How Do You Quickly And Humanely Kill Fish? 2025
tcbass reply :
This may seem like a strange question, especially from who's been killing and eating fish his entire life. I've always hit fish over the head with a heavy stick or something and it's killed them immediately. Recently I've been eating bass and they seem much harder to kill. I give the 5-8 whacks and they are still alive. I don't know if it's the sharp angle of their head vs. the more horizontal slope of a walleye but they are much harder to kill.
So, what's the best, quickest, most humane way to dispatch fish?
Raul reply :
For what I know bass haven´t developed recently some sort of helmet to protect their head against tcbass´ hard blows.
It ain´t the wand but the magician, maybe you have lost some of your good aiming.
HeavyFisher reply :
Personally I slit the gills in half, hold them upside down and bleed them out. They are usually dead in under 60 seconds, then I gut them. Less blood left in the fish makes it taste better. If you do decide to try this make sure you slit the gills with the tail facing away from you because there is a lot of blood splatter.
OroBass reply :
Yep slit em an bleed em.
SGT Rico reply :
Bite their head off, thats what real men do.
tcbass reply :
On 7/13/2014 at 2:44 AM, HeavyFisher said:Personally I slit the gills in half, hold them upside down and bleed them out. They are usually dead in under 60 seconds, then I gut them. Less blood left in the fish makes it taste better. If you do decide to try this make sure you slit the gills with the tail facing away from you because there is a lot of blood splatter.
Any video how to do this? By upside down do you mean head down? Because you say with tail facing away from you.
tbone1993 reply :
.45acp
HeavyFisher reply :
The head faces you, tail faces away from you. Stick a knife under the gil plate and slice the gills cutting towards the tail. You don't have to do it this way, it's just sometimes the blood spurts out all over the place.
WRB reply :
Simple solution is put the fish on ice that you plan to eat about 15-30 minutes before cleaning them, humane and they are dead and fresh.
Tom
Kevin22 reply :
Hold the fish with the head away from you on a table. Put the point of your knife between the eyes and back about 1/2" with the blade facing the head (away from you!). Push the knife in and push forward splitting the head between the eyes. The fish will immediately expire without knowing what hit them.
slonezp reply :
On 7/13/2014 at 4:08 AM, tbone1993 said:.45acp
Many years ago before all the anti-gun bs, my grandfather would shoot pike and musky in the head with a .22 before bringing them in the boat. Kind of like Swamp People only in Canada and Minnesota.
HeavyFisher reply :
^lol
everythingthatswims reply :
Whack them on the head, slit the gills, and put them on ice. Although killing a catfish isn't possible, you might as well release them after you filet them haha
Catch and Grease reply :
I clean my bass while they are still alive a lot....
FirstnameLastname reply :
I take a thin sharp knife place it between its eyes and slam on the knife sending to kill the brain while also cutting the spine. Instant death if done right, you get a final twitch if your off though.
Bluebasser86 reply :
On 7/13/2014 at 9:53 AM, FirstnameLastname said:I take a thin sharp knife place it between its eyes and slam on the knife sending to kill the brain while also cutting the spine. Instant death if done right, you get a final twitch if your off though.
Same here, or just behind and above you eye. You can easily feel the skull with the tip of your knife so a quick push and they're done. The backside of a hatchet blade works really well also, especially for heavy skulled fish like catfish.
crazyjoeclemens reply :
I've actually never kept any bass. Only been bass fishing for a couple years and just now getting to the point where I can consistently catch em. Catfish and crappie, I've always just tossed em in a cooler full of ice.
porkleaker reply :
I also stab them in the brain and either fillet them or put them on ice to keep them fresh and then batter them up and mmmmmm
bassr95 reply :
I usually fillet them alive and twitching. call it cruel, but they certainly die pretty quick without their meat! 
ZB85 reply :
On 7/13/2014 at 3:38 AM, SGT Rico said:Bite their head off, thats what real men do.
X2
tcbass reply :
On 7/13/2014 at 8:45 AM, Catch and Grease said:I clean my bass while they are still alive a lot....
On 7/14/2014 at 8:11 AM, bassr95 said:I usually fillet them alive and twitching. call it cruel, but they certainly die pretty quick without their meat!
