the end of the trip or when I move. Be careful though, because they'll revive on the stringer and have just as much fight in them as when you caught them if you're not careful.

When I was a kid we used to kill them with a pen knife into the brain, quick and painless for the fish, but that doesn't allow the heart to pump the blood out of the meat. I find that if you don't bonk the fish, they bleed out better when you just cut the gills and throw them in the box.

A bonk to the head does kill them. If you notice when you land your fish the eyes are looking down when our of the water. As soon as you take one good whack the eyes look straight and the fish us dead.

Its much better to kill your fish immediately. Leaving a fish on a stringer creates Lactic acid in the meat and lessens the quality. Lactic acid is created when muscles in animals are over worked, exactly like the feeling in your muscles after work out.

The lactic acid is built up by the fight from the fish. When you fight the fish until it rolls over, that's exhaustion. Much like you said, it's running until you can't any more. Leaving the fish on the stringer actually gives the fish a chance to recover, and burn that acid out, so if your worried about the quality of the meat based on the lactic, you're better off letting the fish recuperate. The bonk paralyzes them, eventually killing them sure, but the heart is still pumping. The only reason to bonk them is to manage the thrashing, making the fish easier to handle. I don't usually do it.

We can agree to disagree if you'd like. I'm okay with it.

[FishBaitThe2nd]

I cant remember exactly how I did it, but I use to take a knife and stab it right behind there nose, stab it in at a 45 degree angle or so, remove the knife, and blood would start squirting out. Kinda cool lol

[Mordalphus]

Yeah, bonking them might kill them eventually, but if you bonk and then cut a gill their heart sprays blood everywhere, so it's obviously still beating.

[ChelleDean08]

granted I am very new to this, but was told by a number of men I've fished beside to smack 'em good when you pull them in...I of course have yet to be in the position of having to make that decision... I have noticed though, even after being slit and cleaned out, they flop around in the water for a good amount of time and I have NEVER seen that before in my life! Crazy dang fish, bonking them or not, it seems you are damned if you do and damned if you don't!

[schu7498]

No sense in making something suffer if you dont need to.

[NimmunDay]

I cant remember exactly how I did it, but I use to take a knife and stab it right behind there nose, stab it in at a 45 degree angle or so, remove the knife, and blood would start squirting out. Kinda cool lol

Thats how I do it.Works great if you do it right, kills em instantly.

[spoonman]

The knock on the head paralyzes them, but doesn't kill them. Bleeding the fish removes the fishy blood taste from the meat of the fish, if it stays in the meat it coagulates and give the "muddy" taste that you'll find. If you are going to eat the fish, you want to bleed it out.

If I am fishing from the bank sans-cooler, I like to keep my fish alive on a strong stringer and then do the killing at the end of the trip or when I move. Be careful though, because they'll revive on the stringer and have just as much fight in them as when you caught them if you're not careful.

When I was a kid we used to kill them with a pen knife into the brain, quick and painless for the fish, but that doesn't allow the heart to pump the blood out of the meat. I find that if you don't bonk the fish, they bleed out better when you just cut the gills and throw them in the box.

A bonk to the head does kill them. If you notice when you land your fish the eyes are looking down when our of the water. As soon as you take one good whack the eyes look straight and the fish us dead.

Its much better to kill your fish immediately. Leaving a fish on a stringer creates Lactic acid in the meat and lessens the quality. Lactic acid is created when muscles in animals are over worked, exactly like the feeling in your muscles after work out.

The lactic acid is built up by the fight from the fish. When you fight the fish until it rolls over, that's exhaustion. Much like you said, it's running until you can't any more. Leaving the fish on the stringer actually gives the fish a chance to recover, and burn that acid out, so if your worried about the quality of the meat based on the lactic, you're better off letting the fish recuperate. The bonk paralyzes them, eventually killing them sure, but the heart is still pumping. The only reason to bonk them is to manage the thrashing, making the fish easier to handle. I don't usually do it.

We can agree to disagree if you'd like. I'm okay with it.

+1 nate, granted I bonk on my boat when I have a cooler to throw them in, but on the bank in the summer my friend showed me the stringer technique, and I brought up lactic acid . But when you put them on the stringer they just kinda chill out and are nice and fresh when you get ready to leave. And they taste great!

[dicinu]

place on stringer and rip some gills no bonking for me I rip gills on both sides why I do not know I personally think it blends out better but that is just my opinion.

[Bodofish]

No sense in making something suffer if you dont need to.

Fish would have to feel pain in order to suffer. Just doesn't happen.

[jd39]

No sense in making something suffer if you dont need to.

Fish would have to feel pain in order to suffer. Just doesn't happen.

They have nervous systems that send out some sort of signal to negative physical stimuli though. May not be "pain" as humans experience it (we're probably a lot more emotional about it than a fish is I would think) but it gets their attention. Something tells a fish to start fighting when hooked, or to thrash out of water, etc...
You could be right Bodofish but since I'm not sure what a fish experiences, and my anecdotal "evidence" leads me to believe they experience something, I think schu's advice is sound.
Bonk, bleed, ice is what I do.

[Bodofish]

No sense in making something suffer if you dont need to.

Fish would have to feel pain in order to suffer. Just doesn't happen.

They have nervous systems that send out some sort of signal to negative physical stimuli though. May not be "pain" as humans experience it (we're probably a lot more emotional about it than a fish is I would think) but it gets their attention. Something tells a fish to start fighting when hooked, or to thrash out of water, etc...
You could be right Bodofish but since I'm not sure what a fish experiences, and my anecdotal "evidence" leads me to believe they experience something, I think schu's advice is sound.
Bonk, bleed, ice is what I do.

As I've said many times before. I've personally killed millions of fish and I would guess a million of them were still live when they went across the butcher table. Bellies slashed open guts pulled out with out a flinch. Fish do not feel pain. The wounds I've seen on a fish and still be swimming leads me to only one conclusion. Fish do not feel pain. Feel free to prove me wrong, I know you can't. Fish still don't feel pain.

16 years of working in and managing a fish processing plant, I've touched more fish than darn near anyone here has dreamed about let lone caught or killed.

[spoonman]

Did you talk to any of those fish? Just as it can't be proven they can feel pain, you can't prove that no pain is felt. So unless your a fish whisperer....

[jd39]

Like I said you could be right Bodofish, I don't know. I think the question comes down to how "pain" is defined, "pain" as a human would experience it, probably not. "Pain" as a neurological signal telling an animal something's wrong, probably a pretty good chance. It's a basic survival tool I doubt fish are exempt from. Heck even worms back away from the point of the hook when I try to thread them, some signal let that worm know that point wasn't a good thing or it wouldn't back away. I'm not saying it's "pain" in the human sense but it's something. Who knows really, we could probably argue all day with our "evidence". Wonder what the scientific community thinks? Will have to google tonight.

[Mike Carey]

deja vu the turn this thread has taken.

I vote for they feel something. Pain is a defense mechanism for a specie's protection. How they interpret it is between them and God.

[chongo469]

I used my thermos one time when the fish bonker rolled under the seat and I couldn't reach it.... It killed it just as good as any real fish bonker and stirred my coffee at the same time...

[Bodofish]

Last post. If they don't flinch they don't feel pain. Simple as that.

[Mike Carey]

Last post. If they don't flinch they don't feel pain. Simple as that.

Can't resist... if they don't flinch you aren't hitting them hard enough.

[NFCustom]

Here it's a study done that says they don't feel pain. I agree
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/scie ... tists.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;