Just turn to mush a bit, much better to eat them fresh.

dolphin fish, best fresh.

Queen snapper, for some reason i love these fish fresh, they must be bled instantly and put in ice slurry. So many people throw these back as Mother in laws.

 Do not freeze though

Pink Snapper eat it fresh or let it go.

Haven't had a problem with Pinkies, we vac seal from steep and it is fine when we eat it. Any fish is going to be better fresh though. Will say yhte tailor though for not freezing.......

yeah agree there pinkie isnt too bad to freeze, never had any issues

we have eaten frozen pinkies 6 months on and no probs, i think you will find if you have a prob with them it will be because its the way they are treated when caught.   you will find nearly all fish will freeze well if treated right, one that wont from experience is tuna, fresh or free

I'd prefer you didn't suggest that I mishandle fish because I don't. I spike, then bleed and then ice. I just think some fish is best fresh (pinkies) and some freeze better (dhufish).

I know Andy won't touch frozen spanish macks, but they taste fine to me.

Each to their own I guess.

yeah , i think pinkie's are ok after freezing too. i bleed and ice everything.

however its skippy for me that don't  seem to keep well (along with ytk, which i won't be taking again)

I really enjoyed the last YTK I got, none of it had a chance of getting frozen, quite a bit of it didn't even get a chance of getting cooked!

are you saying tuna are no good to freeze faulkners???

Coral Torut. Flesh is a bit too soft to freeze. Eat immediately or back they go.

I recently ate some defrosted tuna, we ate it raw with wasabi and soy, was magnificent.

Don't know why some people reckon queen snapper don't freeze well,I've been freezing them for years and haven't had a bad one yet.
If I'm not going to eat a tailor or dollie the same day it goes back alive.I don't even keep them on ice over night.

Spangle fillets dont freeze that well IMO, I find the flesh dries out. Better off taking and freezing whole fish as they retain their moisture and bake really well once defrosted.

Dollies freeze ok, but only have a short shelf life. Prefer to eat them fresh though personally.

Spanish Mack is a great fish to freeze. Just got to place them strategically in the freezer so freezer burn is minimised.

oil in the flesh goes off .........fish like spanish mackeral, tailor dollies etc are no good but fish like spnangled emps , cobia, red emp, pink snapper , saddle tail perch ettc which arent very oily freeze well for up to  3 months but i would eat within 2 months 

Spaniard (Not my cuppa tea but cut the blood line out and freeze brilliantly) coral trout (skin off - it's fine slime taints as it defrosts) snapper (skin on and frozen flesh to flesh with skin out) spanglies (ditto but do not overcook as many do and it is beautifully moist and sweet) TAILOR .................CRAP 

there sunshine on all of your comments. Handling the fish properly helps a hell of a lot as you all know. Snapper freezed really well I thought, when I did it your way: Spiked, bled and straight under lots of fresh water ice for up to a day, then filleted with flesh to flesh vac packed and still good after 6 months ...nev

I find this is the best way to keep fish good for the freezer...

In this order..

Bleed straight away then when it stops kicking, gut it(amazing how better the fish tastes)

Throw on ice slurry asap...

When day is done and it comes time to filleting. Leave skin and scales on the fillets intended for freezing. And then either vac pac or use sandwich bags(IMO it helps the fillets to freeze better with skin on.)

And back in the day when u could catch a binload. You could identify fillets to choose what fish you felt like..

hope this helps...

i find if i catch a fish and freeze it and it tastes bad i feel guilty that i kept it in the first place

or just about any fish for that matter

i'am not fussy

a fish will always taste better at the end of a fishing trip

because youre always starving when you come back!

I must just like the taste of fish. As i have eaten all sorts of fish, fresh, and frozen (sometimes been in the freezer for up to a year), and have thought they all taste great.

I have eaten Tuna, Makeral, Pinkies, Queen Snapper even the old Salmon and nearly everything other the poisonous family. All of which i have kept frozen for many months at times and they have all tasted great to me whn defrosted and cooked up. Granted most did taste better when fresh, but have always like to bring a little bit of the tropical species back with me after a trip up north.

