Thread: How long before a ungutted fish goes bad?

I'm with you freeflow 23, A WEEK? thats gross. CHATCHUM-GUTUM-FRYUM!!!

I ahev heard that if the eyes are clerar still they are good.Once they go cloudy then dont consume.Never heard about the gills , I'll remember that.

I've had times after a hard night's fishin that I've had to let the fish stay on ice overnight while I rested up. Camping trips where there's too many fish to eat in one day, I'll clean them and then keep on ice for a day or two. That's about it. When I worked with my dad on a tuna boat, we iced the fish for up to 5 days at sea and the fish was not frozen but it didn't spoil. The main thing is keep it clean and cold until cooked. If you have no way to keep your fish iced down, don't catch more than you can eat or smoke that day.

all of the thousands of fish that i have caught were "un-gutted". as long as i took proper care of them till i got em in the freezer they were ok!! hahaha seriously, tho, fish is one protein that you will find more palate-pleasing the sooner it is taken care of. get out the knife!!!

prefer cleaned same day, bagged and iced up to 3 days or it's time for the freezer.

Before I was a "family man" I used give most of my fish to friends and keep enough to eat at least 3 maybe 4 meals on and would keep them in the frig and take out a few to cook until they were gone...usually about a week or so and I would change the water out daily and never really saw much difference in taste, texture, and never got sick.....now the wife frowns on me leaving my fish in the house.......go figure!!!

dunno about a whole week, but I have kept them on ice for 4 days without any sign of spoilage whatso ever !!! , the whole key to keeping the fish fresh is to keep the water drained off daily . IF you keep the water drained & plenty of ice, they look & taste just as fresh as the day they are caught

i've keep uncleaned fish for 4-5 months without any problems...........but they were all frozen. i was told long ago to keep fish from freezer burn not to clean them until you need them. i've since tried and still do freeze whole fish when i am too tired to clean or have too many to clean. just rinse and packed them to the freezer, thaw in water and you have fish that looks like they were just caught that day.

as for keeping fish uncleaned and not frozen, i would say 4-5 days with ice and keeping the water/slime drained out.