Mushy walleye fillets

Caught 4 small walleye (16"-17") this morning on Erie.  My usual routine is to keep them alive in the livewell until we're done fishing.  Before heading back to the marina, I "bleed" them.  After loading the boat, I will immediately dump ice on them, then make the 1.5 hour drive home.  While cleaning, and eating them, the meat on these 4 fish was very soft/mushy.  The larger fish (23"-25") we caught last week were very firm. 
 
I'm not accustomed to catching walleyes this small on Erie.  Are the mushy fillets due to the young age?  The only difference in my routine today was instead of cleaning immediately, the fish sat in my fridge for two hours.  I wouldn't think this softened the meat.
 
Any thoughts?
 
 

Ya we gill em instantly. Clip em and put em in the live well, or death well however you wanna look at it. Soon as they die, which is about 10 to 15mins, they go on the ice. We've never had a problem. I know someone that gills them and hangs em on a stringer over the side. With that water running over those gills, they clean out a little quicker.

We are in FLA right now for family vacation. Soon as we get home, I'm heading Northward for the first trip of the season. I hope the lake cooperates.

We fished this past weekend out of Walnut,  they went from the net straight into a cooler with ice. No clipping of gills or anything. They tasted great. 

psu_fish
We fished this past weekend out of Walnut,  they went from the net straight into a cooler with ice. No clipping of gills or anything. They tasted great. 

You stay in close?

I’ve had mushy fish at the beach before and definitely from getting warm. Possibly from not killing and bleeding. I personally have just started that ikejime thing. I usually did what psu did with most fish. Walleye and crappie don’t have huge bloodlines so have always come out just fine on ice. The ocean fish that have gotten soft on me, have a bit more bloodline. I started bleeding fish maybe 5 years ago and always having ice in some form. Often on the beach it is a cooler bag with ice packs (frozen water bottles). On my boat, either ice with water or a bunch of ice packs and water. I have yet to have a mushy since then. On the boat, I do the same as Pens and make my live well a death well. I do a kill shot to the brain, then clip the gills. They bleed out pretty well. I’ve heard that they pump more without the brain shot, but I haven’t noticed the difference. I’d rather kill then quick. Nerves will have them flop for a minute or two, then rinse out my well and toss in the cooler. For crappie and perch, I don’t bleed, but give them a kill shot. I hate when I go to clean them 6-7 hours after catching and most are still alive. Regardless if they feel pain or don’t, I’d rather put down as soon as I know I am keeping. OL’ Yeller!!!

Bleeding them does make a huge mess, I'll give ya that. I have a vinyl floor. When we get home I just pull the plug and hose it out. Fillets do come out very clean. I guess to each his own. We try to "slot size" the ones we keep. 17 to 24s seem like the best ones. I kept a 29" last year, probably won't do that again. It definitely had a stronger taste and cooking time goes way up when you have a piece of fish that thick. Some great info and opinions on this one👍.

For those who like chowder, those big fish make perfect meat chunks for walleye chowder. In fact, anything about 25" or bigger are usually just called "chowder fish" and we keep the filets separate and vacuum seal in 2# batches (amount I use in recipe). The meat definitely is more dense and sometimes rubbery but is perfect for the chowder cooking process.
 
The smaller pieces from the tail end of the zipper (any size fish) I also separate. These go into 12-14oz packs labeled as "taco" packs. We frequently do fish tacos through the winter, it doesn't matter that those little filet pieces fall apart in the pan when they are being used as taco filling or salad topping anyway.  Gordon's Food has approx 1qt sized containers of taco seasoning in their spice area. This is perfect for making odd sized batches of taco meats and no extra cost of buying the taco kits. 
 
And to add to the debate... our boat has a 30 gallon box under the floor, we plumbed it as a live well but actually use it as a bleeding tank. Get fish out of net, cut gill feathers with kitchen shears, drop fish into tank and let it swim till it bleeds out. Then put them on ice.  Exchange water every 4 to 6 fish. 

Porktown
 
I have found the Harbor Freight multipurpose heavy duty scissors to be one of my most used tools while fishing and around the house.  I have 5-6 pairs of them.  They cut through thick gills with no effort.  Us inland anglers that aren't very good, use them on clipping channel cat gills...  But work well on the 1-2 keeper walleye that I catch too!  Sharp enough point for a brain blow as well.  

I will check those scissors out, thanks!

pensfan1

psu_fish
We fished this past weekend out of Walnut,  they went from the net straight into a cooler with ice. No clipping of gills or anything. They tasted great. 

You stay in close?

30-40 FOW. Bandits back 95-100 did good. Worm harness did too with 2 oz weights. 

Let you know tomorrow evening!
With fish in closer, might not make that much difference.
Later in the year when they're deep and stacked, big winds slow things down until the water T gets readjusted.

Three man ticket in 4 hours.  Tossed a lot of smalls back or would have been done sooner.
Keepers all 18-20", nice fat fish.
Meat and small stinger spoons, 40-41 FOW, west of Walnut.
Only 1 sheep and 1 white bass, not bad for fishing crawlers!
Lake was perfect, light chop, 1-2 ', decent breeze to blow bugs away.
Great day on the lake for the first trip of the year!

What's the latest? She's gonna fish tomorrow n Saturday for sure with 1ftrs.

We were finally out, first trip of year (since hand surgery delayed things) we had our 12 by about 1030 and threw back 2 for each one we kept. We didn't have worms with us. Ours were mostly on super bright mid sized spoons behind dipsies with probably 10 on stick bait either flat lined or with 2 oz aimed at the 24 to 30 ft range.
We trolled anywhere from 38 to 44 fow and started a few miles east of elk, trolled over to Virginia's Beach and then back east till we limited. Was a gorgeous day to be out.

It's all about the weather now.
Fish will be here all summer, just how deep.
Going to be fun, that's for sure!

walleyehunter53
also first trip friday14 Saturday 18 limit. 60ft. Saturday  53 ft. Friday all meat on big Jons back 55 1setting 65 3 setting from shades to past surewood. they are here mix catch nice fish.

I love that area. Nice report. 💪