I have historically done ice in ziplocks for freezing fish. But my daughter's going back to school and wants single serving fillets of fish for single person cooking. ice won't be efficient. In the past, when I've tried vacuum sealing fish, the moisture runs up the sealer and keeps it from sealing properly half the time.

How do you all do it? Thanks,
Tim

Use the ziplock bag, but with less water added. The trick to sealing this without air is to submerge almost the entire bag in a large basin of water, Zip the last inch or so after smoothing wrinkles in the bag and working any air bubbles to the top. This seals the fish with some water to reduce freezer dehydration, and takes up a lot less space than a bag with a generous water added.

Yes, I've actually gone to "skinny" ice method as you described. I'm going to pack her 40-50 fillets, so I wanted mininal space; hence the vacuum method. But I've not had much sealing success. Maybe I need a better quality sealer, or a different method.
Thanks for your thoughts.
Tim

I tried my big brand name sealer with fish fillets, but I just went with "wet" when I put them in, not really with much pooled added water. My sealer has two operation levels, with one being for wetter items so that it does not pull vacuum for as long. It worked, but I could not leave the items frozen as long before signs of freezer burn started to show. I have frozen some that way, but make sure those are the first to be eaten.

Tim
We vacuum seal all our coastal fish reds,flounder, specs and even the less desirable fish we keep. We use food saver brand sealers and bags and very seldom have problems. We use fish for a year and sometimes a little longer without problems. We use an assembly line. We use lots of towels 1st person pats the fish dry on both sides very well. 2nd person puts fish in bags (we use lots of gallon bags as fish should be 3 to 4 inches away from top of bag before sealing). 3rd person seals bags an puts in freezers.
We have had a little trouble with whole flounder. Best method is tail first, then tear off a small piece of paper towel and call it the diaper, place it on the fish where the juice comes out of fish and seal away. This will hold the juice lower in the bag and permit a good seal. It has no effect on taste of fish. I don't know how muck difference the sealer brand makes; however, we have not had as good of luck with some off brand bags. Food saver or Cabela brand bags have been good.
Good luck
Brad

I let mine drain and air out for a while to get rid of excess moisture. It helps them seal.

What I do is place the fillets on a cookie sheet after they have been rinsed and place in the freezer. Once frozen place fillets in ziplock type food saver vacuum bag, the one with a hand held vacuum sealer. Then when you want X amount of fillets for dinner open bag take out fillets and reseal the bag place back in freezer.

Yep, that's my problem too. I find out after a few weeks that the seal is actually not sealed.
Thanks,
Tim

Now that sounds like a production line! That will work, but I'm looking for the "lazy" man's version of pack and go Thanks
Tim

That'll work, I may have to try that.
Thanks
Tim

I've heard of people doing this, except I don't have much freezer space in the first place. it should work though.
Thanks
Tim

Well, Thanks for your ideas. All are good, but I'm going with the big bucks chamber vacuum machine. I figured if it's good enough for Shotgun Red, I should look into it.

Of course, I'm buying the cheap foreign made chamber machine for about $400. I figured as much as I vacuum seal, savings on the bag cost AND the ease will hopefully pay for itself (7c/bag vs 30c/bag) in terms of cost and convenience...... We'll see about that.

I'll probably do a video on it, if it actually more convenient.
Tim

always pat mine with a paper towel before sealing

I have had the same frustration with trying to vac seal anything juicy. My solution: I freeze the food in a zip lock bag for a few hours until the liquid solidifies, then take it out of the bag and vac seal it. You can also cut the bag extra long to avoid having the liquid travelling all the way to the sealing area.

I’ve been using the Weston pro 2300 vacuum sealer for years on fish with no problems. I do lay the fillets out on paper towels then pat the top side with another layer of towels. It will still pull some moisture out but the sealing strip is a 1/4 inch wide and has a lot more wattage than a food saver. I haven’t had a problem with bags sealing since. Weston brand rolls are better priced than food saver and come in 50 foot lengths. Plus it will handle 15 inch wide rolls or do two 8 inch at the same time.