What's that in my tog fillet?

[jsquare]

I have never seen that in any of the tautog I have kept. Looks fine to me, though. Interesting.
Sometimes the tog taste really crabby. Guess it depends on what they have been eating.

[tufnik]

I didn't know they sometimes taste crabby. So, maybe it wasn't the broiling. It's just the fish....interesting.

Over a year ago when I was on a head boat going after tog out from O.C., the mate bled the togs in water buckets. First time I saw or heard about bleeding togs. I heard about bleeding blues, but not tog. I didn't think it was needed because all the keeper togs I caught off the yak and took home over the years tasted fine (without bleeding). I still don't bleed togs. Can anyone out there say there is a noticeable taste difference between bled and non-bled togs?

On another point. I caught a 26.5" tog off a head boat, and the mate had it bled. Took it home and had it cooked. About half the fish did not have a pleasant taste. I thought maybe old togs start to taste not-so-good. A tog that size is maybe 35 yrs old. So, maybe the saying that "many bigger and older fish don't taste that good" is true for tog.

[jsquare]

I usually catch most of my tog on headboats out of OC, and they almost always bleed the fish out in a bucket. Honestly, I couldn't tell you whether it changes the flavor of tog all that much. Definitely works for blues, though.

If you have the fish cut on the boat, you need to be careful how it get stored. Sometimes if the mates have a lot of fish to clean, the fillets end up getting rinsed in a tub of murky water, and then bagged up like that. Those bags of fish can get funky quick, so I always clean and re-bag the fillets at home if I have fish cleaned on the boat. Perhaps this is why your big tog ended up tasting poorly?

[Cowpokey]

If you have the fish cut on the boat, you need to be careful how it get stored. Sometimes if the mates have a lot of fish to clean, the fillets end up getting rinsed in a tub of murky water, and then bagged up like that. Those bags of fish can get funky quick, so I always clean and re-bag the fillets at home if I have fish cleaned on the boat. Perhaps this is why your big tog ended up tasting poorly?

Keep in mind they are just using "raw" (sea) water to wash things down too. I would do a good job cleaning the fish up as a deck hand, but anyone that thought their fillets were ready for storage or cooking when they left the boat would be thinking WRONG.

[Romo]

I usually fillet my own fish but sometimes I know I won't be up for it and get the mate to do it. I definitely agree with washing and trimming the fillets up when you get home but there are people who think its absolute sacrilege to rinse fillets with freshwater and refuse to do this. I think that is insane when you see what goes on up at the cutting board table.