How to keep fish after the catch and before keeping in ice/water slurry?

Been reading how to keep fish after the catch if you plan to keep and eat. A lot of sites say that by bleeding out your fish it will taste better and have a better texture, but some say that killing the fish by a IKY method (basically severing the spine/brain) and allowing the blood to remain in the body is better. Or dependent of the type of fish. Was wondering what you guys recommend for Bass and Trout as they are the main species of fish I fish for food. Thanks.

Public Comments

1. salmon and tuna need spiking. all other white flillets need bleeding. but if your going to ice them in a good slurry of -5c then i wouldnt worry about either as the shock forces the blood to suface of skin and is removed in the skinning process anyway.
2. Bleed them by pulling out the gill and then hold it by the tail.
3. Are you talking a public body of water? Because I believe, at least in my state, it is illegal to kill the fish while still fishing. You can keep it alive or in a cooler, but you can't cut it up.
4. My experience with all manner of freshwater fish (apart from trout which we have none of around here that I know of), is that if it dies before you put it on ice, it won't taste as good. Myself, I put 'em in the livewell until I get to the car then they go on ice for the drive home. A chilled fish is easier to fillet. Fish that die in the livewell get wasted, I'm sorry to say. If I happen to gill-hook one that looks like it won't survive, it goes in the small cooler I carry onboard. Without a livewell, I'd put 'em in the ice chest immediately. So, that's my advice, ice 'em down or keep 'em alive. ---- Josh has a good point -- it's illegal to use any part of a game fish for bait, so they don't allow filleting or gutting on the water. Killing is allowed, though. In my state, at least. I should also point out that the failure to immediately remove the intestines from tilapia and grass carp is a violation of state law.
5. Smack on the head and bleed. always in my opinion. some fish need to have their brains destroyed like tuna. Then ice slurry.