You two maybe practicing serial killers.........just sayin'.
lol
Catch and Grease reply :
On 7/15/2014 at 2:16 AM, tcbass said:You two maybe practicing serial killers.........just sayin'.
lol
Lol Idk its just the way my grandpa has always done it and he taught me how to clean bass
Nice_Bass reply :
I agree...I have never not just fileted them. Electric knife and it is all over in about 15 seconds anyhow.
lazyfish01001 reply :
I had to kill my first bass last night. I was using a soft plastic worm with 2 hooks in it. It was a bass about 8-9 inches and he swallowed this little worm whole. There was no way I could get the hooks out with him being so small, and the hooks being in his stomach meat... I took my very sharp buck knife about half an inch behind his eye and severed the brain stem and cut the head off. He died immediately and I was able to save my bait. The hooks were definatly lodged in his gut pretty good, so I didn't feel so bad about ending his fish life. To be honest, I would rather have saved the fish than the bait, I just didn't want the poor guy to live the rest of his life with hooks in his meat and a stupid worm stuck in his throat, impeding him from eating. But, his body made a good meal for a lazy catfish or one of the many huge over 2 ft bass in this guys pond.
My uncle got mad at me during a tournament last year when I was trying to delicately remove a hook from a fish. "Don't feel sorry for it!, rip that hook out and throw it in the livewell!" he said, but I couldn't help but feel bad for the fish. I fish for the sport, not to cause great harm to the animals.
Catch and Grease reply :
You should have just cut the line as short as possible and threw him back, then at least he has a chance at living. He has a 0% chance without a head! Haha
Slipknot_Fan666 reply :
On 7/18/2014 at 6:42 AM, lazyfish01001 said:I had to kill my first bass last night. I was using a soft plastic worm with 2 hooks in it. It was a bass about 8-9 inches and he swallowed this little worm whole. There was no way I could get the hooks out with him being so small, and the hooks being in his stomach meat... I took my very sharp buck knife about half an inch behind his eye and severed the brain stem and cut the head off. He died immediately and I was able to save my bait. The hooks were definatly lodged in his gut pretty good, so I didn't feel so bad about ending his fish life. To be honest, I would rather have saved the fish than the bait, I just didn't want the poor guy to live the rest of his life with hooks in his meat and a stupid worm stuck in his throat, impeding him from eating. But, his body made a good meal for a lazy catfish or one of the many huge over 2 ft bass in this guys pond.
My uncle got mad at me during a tournament last year when I was trying to delicately remove a hook from a fish. "Don't feel sorry for it!, rip that hook out and throw it in the livewell!" he said, but I couldn't help but feel bad for the fish. I fish for the sport, not to cause great harm to the animals.
Prepare to get hate, most of people will probably say what your uncle said to you. Luckily I've never had a bass swallow the hook, but I hav had a catfish that got the hook far enough back that I couldn't get it out and had to throw him back with a small treble hook in his mouth.
J Francho reply :
I cut the gills, bleed the fish out, put them on ice if I plan to eat it.
WRB reply :
Cutting bass gills doesn't improve the meat flavor with bass like it does with some fish, just put the live bass on ice and it suffocates quickly and humanely with no bloody mess. Cleaning live fish isn't humane on any level and disrespectful treatment of the animal.
Tom
J Francho reply :
I'm not sure we're talking about bass exclusively. I don't eat bass - no method makes them taste good to me. Now a northern, walleye, or perch…now you're talking.
tcbass reply :
On 7/18/2014 at 11:29 AM, WRB said:Cutting bass gills doesn't improve the meat flavor with bass like it does with some fish, just put the live bass on ice and it suffocates quickly and humanely with no bloody mess. Cleaning live fish isn't humane on any level and disrespectful treatment of the animal.
Tom
I agree on the cutting the gills and blood part with bass. My brother tried the gill thing to bleed them, made a mess and the meat tasted the same.
I tried the ice today and that didn't work so well. One was still alive and the others were sorta hardened in a u-shape which made filleting hard.
I then tried using my knife to pierce the skull and reach the brain but it was so hard to push in I thought my knife blade was going to break in half and impale me. Man, I thought it was going to be easy to push the knife in after reading the posts on it.
Well, cutting the gills, icing, and piercing their skulls with my knife is out. What will I do now. lol.
And filleting them alive is also out of the question. lol. I did it in the past on a fish that I thought was dead. After one whole fillet was off it flopped around and threw scales everywhere inside my kitchen.
WRB reply :
Use crushed ice or cube ice and put the ice on top of the bass in a cooler or drained live well, give it 30 minutes or a few hours if transporting them. In California you can't transport live sport fish. If the fish are not flat, bend them flat.
Tom
J Francho reply :
You could try throwing them back if it's too much trouble.
Slipknot_Fan666 reply :
Either throw them back or take a hatchet and cut the head off or crush their skull.
HeavyFisher reply :
You could carry on 14" wooden bat and hit the fish on the head. That'll kill it for sure, and it would be pretty instant. I still prefer the slitting the gills method, as far as the meat tasting the same...bass is bass there is no method to improve the flavor(purely subjective) : P
deaknh03 reply :
drowning?
