This one jumped onto a hand reel while we were sailing 2 days ago. The freezer is full!!!
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What kind of fish is it?
Our current boat isn’t conducive to fishing, as it gets blood and guts all over the cockpit, which makes the Admiral unhappy. It’s much easier to buy it from the local fishermen, and you can say, “Would you filet that for me?”.
(As a note, when you post, you can enter your location, allowing people to click on a map and see where you are.)
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It’s a Spanish Mackerel. Fantastic eating.
Ok the key to keeping everyone happy is that rope on the fishes tail! Once you have caught it, put a rope on its tail with a slip knot. Kill it, and cut it’s gills. This will make it bleed lots.
Now through it back in the water and tow it for 5 or 10 minutes while it bleeds out.
No blood in the cockpit…
Then I gut and fillet them on the bottom step of the sugar scoop. Usually while sailing. I have an anti stab glove on my left hand and a safety harness so I don’t fall overboard. It’s actually a good place to do it.
Then we have a vacuum bagging machine that we setup on the table.
We portion it up, and it’s in the freezer in no time at all. I am a big believer in treating anything you kill with respect and not wasting anything. I am not a fan of catch an release sport fishing, as studies have shown 80% of released fish die within 24 hours.
We use a hand reel that goes around one of the aft winches the wrong way. When a fish takes a lure, the line pays out and the winch clicks like an alarm. The winch puts just the right amount of drag on the line.
We have caught some enormous fish like this…
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That would keep you fed for a while!
Lou caught this tuna on an 44 Fountaine Pajot, during the ArcEurope Crossing (2023). No big fish to show from us on Vela yet … but there definitely will be!
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Those are some big fish!!!
What do you do with such a huge fish? That would fill up and entire freezer, and I would suspect that your freezers were full at the start of the trip…
This was an Atlantic crossing. Freezers not full as 2/3 of voyage was complete. A vacuum sealer was used and yes- filled in the empty space on the freezer. I’m sure the owner is still eating tuna!
We are anticipating that same scenario on Vela. So, we’ve purchased a snowmaster fridge/freezer combo to handle the onslaught of fish. Our built in fridge/freezer space is filled with South African meat!!! 
when you love to catch and eat fish you find a way!!!
We had a similar problem when we caught a giant tuna at the start of our crossing.
We totally filled everything, then had to decide… tuna or frozen meat pies from the supermarket in Panama. The pies went overboard…
The beautiful tuna went in the fridge and freezer…
After a while, we were maxed out eating tuna. Maybe we should have kept a few pies too…
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