The only exception that i have found was Tailor. Didnt find the whole mushy thing some people have spoken about after freezing then, just found them to have become very tasteless and so had to cook them up with alot of extras. Plus i LOVE fresh Tailor on the BBQ within a few hours of it being caught, so i might be a bit biased on them :)

But thats the beauty of fish, with so many differnet varieties out there with so many differnet tastes, of course there is going to be discrepancies between people of whats better to eat, fresh or frozen, etc.

I mean for example i prefer eating shark after it has been frozen for a little while.

Best thing i tell people is try it for youreslf and let your taste buds decide for you.

Eat it fresh is great but once it is frozen it becomes mother-in-law material. Also agree with tailor & dolly.  Rob

I think most of the reasons some peoples fish tastes better than others is due to the way you freeze it. I have found vac packing all my fish the last 12 months has made the eating quality of my fillets much better.

Canarvonite: Tailor and Dollies

Im in agreeance on that one. 

Is it the parasites that send Dollies muchie though when they hit the freezer?

Vac seal is a good thing to do if the fish is going to be in the freezer for a bit. Snapper and spanish mac from steep is a fine a couple of months on. Great little investment and works a treat. I think all people know how to get the most out of the catch after being caught but at the end of the day people like different fish to eat, each to there own. Any fish has got to be better than bought ;) 

apart from dollies which ive yet to catch all of the other fish ive frozen and had no problems with, but i do have a vac sealer.. but i dont always use it, usually only on trips away or larger fish. Ive even had frozen tailor which was smoked and was delicous but dont know how it would fare fried etc. as for the queen snapper it baffles me as well why people bag it so much. if you had a fillet of queen snapper and one of  pinkie cooked for you i seriously doubt many could pick it. anyway its all personal prefferance, each to their own. on that note i think dhui is highly over rated!!

its funny , i did think dhuey was overrated , but i guess it depends how you cook it.

with most all of my fish  , i fillet and skin , then egg and flour , salt and pepper , before frying in butter or olive oil on a LOW heat covered with lid. 

awesome , and doesn't spoil flavour at all. 

oh .... and how much is a vac sealer. looks like i need one

Queenie has that fungus morwong aftertaste. Where as, a fresh pan sized pinkie tastes like Heaven..IMO..

O K , here is something to try when freezing any fish you catch. when filleted and skinned you either rince briefly with salt water and pat dry before you vac pac or dont rince at all. when thawed out just before you cook it give it a quick rince under cold water and into the pan. we tried this for the first time 4 years ago . havnt looked back as the taste is great , as good as fresh

Im with manoverboard, Tuna and skippy best fresh with wasabi and soy with cheese and bickies

...full stop. If you're not going to eat it fresh, may as well just buy fish. If we end up catching something that is too big or too numerous for our family to consume fresh, we let it go or give it away.

Don't understand people that go out, fill up their freezer, and then are back out the next day or so, doing it again. I know it's legal, but not much common sense.

A full freezer is the enemy of a fisho, if your freezer is full, no need to go fishing!

Was told by a guy that fishes the FADS heaps if you freeze dolly fillets in a container of salt water they are OK. Never tried it, but he swore by it. Has anyone else heard of this?

We go fishing! If we catch edible fish we keep enough for one nights feed. Fresh as. Then we have a great feed, and a bloody good reason to go again. All frozen fish are the same. Not as good as the original.

Mostly we fish for fun. But we target fish that others laugh at up here. Spanish Flag is a "bait" for most, but a size one never goes to waste in our esky.

Why freeze when that gives you no reason to go out and enjoy fishing!

Thats just my view BTW.

Neels

Salmon dont freeze well in my mind but good fresh.

If freezing fish the better you look after them the better they will taste.

For me,

• quick clean kill and straight into an ice slurry of salt water and ice.
• Clean and fillet as soon as you return to shore
• Wash fillets only in clean salt water (grab a bucket on the way in) fresh water takes so much taste out of the flesh).
• Pat dry with towelling paper to get rid of any excess water and wrap well in glad wrap or similar (vac packed is even better).
• Freeze ASAP and keep frozen solid until required.
• dont not thaw in microwave (my pet hate with anything frozen).

