freezing fresh fish

Wondering how long i have to freeze fresh caught fish? Filets have been on ice and fridge since being caught.

IMO, 3-4 days.

Not an answer to your question, but after you fillet them put the fillets in a Ziplok bag, put enough water in it to cover the fish, squeeze the air out of the bag, seal and freeze. The fish will taste great up to 10 months later. The ice seals the flavor in and prevents freezer burn.

I'd say about 24 hours at most. But then again if you buy fish at a fish market you can tell some of the fish have been there for a long long time, so it is more of a texture/taste thing that a health thing. For health reasons I'd say not more than 72 hours. Even at 40 degrees, where most refrigerators are, you get microbial growth. It is slower growth than in a warmer environment, but it is still there. The action of cleaning the fish contaminates the fish surface with a variety of little critters. Cooking the fish is likely to kill those critters (160 F being the absolute minimum temperature of the fish's flesh to reach), but that's not 100% all the time. So the longer it sits unfrozen the more the critters increase in numbers and the more chances that some of those critters will survive the cooking process.

I'd be real sure to put them through a high heat cook, find a recipe that lets you do that.

The best thing is to freeze them immediately if you're not going to cook them immediately, and the best way to freeze them was described above - the water surrounding the fish turns into a block of ice that keeps air from getting to the fish - and that preserves them way better. I used to freeze catfish in milk, my grandmother would marinate catfish in milk to make them taste cleaner - and I froze them in milk as it automatically marinated them as they thawed.

We just had some vacuum packed bass fillets that were fresh frozen. We like that way better than freezing fillets in water, which is also good. Cooked on grill w butter and onion. Mmmm

I wouldn't go more than 24 hours.

x2... we do this will all of our deer meat(except hamburger), ducks, geese, and dove

What he said ^^^^^^^

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We did the water freeze for years and it is great. We used milk cartons. Fill with fillets, top with water and freeze. Vacuum pack is better though for several reasons.

I vacuum pack too. I take fish fillets and lay them on wax paper on a larger cookie sheet or pan, then pop in the freezer for about an hour, I keep checking, when pretty froze but easy to get off the wax paper I pop them in bags and vacuum pack. By doing the above it freezes the water in the fish so if seals much better without water coming to the top of the bag.

I need to try this...not sure if it would be necessary as much fish as we go through tho.

Our technique as well, if we have time. If not, water in the ziplocs.

If you don't freeze right away, I would EAT THEM.

+1. Use a double seal on the bags.