Purging Caught Fish

ClubHead · Mar 1, 2012

Anyone else put their fish in a creek a few days to get the Mud taste out of them.I have a wire cage that I put my fish in.Spring fed creek behind the house.I notice a big difference in taste here in West Tn.

ClubHead · Mar 1, 2012

East or Middle Guys may not know what Im talking about due to water clarity.

Cottontop · Mar 1, 2012

When I was a kid, my dad built a little "pond" in the small creek "branch" beside our house. It had a flood gate/overflow and all. We would catch sauger and crappie and put them in their for 4-5 days to a week. Seemed to make them taste better to be in that cold clear water for a few days.

easy45 · Mar 1, 2012

The fish that I have kept and cleaned didn't have a mud taste to them

catman529 · Mar 2, 2012

the bluegills I kept from a pond next to a cow pasture didn't taste muddy. They were mostly caught up by the inflow of spring water and not on the muddy downstream side.

I have eaten catfish straight out of the harpeth river cooked over a campfire, I think it had a bit of a muddy flavor.

I've heard of using the fresh water trick for crawfish, and considering their bottom feeding scavenging habits, I think I will definitely try it next time I catch a load of crawfish.

B.D. · Mar 2, 2012

The "mud" taste isn't actually from mud, but from geosmin, which is a metabolic byproduct of cyanobacteria (blue-green algae). It has an earthy or "dirt" flavor that people can detect at extremely small concentrations, as small as 5 parts per trillion.

Since cyanobacteria thrive in very warm, fertile (muddy) water, it does tend to be associated with muddy water, but it's not the mud itself that you're tasting.

There are ways to cure the geosmin flavor even if you don't have a clear water source where you can purge your fish.

Geosmin breaks down to an odorless, flavorless compound under acid conditions, so you can get rid of the geosmin flavor with acid-based marinades that include lemon, vinegar, or other acidic elements. There are some fish that I soak in orange juice overnight.

In addition, geosmin (and the associated methylisoborneol compound) are primarily stored in the fish's skin and dark muscle tissue, so you can get rid of a lot of the problem by carefully removing all of the skin and any fatty darker meat close to the skin (especially on catfish).

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