Bob C reply :
I keep them happy in the live well until I get home. Filet and fry. If you're concerned about them, leave them alone and don't stick hooks in them.
Bob C reply :
On 7/19/2014 at 2:49 AM, deaknh03 said:drowning?
I haven't tried that yet. Good idea.
WRB reply :
I know it's old school to follow the sportsman creed of being a good sportsman by respecting the game you hunt and intend to harvest for food. Clean kill doesn't mean filleting live fish to me. Releasing fish alive and healthy is the best way to handle bass. Keeping severely stressed or wounded bass to eat or selective harvest by keeping smaller bass to eat is a choice we make as anglers and good conservationist. How we go about killing these bass determines if we are good sportsman or not. The OP is simply asking how to humanely kill the bass he intends to clean before eating. Some good suggestions, some humorous, some poor suggestions.
By the way you can drown fish by towing them by the tail, water going backwards through the gills, not a good idea for small fish like bass....maybe giant Black Sea bass, safer than the shot gun slug in the head method.
Tom
JamesO reply :
I went trout fishing in montana this summer and thats when i cleaned my first fish. I was looking at a book and it said to hit it in the head with a blunt object
Smokinal reply :
K-Kill?
Mainebass1984 reply :
On 7/13/2014 at 2:01 AM, tcbass said:This may seem like a strange question, especially from who's been killing and eating fish his entire life. I've always hit fish over the head with a heavy stick or something and it's killed them immediately. Recently I've been eating bass and they seem much harder to kill. I give the 5-8 whacks and they are still alive. I don't know if it's the sharp angle of their head vs. the more horizontal slope of a walleye but they are much harder to kill.
So, what's the best, quickest, most humane way to dispatch fish?
A small metal 14 " bat. A good whack on top of the head ends things pretty d**n quickly.
Commercial and hatchery harvest of vast amounts of pacific salmon is done using this method. It works on all game fish. Be sure to give it a firm hard whack on top of the head just behind the eyes. Instant death. It is quick and effective. There is no bloody mess.I have done this on thousands upon thousands of pacific salmon. It works.
The reason this method is used by commercial fisherman and hatchery workers is because it is kills the fish very quickly. When harvesting vast amounts of fish per day you don't want to waste any time waiting for a fish to die. Time is money.
Is it the most humane ? I think is up to argument and everyone has there own opinion. You put a fish on ice and it surely will flop around for a few minutes until it suffocates. Cutting the gills is a bit messy and the fish dies somewhat quickly for sure. A forceful sharp blow to the head and it will be dead within seconds if not instantly.
tcbass reply :
On 7/19/2014 at 11:45 PM, Mainebass1984 said:A small metal 14 " bat. A good whack on top of the head ends things pretty d**n quickly.
Commercial and hatchery harvest of vast amounts of pacific salmon is done using this method. It works on all game fish. Be sure to give it a firm hard whack on top of the head just behind the eyes. Instant death. It is quick and effective. There is no bloody mess.I have done this on thousands upon thousands of pacific salmon. It works.
The reason this method is used by commercial fisherman and hatchery workers is because it is kills the fish very quickly. When harvesting vast amounts of fish per day you don't want to waste any time waiting for a fish to die. Time is money.
Is it the most humane ? I think is up to argument and everyone has there own opinion. You put a fish on ice and it surely will flop around for a few minutes until it suffocates. Cutting the gills is a bit messy and the fish dies somewhat quickly for sure. A forceful sharp blow to the head and it will be dead within seconds if not instantly.
Would a wood bat work or is there something special about a metal bat?
Mainebass1984 reply :
On 7/20/2014 at 7:34 AM, tcbass said:Would a wood bat work or is there something special about a metal bat?
That should work fine. I don't think it matters if its wood or metal as long as you hit them squarely on the top of the head just behind the eyes with a sharp firm blow.
WRB reply :
The wooden bat is a old technique and use to be called a priest....gives them their last rights. You can use the fillet knife handle to knock out the bass. Remember the basses brain is small and well protected, be careful you don't hit or cut your own hand!
Tom
ColdSVT reply :
On 7/13/2014 at 7:51 AM, slonezp said:Many years ago before all the anti-gun bs, my grandfather would shoot pike and musky in the head with a .22 before bringing them in the boat. Kind of like Swamp People only in Canada and Minnesota.
My buddys dad always said " a good muskie fiaherman always carries a ballpene hammer in his tacklebox"
tcbass reply :
I found the solution!
