On 7/8/05 11:13 AM, in article
, "Ken Fortenberry"
wrote:

Tom Nakashima wrote:
I plan to eat what I catch and release the other brook trout, but my
question is; how is the best way to kill the fish that I will be eating? I
don't mean to be cruel to the fish in anyway. I've heard that a strike on
the head is one method, then gutting them right away. The other is just
letting them suffocate by keeping them out of the water. Another way is
gutting them alive.
Comments?

I bonk them on the head immediately then put them in
an arctic creel. They'll keep quite a while if you keep
them cool so there's no need to gut them right away.

I've got nothing to base this on, but it seems to me they keep quite a while
in the arctic creel regardless of if they are gutted or not.

I
don't like to let them die slowly of suffocation.

Ditto, and when last I offed a fish, I smacked it but good on the head,
twice, and it persisted in flopping around (not that this meant it was alive
necessarily). Time before that I had a knife handy so slit-slit-scoop and I
*know* he was dead.

FWIW, I have a hard time killing brookies. In fact I don't think I have
ever done so. They're just too pretty. Silly me, but there you have it.
Only trout I've killed have been stocked rainbows.

Bill