Celebrating Our Fish Harvest

The fish we catch and keep to eat are for most of us a critical part of the process of ice fishing—a reward for our effort that goes beyond sport and ties us to the principal reason that most of our ancestors fished. For them, fish as food was right up there with, and usually more important than, anything having to do with sport. Today, in traditional fashion, most ice anglers still want to harvest at least some of their catch.

More anglers today are harvesting selectively, however; that is, they let a portion of the catch go, particularly those large fish that usually are less abundant than the smaller fish of the same species. So we release the eight-pound walleyes we catch in favor of harvesting several 16-inch fish, the making’s of an exquisite meal for two or more. Or we take home a mess of abundant panfish of a medium-size, probably perch, bluegills, or crappies. This can help sustain good fishing. Meanwhile, we continue a sturdy tradition of eating some fish, which, obviously, are nutritious and delicious.

Conscientious anglers take care to treat the fish they intend to eat with care, ensuring that they will taste as fine as possible on the table. Take care not to let your catch freeze on ice. When fish flesh freezes, the individual muscle cells expand and often burst. Thawed fish is therefore often“weepy,” limper, and of slightly diminished taste by comparison to unfrozen fish.

If it’s not too cold outside, I pack my fish in snow in order to insulate them enough to keep them from freezing. Some anglers stringer fish and keep them tethered in the water below the ice. Another option is to build a “livewell” on ice. Livewells are aguered out holes that aren’t quite bored through. Then a small hole is chipped through in order to allow icy water to fill the well. Fish keep well in these wells, but such freezing cold water is, overall, not good for fish, so fish to be released later shouldn’t be kept in such a well. Wells are for fish we want to keep.

I also have long recommended that anglers bleed their fish while the fish are still alive. This is particularly important for larger fish like walleyes, pike, and lake trout. Blood in flesh somewhat diminishes the taste of some fish. It also increases the chance for spoilage when the fish are kept for several days in the refrigerator before being eaten. Perhaps the primary objective of bleeding, though, is pearly white, perfectly clean fillets.

Bleed fish by sticking them in the heart with a knife. Insert the knife between the pectoral fins and cut forward until you see blood flow. Fish don’t have a lot of blood, so they usually don’t bleed for long. I bleed fish on the ice just after I catch a keeper, then wrap it in a wet towel and pack it in snow or place it in a cooler in the back of my truck.

Traditional shore lunches work well on ice, using a Coleman camp stove to do the cooking. We set up a portable ice shelter, then set up a portable table and get cooking, often doing a traditional fish fry. Another wonderful option is to prepare a basic soup at home, then add fresh fish to the reheated soup on the ice. The fish can be panfish quartered in sections, or larger predatory fish like walleyes, pike, burbot, lake trout, or bass, cut in one-inch sections. Once the soup’s hot, it takes about five minutes at a simmer to finish panfish, about 10 minutes at a simmer to finish the larger one-inch predator portions. These breaks are a wonderful part of ice fishing.