I had to take apart this cheap storage bin and it was made with these 4 rods. I think they are steel. They are extremely heavy, yet thin. I tried it on 3 bass and it killed them with one small whack. Apparently by being thin they get quite the whipping action and momentum even though they are very small. They don't need a huge smack, just a quick, small hit and it's all over.
Perfect. No huge hammer or bat. Just a small thin, heavy rod. It's probably about 12" long and easy to store....and cheap!
RoLo reply :
On 7/13/2014 at 7:51 AM, slonezp said:Many years ago before all the anti-gun bs, my grandfather would shoot pike and musky in the head with a .22 before bringing them in the boat. Kind of like Swamp People only in Canada and Minnesota.
Years ago, my wife & I entered a Mako Invitational Tourney out of Hoffman's Marina, Manasquan, NJ.
To be eligible, the mako shark had to weigh 100 pounds or more, so you planned on boating some very large guests.
There were 101 boats in that tourney, which I can't forget because I entered on the deadline day and was boat # 99.
To my knowledge, there wasn't one skipper who wasn't toting a firearm aboard, at least a bang-stick. That was 1979.
Roger
tcbass reply :
On 7/26/2014 at 8:09 AM, RoLo said:Years ago, my wife & I entered a Mako Invitational Tourney out of Hoffman's Marina, Manasquan, NJ.
To be eligible, the mako shark had to weigh 100 pounds or more, so you planned on boating some very large guests.
There were 101 boats in that tourney, which I can't forget because I entered on the deadline day and was boat # 99.
To my knowledge, there wasn't one skipper who wasn't toting a firearm aboard, at least a bang-stick. That was 1979.
Roger
Is that how they do it still?
Not sure I can shoot my bass. lol.
5 Dollar Fishing Game reply :
On 7/13/2014 at 3:38 AM, SGT Rico said:Bite their head off, thats what real men do.
You watch too much deadliest catch lol
RoLo reply :
On 7/28/2014 at 1:24 AM, tcbass said:Is that how they do it still?
I wonder about that myself, but I've been out of the Jersey loop too long to offer an accurate answer.
My guess would be that they still use bang-sticks deploying 12-ga shotshells, because sharks have a habit
of coming back to life at the weigh-in. Since women and children are in attendance, every effort is made
to assure a fully dispatched serpent on the gin pole. The Mako fishing routine is to auto-chum with bunker mash (menhaden)
and bait-up with a half mackerel. The fly-gaff is secured to a cleat 'before' hookup, because a handled gaff will be ripped
from your hands. The shark is bang-sticked alongside, then tail-roped and towed backwards to home port.
QuoteNot sure I can shoot my bass. lol.
For the little freshies, a Fish Billy used to be the tool of choice, but even a little penknife will do.
Back in the day of Catch-&-Keep, a 'fish billy' was general issue.
One clunk over the eyes and it's lights-out.
Roger
Alpha Male reply :
I drain the livewell at the landing. they have 20-30 minutes before they get cleaned. have I ever cleaned a live fish? yes. do I feel bad? no.
Im not about to start cutting the heads, slitting their gills, or anything else. if I was worried about it I would go to the grocery store and buy fish.
Subaqua Adinterim reply :
I have only kept one fish to eat over the last several years. It was an atlantic salmon that I caught in Cayuga Lake a few years ago. I remembered seeing someone catch a decent size trout in the Delaware river and he just grabbed the fish under the nose/top of the mouth and just pulled straight up and back. It must have snapped the spine because the fish died instantly. I remembered this and tried it on the atlantic salmon and it died instantly, Not sure how this would work on fish with bigger heads than trout; however, I can attest that it did work when I tried it on a trout/salmon type fish.
Kevin22 reply :
On 7/18/2014 at 1:45 PM, tcbass said:I agree on the cutting the gills and blood part with bass. My brother tried the gill thing to bleed them, made a mess and the meat tasted the same.
I tried the ice today and that didn't work so well. One was still alive and the others were sorta hardened in a u-shape which made filleting hard.
I then tried using my knife to pierce the skull and reach the brain but it was so hard to push in I thought my knife blade was going to break in half and impale me. Man, I thought it was going to be easy to push the knife in after reading the posts on it.
Well, cutting the gills, icing, and piercing their skulls with my knife is out. What will I do now. lol.
And filleting them alive is also out of the question. lol. I did it in the past on a fish that I thought was dead. After one whole fillet was off it flopped around and threw scales everywhere inside my kitchen.
I know you already found your weapon of choice, but just to clarify I do not use a fillet knife to puncture the head. I use an old 5" fixed blade hunting/survival knife.
related General Bass Fishing Forum topic
most viewed General Bass Fishing Forum topic
© 2025 - fishing.qciss.net. All Rights Reserved.