The Ultimate Way To Harvest Your Catch (Ike Jime Method)
- By: Wyatt Parcel
- on August 2, 2021
- Found In: Cooking Tips, Fishing Tips, Weekly Newsletter: 8-8-21
As anglers, if we are going to harvest fish then we should honor the catch.
And the method of ike jime is a humane way of killing a fish while preserving the meat.
So in this new video from the floor at ICast, you’ll learn:
- The process of ike jime
- Why this process is important
- The tools you’ll need for ike jime
- And more
Check it out!
The Ike Jime Method [VIDEO]
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The Ike Jime Federation is dedicated to improving the quality of your harvest while giving the utmost respect to your fish.
Ike jime tools will allow the commercial fishing industry to deliver a superior product to the market.
These tools allow you to preserve your catch, prevent degradation of the meat, and give the ultimate honor to the fish that you harvest.
Essentially your harvest will have biochemical superiority because ike jime allows a fish not to experience the chemical consequences of suffocation.
And that stress on a fish has negative effects on the quality of the meat.
The Process Of Ike Jime
Step 1: Stop the release of lactic acid and cortisol by inserting a brain spike into the brain cavity.
This allows a fish not to experience stress.
Step 2: Cut the membrane by the gill plate to bleed and place the fish into water while it bleeds (but not cold water).
This is going to pump out all of the chemicals and bacteria in the blood.
If you leave the blood inside of a fish (any fish), it will begin to rot from the inside and bacteria will start to decompose the fish.
Step 3: Use the wire (circuit breaker) to paralyze the fish by disconnecting the muscles from the central nervous system.
Step 4: Then put the fish into an ice slurry and fully submerge.
Performing the ike jime process makes a world of difference.
As an angler, you are there at the death of the fish and can create a biochemically different product.
Conclusion
Respect the catch.
That’s the whole principle behind ike jime.
If you honor your harvest and preserve the meat, you’ll end up with a superior product.
Do you have any questions about ike jime?
Have you tried this process before?
Let me know down in the comments!
And if you know someone who wants to learn more about ike jime, please TAG or SHARE this with them!
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Any recommendations on how to get around the recommended ice slush step when on a kayak or similar vessel where that isn’t practical?
Hi Salt Strong. Very interested in purchasing the kit. Does saltstrong have a link to a recommended vendor or do you sell it through the site? Thanks!
Newbie here…going thru chronicled items. This one pretty-darn interesting affair, and the perfect touch (Andrew’s) to present it all. Did miss the part about cradling the fish to his belly…listened twice, maybe I need hearing aids.
Anyway, good commentary/debate, pro and con, too.
Hard to pull this all off in a yak, but for me, I immediately do the brain and ‘on-ice-block’ thing, so at least that might get me 1.5 stars on the 10-star Ike Jime scale. [for the rare fish that I decide to harvest]
“C-P-R”…not that I think I’ll change minds here (and at the risk of being banished before I make my first fishin’ report post), but for those who might be just a bit curious about it, here’s the other side of the equation: when done properly, conscientiously, it works, I’ve proven that to myself: hi-qual largemouth bass (dead-heat Florida summer + low DO2 of small shallow-pan-shaped pond); caught her again exactly 30 days later, very healthy, lively. [I was thrilled!!!! Because she was badly-hooked the first time, so I had beat myself up over it earlier. Major snafu @ reel on the initial cast.] Photo-documented, measurements, etc. both times – no doubt, the same big ‘un. Fun when you can keep catchin’ ’em, right? Plus…she’s a breeder. We’re legally-bound to do the same on red / snook breeders….
Cheers, all, and again, a unique o.p., Wyatt.
It’s not clear what the spinal cord disruption adds to the quality of the fish. The video states it delays the onset of rigor and you break muscle tissue of the fish is man handled after rigor has set in. I’ve always spiked the brain and bleed the fish immediately and then filet usually before rigor sets in. What does spinal cord disruption add and what is the time span after the minimum of 10 minutes of bleeding?
Destroying the spinal cord prevents the undead fish thrashing behavior sometimes seen in fish. (Such as this hilarious example: undead bowfin refuses to be scaled) The continued nerve impulses results in the build-up of metabolic byproducts which make the fish decay faster, according to this page from the Kyushu fishing information group, down in the infographic on how the conversion of ATP to AMP to IMP in the muscles leads to rigor mortis, while those chemicals then convert into unpleasant decay products.
