Home Forums Fishing Freshwater Freezing fish fillets?

Did well on stripers and white bass and I can't decide if vacuum sealing or freezing in lemon water is better? I have had the vacuum bags fail after a couple of months and tend to think the water method may be more fool proof.

Any thoughts or other methods?

I wrap mine in Cling Wrap, then bag them. A friend freezes his in water.

I think cling wrapped tightly followed by freezer paper. I use a vacuum sealer but for fish think the cling wrap is better for fish.

We freeze all of our fillets in water/Ziploc bags. Will keep for an extended period of time w/o any freezer burn as long as they are completely covered in water. Just have to make sure the bags are not put on freezer racks where parts of the bag hang down through the rack before they freezer.

The cling wrap and butcher paper works well and this is how I do red meat. But I am a klutz with shrink wrap to the point I don't think I get all the air out.

Water in Ziplock bags.

I've tried the vacuum sealing thing, a few months later I've always got leakers.

I learned this lesson the hard way!!

Thanks gentlemen, I did the lemon water with a little Maldon Salt in zip lock bags and then put the quart bags in a gallon bag to prevent the freezer wedgie problem. Striper Ceviche after the non turkey day for me. It was a pretty good meat haul ending up with five gallon bags of fillets.

Still open to other suggestions.

I used to get broken vacuum sealer bags until I got a chamber unit and thicker bags. Solved that issue.

THIS is how we do them... they will be great in 16 months if they last that long...

X3. Have froze fish like this for 60 years. Used quart milk cartons LONG before zip lock bags were in existence.

The old milk carton method is still my favorite: Less chance of sticking to freezer racks, getting punctured, more protection from freezer burn, nice tight storage.

Get a real vacuum sealer and 4 mil bags.
I try really hard to eat thru the freezer every year and have it empty in the spring, but have seen fish I've given to family/friends go 2 or 3 years and still be in perfects condition.

Vacuum sealing is the way to go. The key to keeping them from failing is to pre-freeze the fillets so they're not leaking water which gets into the seal and causes failures. I wrap the fillets with plastic wrap and put them on a cookie sheet in the freezer for a couple of hours then vacuum seal and back into the freezer.

I use water and gallon Ziploc bags. I have had fish in the freezer for up to 2 years. After thawing the fillets they smelled like the day I froze them.

Thanks all. I did ziplocs with a little lemon juice this time. I was going to experiment but went with what has worked well before.

I think salmonoids are better vacuum packed and white meated fish last better frozen covered in water.

I’d agree. Rarely have had issues with frozen salmon. Cod and halibut, not so much. Even when the bags don’t fail white fish seems to degrade much more often.

White fish pretty much always gets a milk soak when defrosted now.

What is this freezing fish $hit ?

Catch it, clean it, eat it & start at the beginning again.

I always freeze fish in water. I barely cut the top off a gallon milk carton and put the fish in and cover with water then come back in 24 hours and pour a little more water in just in case some floated to the top. This way is a pain in that it takes up more freezer space and takes awhile to unthaw but the end product is excellent and I’ve kept it for 2 years and it was still good.

When you guys use milk jugs is the top just open and Ice exposed?

Hank

Yes just cut the top off and put fish and water in and the ice will be exposed.

Thank You

Will try it

Hank

You want 1/2 gallon milk cartons, not milk jugs. Cartons stack nicely in a freezer.