April 7, 2015

Simple Steps to Storing Fish Fillets

This is how I store fish fillets for those rainy days.

How to Freeze Redfish and Speckled Trout Fillets

I love eating speckled trout and redfish!

I prefer to clean them at the dock, but once I get home I will properly freeze them for future use.

A meal-sized portion of fillets will go into sealable plastic bags. I do this so when I thaw out a bag I am thawing out exactly how much I want to eat.

Then I fill those bags with water and purge the air out. I use the water because I have found that freezing fish meat with no air keeps it from becoming rancid.

Who wants fishy-tasting fillets?

Redfish on the Half Shell Fillets

I take my fillets and put them in plastic bags with water.

Be sure to seal each bag tight! You don't want leaks in the freezer!

Note how I left the scales on the redfish. I don't fry redfish, I prefer to eat them on the half shell. I save the frying for trout meat.

While redfish are great fried, I have found that you can always remove the scales later, but you certainly can't put them back on!

Redfish on the Half Shell

Yummy, delicious redfish on the half shell! FYI, I saw those air bubbles and got them out.

I then use shallow pans to lay the bags on. This way the bags freeze into an organizable shape and don't freeze into the grill of the freezer and become stuck.

Freezing Redfish on the Half Shell Fillets

In case water leaks from the bags the pan is there to catch the leak. The pan also helps to "shape" the bags.

Once the bags are frozen I can take them out of the pan and stack them like bricks in the freezer.

Redfish on the Half Shell Frozen
Frozen Redfish on the Half Shell

So the final product looks like the above picture.

I have kept fish fillets frozen for months like this. When I thaw them out they taste great! When I do, I like to thaw them in warm water.

Captain Devin

About the Author

Devin is a former fishing guide and lifelong inshore angler. He founded Louisiana Fishing Blog in 2012 to share his ideas as a charter captain and still writes in it today. Since then he's created a fishing university — LAFB Elite — where he teaches inshore anglers how to safely navigate Louisiana's coast and catch more fish.

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