A SLOW START TO STEELHEADING AND SUSHI QUALITY SALMON FILLETS - Rick Itami

December 17, 2024

Sushi chefs are known to seek the highest quality fish fillets for their creations and therefore pay more for fish that are water bled.

The author thought he hooked a fall Chinook the way it fought, staying deep and making several runs. But it turned out to be a nice female B-run keeper.

After a slow start, steelhead finally started crossing Lower Granite Dam in good numbers. I got up at o’dark thirty yesterday and drove down to Lewiston. I was on the water by 6:30 am and anchored in the confluence of the Clearwater and Snake Rivers fish-ing a float with a red coon shrimp 20 feet down. I missed the first take-down, but was better prepared for the next strike and was surprised to land a jack fall Chinook salmon. I kept fishing until about 10:30 am but only managed to miss three more good take-downs. I went back out about 5:30 pm and decided to try fishing up the Clearwater about a quarter mile upstream from the mouth. I anchored where I had marked a massive amount of fish and started seeing steelhead rolling all over the river, plus an occasional fall Chinook. Several other float fishermen landed steelhead, but I missed the two bites I got before dark.

With so many fish in the river, I decided to try trolling lighted lures when it got dark. That was a good choice because within a half an hour, I hooked 4 steelhead and landed two, one of which was wild. The other landed fish was a big, beautiful B-run steelhead I would guess to be 17 pounds. With my limit filled so quickly, I headed back to the launch. I got out back on the water this morning about 6:45 am and anchored up in the Clearwater where I had had success trolling lighted lures the night before. After a couple of misses, I saw my float disappear and set the hook on what I knew was a good fish. I thought it was a fall Chinook the way it fought, staying deep and making several runs. But it turned out to be a nice female B-run keeper.

Sushi Quality Salmon Fillets

While on my annual trip to the Hanford Reach in late September of 2021 fishing for fall Chinook with guide Toby Wyatt of Reel Time Fishing (208-790-2128), I expressed to Toby how I would like to write about something new. I have written plenty of articles about catching a bazillion fish and the normal “how to” articles, but now I wanted something different. Toby suggested writing an article about a new bleeding technique for salmon and steelhead that he learned from his uncle on a recent trip.

His uncle, Mr. Victor Tang-Quan, is an experienced fisherman but had never caught salmon before his trip with Toby. As an inquisitive, detail-oriented person, he did a lot of research before going out with Toby. His research uncovered a bleeding technique that is quite different from how most of us normally bleed out fish after the catch.

Buzz Ramsey Series 360 Trolling Rod Signature Series

The standard way to bleed out fish is after bonking it, slit its gills and then dump the fish into the water and let it bleed out for several minutes tethered to a rope as you continue trolling.

Toby said that the new method that he called “water bleeding” was a much better technique that results in firmer fillets, no noticeable residual blood in the meat and virtually no trace of blood in skeins of roe in females. To prove his point, on the first day of my two-day trip, his first-mate Phil used the new water bleeding technique. On the second day, he used the old way of bleeding fish.

Fall Chinook caught on the author’s first day out which underwent the “water bleeding” technique.

Although our test was less than scientific, I can say that indeed the water bleeding technique appeared to produce the positive results mentioned above.

Wanting to get more detail on the water bleeding technique, I emailed Mr. Tang-Quan, asking him for an interview. Victor graciously agreed and shared what he had learned with me over the phone.

He said that he is interested in all things Japanese. He discovered the water bleeding technique is used for fish bound for the sushi chefs’ knives. Sushi chefs are known to seek the highest quality fish fillets for their creations and therefore pay more for fish that are water bled.

Victor explained that the water bleeding method is done in three steps as follows:

Step 1 – Ikejime. The fish is killed by inserting a spike quickly and directly into the hind brain, usually located slightly behind and above the eye. This brings about immediate brain death but doesn’t stop the heartbeat.

Step 2 – Shinkeijime. A wire (or in Toby’s case, 100-pound test monofilament) is used to destroy the spinal cord. A cut is made just forward of the tail that encircles the spinal column. The wire or monofilament is inserted into the spinal column and forced up from the tail cut all the way to the gills. This stops electric energy from flowing down the spinal cord, delaying rigamortis for 10-12 hours. This also delays lactic acid from building up in the muscle tissue.

Step 3 – Chi-nuki. This is the blood-letting part wherein you slit the gills and the fish is placed upside down in a 5-gallon bucket. The fish is then messaged to get the blood out. A water hose is then placed into the gills forcing water down the spinal column and out the tail cut.

I took some photos and videos of the water bleeding process on Toby’s boat but unfortunately, the quality isn’t good enough for sharing in this great publication. But you can find the process shown in detail by entering the Japanese words in the three steps outlined above to access all the information you need.

While the water bleeding technique takes a few minutes longer than the old method, it’s worth the time if you want the highest quality of fish fillets and roe. Just ask any world-class sushi chef.

—Arigato gozaimasu