How do you freeze your freshly caught fish?????

[ilovefish]

Hi Guys can you help me out. Some say to freeze the whole. Some say clean them and freeze the in salt water. How do you do it.

[TRIGGERFISH]

I clean mine first and then put them in my food saver bags and mark them,how many and of what. Why not clean them, I don't know how you guy's do it,to me that's gross :--| freeze them whole yuk!!!!

[Tispho]

If you want to gut them first you should buy a food saver to vacuum out all the air and prevent freezer burn

[catman]

I'd never consider freezing a fish without first gutting, scaling, skinning, filleting, or whatever has to be done to prep it for cooking. There's just too many nasty organisims on and in the fish that may not be killed through freezing. After that dry the fish and vacuum seal it. Mark the contents, weight, and date. Make sure you rotate the fish in your freezer so you're eating the oldest first - FIFO. I've got about 75 lbs of fish in the freezer so it becomes important to rotate.

[sand flea]

Don't EVER freeze a fish with the guts and gills intact. Ruins the meat.

If you don't have a vacuum sealer, just put them in a Ziploc bag with a pinch of salt and cold water. Squeeze the air out, seal it up, and place in the freezer.

[Talapia]

I think it depends on what kind of fish
it is. For inshore/offshore I will almost
always fillet and then vacuum seal. For
freshwater fish and spots it depends on
what size they are. If they are large
enough, I will fillet and freeze, if not
I have no problems freezing them whole
and have not noticed any difference
in taste.