Article by Capt. Mark Sampson
The bag of flounder was still in his refrigerator. He and his friend caught four keepers five days ago and planned to eat them the following night but plans changed when his buddy had to leave town early. So he was left with all the fillets but just never got around to messing with them until almost a week later when he noticed the smell. And it wasn’t good, so out he went to feed the seagulls and crabs from his dock. Yeah, what a waste of four really good fish!
All sportsmen carry a huge ethical responsibility to ensure that the fish and game they kill is properly recovered, processed and ultimately consumed. But bringing home fish or game requires that the sportsman plans ahead for success.
I once hunted with a fellow who came from the western-shore that morning driving some jazzy little sports car. Wouldn't you know that he was only one in our group to get a deer that day, but he had no way to get it back home. It's kind of silly when you think about it - if he didn't think he was going to get a deer then he should have stayed home. If he thought there was a chance he might get one, then he should have brought a different vehicle.
Wise sportsmen will always assume they're going to be successful and be prepared with whatever they need to care for and transport their quarry. It would seem silly to go offshore for big fish like tuna or swordfish and not have a big enough cooler or fish bag to hold your catch if you're successful. But people do that kind of thing all the time, just ask one of the local fish cleaners how many times people bring them fish that have turned to mush because they weren't properly iced.
A catch or kill must also be processed in a timely manner such that it will eventually find its way onto a plate or into a freezer in as prime a shape as humanly possible.
The average consumer rarely has the option of enjoying fish that was caught the same day, or even to purchase fish that was frozen within a day or two of being caught. That opportunity comes often to sportsmen, but we must take advantage of it by making the care of our harvest a #1 priority from the time it's acquired.
At the end of a fishing trip, the fish should be cleaned right away, not the next day or whenever we can get around to it. Deer should be field dressed (gutted) as soon as conditions permit. Waterfowl should be picked (plucked) and cleaned before the day is out to maintain their quality. After a long day on the water, the marsh, or in the woods, this extra work might not always be appealing, but it's a necessary part of the process that cannot be put off. If we take the life of an animal we must assume the responsibility to ensure that its meat will be put to good use.
Even when the meat has found its way into the freezer, sportsmen still have the responsibility to make certain that what they put in there will eventually be consumed and not thrown out someday because it's freezer-burnt or just so old that no one wants to mess with it.
Everything that goes into a freezer should be clearly dated and marked as to what it is. It's also good to know what keeps a long time in a freezer and what needs to be eaten relatively soon. Fish such as tuna, dolphin, sea trout, wahoo, bluefish, mackerel and croaker don't keep long, while fish such as shark, rockfish, sea bass, flounder, triggerfish and tautog keep quite well, as does most wild game. After eating up the most perishable meat first, sportsmen should then go with the "first-in-first-out" method to ensure that nothing sits in the freezer too long.
A big chest freezer is one of the best tools a sportsman can have, but because they can hold so much fish and game it's easy to lose track of what's being stored inside, particularly if items work their way down to the bottom and are forgotten. Big freezers require that periodic inventories be taken or a simple inventory check off list be maintained to ensure that nothing is lost.
As sportsmen, we have access to some of the freshest, best tasting and healthiest food imaginable. But such quality meals are not guaranteed just because someone is successful at making a shot or setting a hook. The tastiest rewards come to those who make the effort to properly take care of their harvest from the time it hits the ground or thumps down into a fish box until it's eventually slipped onto their dinner plate. §
