[Southerly]

a 'fish anatomy' image search shows heart is at the underside of fish, right behind the gill plates. i think circulation is from heart, up through gills, then generally back along lateral line area. cutting fillets at lateral line and removing red meat all seems to make some sense in that respect.

bloodydecks has information about 'bleeding' fish, and following a search for 'ike jime' will lead you deeper into the world of professional fish prep for best price at auction. lots of information out there -are you eating pre-, post-, or rigor-mortis fish? and what is best?

more than i want to get involved in but out on the www, there are some interesting direct-comparison photos of 'striper' fillets from fish that were bled, fish that had full ike jime process, and fish that were wonked on the head, 'western' style.

after wading through a lot of material on the subject, my conclusion was that bleeding live fish by cutting through rear-most area between gills on bottom of live fish, to disconnect the beating heart from gills would probably result in fish losing any consciousness it may have? due to heart emptying blood from fish and possibly improve the taste of the fish at dinner time.

but there's also issue of the bloody mess. my little daughter is on board and i'm trying to not repulse her. and in coming years; attitudes may change and memories of me holding fish spurting blood all over the place may not be a fond recollection.

could make the cut and release the fish to the baitwell for a little while, then put on ice maybe but i decided that i'm pretty satisfied with less proactive method of simply putting them under ice, and the taste of fresh fish resulting from that method. remember the end of 'call of the wild' i think it was. fellow freezing to death decided to just sit down and sort of take a nap; as i remember it anyway.

at home, especially if there's any possibility that fish is still alive, i try to start the cleaning job by removing the head quickly, cleanly. i have no idea what the experience of being a fish might be but i have respect for them as living creatures and do not want to kill them by 1st scaling, 2nd gutting, 3rd severing head where #3 is probably the death blow.