I ate KG whiting fillets last week - they were caught last april and the above was applied with no vac packing, everyone said they tasted great, (always better fresh though).

Another tip

If any fish have that strong fishy taste - a few slices of orange with the fish wrappped in foil and cooked in oven/webber/fire etc will remove the strong taste.

Cheers Paul

Any fish that turns mushy shouldnt be frozen.

Such as Tailor, Pike & Silver bream...

I always bleed & put in an ice slurry then fillet & eat that night :)

Hate it when i see fish go straight into a bucket knowing it will turn to mush and taste like junk.

Semi Ok Fresh, but certainly shit frozen.

I've been eating some frozen fish that was killed, put on ice and vac-packed ASAP, and some that wasn't (we had no ice or vac-pack, and the freezer couldn't freeze them within a day).

The difference is enormous...the poorly treated fish was tough and mushy at the same time (yep, I know how that sounds, but is the best way I can describe it!) whilst the iced and vac-packed fish is as beautiful as ever.

I reckon spanish mack freezes the best of all.

Dolly, spango, tailor, macs........had them fresh & frozen and huge difference so not for freezer/for me!

Many other species I catch/eat are freezer contenders and as Tigh said the vac seal machine a must!

Best way of caring and freezing fillets :

Bleed everything alive .

Leave in an ice slurry until you are going to process.

Rip the fillets off both sides , I dont rinse as believe you can't get rid of the water ,even patting it dry .

Place both fillets flesh together ,leaving the skin and scales on the outside.

Skin the fillets once thawed prior to cooking

Vac pack if you have one and it will last 18 months or more .

Sarcasm .......eating a sambo , you must have been desperate for a feed !

many fish if not bled and chilled fast after being caught won't freeze well.
I have frozen Dollys, with them bled and vacuum packed in less than an hour after being caught and kept then in an ice slurry before freezing. 3 months later they where still tops on the table.
Tuna, ( big yellow fins) need to be spiked down the spinal column to stop lactic acid being still produced after death.
Best way it to hacksaw off the head, spike the spinal cord with a stainless steel wire rod, wrap the bled body in cloth and straight into an ice bath. ( must be done with in less than 15 minutes of being caught). Thats how many small game fishermen do it that sell to the sushi markets overseas.
You can then vacuum pack smaller fillets later and defrost for quality sashimi at any stage.

I agree on Sambo's they don't hold any decent flesh quality after freezing, but Taylor if bled do and snapper will always if correctly handled.

We caught some red emperor at gnaraloo last august, bled them & straight in the ice box. Back at the shack they were filleted, washed in 'salt water', patted dry & vac sealed. We ate our last packet the other nite & it was as good as it was the day we caught it. Unfortunately not all fish take that well to freezing even if they are vac sealed. But i would recomend the purchase of one if you intend to freeze fish for a meal later down the track. There are a few posts on here regarding brands & personal choices, i would recomend reading them if you are contemplating purchasing one.  Rob

Bit of an outlay initially, but well worth it. Definately one of the best pieces of equipment in our kitchen.

unfortunately nothing helps frozen Tailor :p

http://fishwrecked.com/forum/cryovac
http://fishwrecked.com/forum/cryovac-machine

i gotta tell you guys that all depend on how you cook them. people like some  chinese always find good ways of turning a frozen mush into an excellent dish

So if anyone comes home with some after fishing and wants to get rid of it let me know.....

One trick to remember is not to wash your fillets before freezing.Any scales just pick off and trim any bits that look daggy.If you have to wash them do not use fresh water,only clean sea water or very heavily salted brine.
Even avoid washing them before cooking if possible.

Yep I agree as well. I never ever wash my fish after cleaning them and only do just before cooking but pat them dry with paper towels. Need to buy shares in a paper towel co. Ha Ha!

I prefer to eat any pelagic fish fresh and find most dermersals will freeze ok but its all about the preparation, Spiking, ice slurry etc.

Some fish will freeze better also if you cut all the red meat off, such as Queen Snapper.