Bleed a fish with only your finger

[bluefishnc]

I've never heard of this being done before but looks really effective. More humane than leaving them in the cooler to die and a more practical substitute for ikejime maybe.

I wonder if it would work on cats? Only downside to me is it looks like it would be messy as all to try and perform in a yak unless you have a stringer going.

Scroll to the end of this video where he catches the snook. "Popping" i.e. bleeding is at the end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rSeZ8wxj_I

[bluefishnc]

Btw... thinking about this some a good way to do this for those of us who like to keep a few might be to have a stringer with you. Catch, put fish on stringer, "pop", throw in the water for 5 min while it bleeds out, pull back in and put in your cooler to start icing. Think I will give this a go next year. Upside is the blood in the water it creates might help fishing too.

[silvis]

What pier is this?

[bluefishnc]

What pier is this?

No clue. Somewhere in South Florida (Jupiter beach?). He has well over 100 videos so I'm sure if you scroll his Youtube channel you can figure it out. Antonelli fishes that pier often. One of the better youtube fishing channels imo. Always trying something new (beach, ocean, ski, paddle, pier etc..) and educational.

[Slobber Bob]

Bleeding fish is messy on the kayak. Holding it in the water after you've got the bleeding started will keep the mess down.

But to the video you posted and the popping technique, I decided to give it a try today. I already bleed every fish I keep, but I've always done it by cutting up through the gills with scissors, which usually cuts that artery or vein the guy in the video is seen popping. The popping technique worked but it's not quite as easy to do as it looked in the video. But I was doing it with 19" specks and the artery was near impossible to feel it's so small compared to that on the snook in the video. I pretty much had to pop the gill plate from the throat so I could see the artery and then pop it.

[bluefishnc]

Great info Bob. I can definitely see that as an issue on a "smaller" 19 inch fish (congrats on a nice spec btw). Guessing each fish anatomy is slightly different too so a spec, snook, striper may all be a little different in the technique and ease. Good to know on the specs though that it can be done with a little effort.