This is taken so seriously in Japan that there are tools for hydraulically purging the entire spinal cord and all the blood right out of the fish using a pointy hose attachment to spray water up the spinal canal and up into the main artery and vein of the fish. Fish prepared by the nervous system and a total blood purge even gets cold aged for up to a couple of weeks for fancy sushi, and the flavor improves during that time, but not without purging both the blood and the nervous system. (Since sushi fish is served raw, there’s no hiding any decay or unpleasant odors, so it demands the highest standards of fish handling.) Fish that hasn’t had this kind of purge will rot during the aging period, so they only age fish prepared this way.
Another good use for my used guitar strings.
Really cool, When I Was little and learning how to hunt my Uncle instilled into me the Morality and respect of quickly putting out of its misery the game we would shoot. I had seen something similar to this on YouTube “Youngbloods” Aussies who spear and line fish that brain spike fish sometimes as soon as they are ascending with the fish. I haven’t seen people do that here in the US and wondered why, but getting better meat is the icing on the cake, I’m all in on this one.
Great video – will be investing in a kit. Future videos with demonstrations on where to place the spike to hit the brain. Also, are you suggesting to have a separate bucket to bleed the fish then put in another bin with ice? I guess a full demonstration with how this is all done on the water with several fish types would be helpful.
Blood in the vasculature likely is detrimental to the quality of the meet, but I doubt that there is bacteria inside the blood system. Blood (at least for humans) is sterile and likely the same way for fish.
I’ve been doing this for a couple years with flounder and trout. Redfish – a different story. They have really hard heads – where is the brain? We need a video. And – you don’t need the $100 kit. A small Phillips head screwdriver and some wire from Home Depot will do the trick.
Redfish do have very hard heads! And, they’re not alone. There’s a diversity of skull types out there. More detailed videos are forthcoming, and we hope that will help folks develop the skills and the confidence for the array of species we may encounter. In the meantime, screwdrivers are made of tooling steel, which will rust quickly in salt(strong?) environments. That’s not ideal for sharp instruments we rely on for things we intend to eat. Look no further than the beef industry or your home kitchen. Further, conventional wire in hardware stores will bend, kink, or buckle (esp at small diameters), which is why, like any serious undertaking, we use application-specific materials. We certainly wouldn’t apply the logic that because using monofilament line may also “do the trick,” we therefore eschew braid. Innovation and true, application-specific equipment help us all achieve the best experience while we’re on the water. Like $200 polarized sunglasses. And we believe that approach is consistent with having the right tools to harvest the fish we or our families may eat as well. And long overdue here in the US!
Jeeezzzzz! Have you seen the price of the Ike Jime set? $100 for what is essentially an ice pick and a piece of piano wire.
For reference, Andrew informed us on the value that the kit can provide to the meat in the commercial market (it’s up to you how much higher quality meat is worth though…)
Spanish mackerel fillets that have not had this process preformed go for 2-3 bucks a pound in the fish market, while fillets that HAVE been processed with Ike Jime sell to the tune of $27 a pound… the chemical difference in the meat is what makes the kit valueable. If you’d like to see the visual difference alone, I included a shot of the two fillets 3/4ths of the way through the video.
Taste test to come soon!
We aren’t a big company, so we don’t have the resources right now to manufacture overseas and produce at massive scale :/ We are trying our best to keep costs as low as possible for these wires that are literally each handmade. Our hope though is that folks will agree that the investment is worth the return. No one but the angler has the ability to control the end-quality of a given fish because quality will be determined at the time of death. In this way, if you harvest your own fish, we want you to have the best tools available to be your own seafood supply chain, trafficking only in premium-grade fish. Right now, the level of quality that an angler can produce isn’t otherwise available at ANY conventional seafood market in the US. That’s a type of access that we hope anglers won’t take for granted. We’d love to eventually grow and find the level of scale and automation to make our tools all but free. But for the time being, we hope we can earn your trust that you’re buying serious products from an American company that has poured over a decade into the research, development, and advocacy needed to make these tools available. Thanks for your support and understanding.
Totally with you on this!! The biggest inconvenience for me is the “old guard” at fish camp who mercilessly ride anyone who tries to introduce anything their dads didn’t do. “Sushi-grade” regs require Ike jime. What else would anyone need to know?? If it’s that important for tuna, it’s gotta be good for my flounder!!
There will always be folks that knock things that are new, but the science and ethics on this is enough for me to implement it with no thought to the nay-sayers!
Thanks for tuning in Scott!