Bluefin Tuna

[contender36]

Any of you guys here got any creative ideas about preserving a bluefin, to get the best price at market?

[Tums]

Blue Marlin Combo (5' x 9' bags) Two singles (when zipped together) will form a combo and hold up to 1200 pounds.
$449.99
AllTackle.com Fish Bags

[Yellow Fin]

Or rather than spending 500 for a tuna bag, go to your nearest army-navy surplus and buy a body bag for 20.00. Does almost as well.

[Alan]

We just put them in the fish box of our Glacier Bay!! We make a little ice and saltwater slush....keeps them good and cold!

[davidd]

We just bleed em, cut the ass out pull the guts and the blood along the spine, wash and(depending on size) pack the cavity with ice in a fishbag or put in a saltwater slurry.

ALBEMARLE 28

[Tums]

Yellow Fins comment of $500 for a tuna bag made me realize some people may not realize what I posted.
The Marlin Combo is 2 smaller bags (30" x 9') that will independantly hold up to a 400 lb fish. When zipped together it will make one giant bag (5' x 9') that holds up to a 1200 lb fish.That comes out to about $225 a bag.
If you are serious about getting the best price at market be preparred by spending a little money. Almost as good gets almost as good pay (not top dollar). With this setup you will be diversified to were you can properly store a giant blue fin to reach the market. If you catch a smaller blue fin you can store him in one bag and use the other for some Yellow Fin to take to market.

PS. The most invintive thing I have heard of was a few years back when a vessel landed a giant blue fin. They did not have anything large enough to store the fish in so they blowed up the inflatable life raft and put the fish in it. The anglers had filled the inflatble raft with the raw water wash down and put in ice to keep the fish.

[BlueMarlin]

im with alan.... our boxes are 6 feet long and nearly 2' square.... thats 24cubic ft.... with anywhere from 1 2/4 to 1.5" of blown on insulation all the way around...

[Tums]

I do not think the Glacier Bay fish boxes will handle one like this.

[davidd]

Man someone tell that guy about sunscreen , nice fish!

ALBEMARLE 28

[Hooligan]

To get the best price, with only price in mind (because you need lots of room on board a big fish box and lots of ice): Cut the lateral line, cut gill plate and bleed the fish well,(some guys take the next step a little far i think: crush the tuna's brain (with a japanese brain crusher, which they actually sell) so it can't send chemicals thru the muscles and meat while the fish is dying.) make a two inch cut just in front of the ass and cut the three chords and blow the guts out the mouth with a saltwater hose. This is the important step: place the carcass in a slush mix of seawater and ice in a fishbox/ coffin box. If you do this, the fat blossoms out of the meat, enhancing the look of the cut taken by the buyer back at the dock equalling best price. You can read how to properly bleed the fish in various tuna books: "Fish the Chair if you Dare" I believe has a section on tuna prep. Good luck.

[Bill Hendry]

All of this nonsense could have been avoided by releasing him.

bill

[Tums]

quote:Originally posted by Bill Hendry:
All of this nonsense could have been avoided by releasing him.

bill

Bill that statement does not make any since. Why would you release a dead fish?
In the case of the Big Bluefin pictured it was dead before anyone seen it. It came from the floater rigs in the Gulf of Mexico were fish go deep. Deep water fishing in not like being in the shallows on the east coast. This paticular Giant Bluefin made a deep water run and died of heat exhaustion. It took several hours to plane him to the top and bring him in. I guess you expect people to just hook a fish and then cut the line without even a fight. I do know releasing a dead fish is not a solution for conservation.