Colour of A fillet on a jackfish

[220 Swift]

Not sure if this is been posted before but can anyone tell me why I jackfish when filleted has a Sandy yellow colour where as others give me almost a white sugar colour.

Is one colour mean they ate more mud in the summer or anything like that?or is this just like peoples hair color?

[Dragless]

Do u drain their blood straight away this will improve the quality of the meat substantially

[GMX]

From what I understand the meat colour is due to their food source. Pike in my area are either white meat or orange almost like a salmon.

[blgoodbrand1]

Shrimp


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[alex8486]

Agree. Fish flesh is red, white or yelloy due to their diet.

[JareS]

Due to their diet. Freshwater shrimp make for a nice pinkish fillet

[220 Swift]

Originally Posted by Dragless

Do u drain their blood straight away this will improve the quality of the meat substantially

Cut the gills and bleed them out i am guessing? No i dont but can start. Probably more humane too im guessing

This last one had the pinkish sandy color and was eating live little baitfish/minnows.

[220 Swift]

Originally Posted by 220 Swift

Cut the gills and bleed them out i am guessing? No i dont but can start. Probably more humane too im guessing



This last one had the pinkish sandy color and was eating live little baitfish/minnows.

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[Dragless]

Originally Posted by 220 Swift

Cut the gills and bleed them out i am guessing? No i dont but can start. Probably more humane too im guessing

This last one had the pinkish sandy color and was eating live little baitfish/minnows.

Try it out bleed one and dont bleed one you'll see a big difference gills are a great easy way to bleed em out

[RavYak]

Probably due to what they eat. I find a yellowish tinge to be the most common but have caught them from white to dark orange. I want to say that I have noticed they usually have whiter flesh in nice clear water and get more orange flesh in waters more prone to algae blooms.

Bleeding them out does help remove some colour as well as improve the meat quality, you should definitely do that.

[58thecat]

Diet.

[Okotok]

Originally Posted by 220 Swift

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Did you gut that one with an axe?

[FlyTheory]

It’s simply due to diet. If you want some orange meat, go to a lake where they primarily eat amphipods. The orange colour is from the keratin.

[Dragless]

Any one know a link to some research to back this theory? I catch perch that I Know feed mainly on shrimp and their meat is never off color, I also catch Jack's at the same lake and never is their meat off colored as well. I'm not naysaying but id like to see some research to back up this theory. A Flamingo is specifically known for this unique trait and its known that they explicitly dine on shrimp.I think pike require as much calories as possible, optimistically feeding on multiple food sources in any given lake. I believe they would have to eat unreal amoumts of those shrimp selectivley feeding on them to effect their color(not saying that isnt possible).It is also well known that pike are ambush style feeders and predators not feeding on invertebrates usually. So in my mind there's alot of facts going against that theory and I will continue to look for some sort of pike/esox specific research.

[Okotok]

The lake trout at Whiteswan in Saskatchewan are very orange. Every one we caught had a stomach full of shrimp.

[FlyTheory]

It has to do with the taxonomical similarities, which also means expression of keratin uptake will be different per taxonomic groups. So to generalize, pike and salmonids are all part of the same designated superorder, Protacanthoperygii. Perch and walleye are in the super order Acanthopterygii. This may not seem like a huge difference, but the evolutionary history and expression of genes (such as keratin fixation in muscle) can be as broad as superorder. Furthermore, the relations between pike and salmonids are relatively close, as they are both of the same order Salmoniformes. I dont know much about the genetic expression and keratin fixation in the white muscle, but I hope I gave you a decent explanation.

[PlayDoh]

Originally Posted by FlyTheory

It has to do with the taxonomical similarities, which also means expression of keratin uptake will be different per taxonomic groups. So to generalize, pike and salmonids are all part of the same designated superorder, Protacanthoperygii. Perch and walleye are in the super order Acanthopterygii. This may not seem like a huge difference, but the evolutionary history and expression of genes (such as keratin fixation in muscle) can be as broad as superorder. Furthermore, the relations between pike and salmonids are relatively close, as they are both of the same order Salmoniformes. I dont know much about the genetic expression and keratin fixation in the white muscle, but I hope I gave you a decent explanation.

[raw outdoors]

Main diet of perch is fresh water shrimp. They are always full of them and there meat is gorgeous white and flakey. I believe it has something to do with they if muscle. Pike are always slowly lurking and slizering. Perch kinda do short bursts then float and look. Kinda like a goose that flies 100s of km are dark meat and your sharptrail grouse are white meat. Is have shot them in the same field with the same grain in there stomach but they are totally different meat.

[getatmewolf]

My uncle was a commercial fisherman years ago and was telling me if the pike have a yellow fillet its due to the shrimp they've been eating. Pinkish/red fillets when they are eating more of a bait fish diet.


He also said he had customers that would prefer the yellow fillets and buy all he had.

[Habfan]

Originally Posted by getatmewolf

My uncle was a commercial fisherman years ago and was telling me if the pike have a yellow fillet its due to the shrimp they've been eating. Pinkish/red fillets when they are eating more of a bait fish diet.


He also said he had customers that would prefer the yellow fillets and buy all he had.

I think your uncle has it right !

[Dragless]

Originally Posted by FlyTheory

It has to do with the taxonomical similarities, which also means expression of keratin uptake will be different per taxonomic groups. So to generalize, pike and salmonids are all part of the same designated superorder, Protacanthoperygii. Perch and walleye are in the super order Acanthopterygii. This may not seem like a huge difference, but the evolutionary history and expression of genes (such as keratin fixation in muscle) can be as broad as superorder. Furthermore, the relations between pike and salmonids are relatively close, as they are both of the same order Salmoniformes. I dont know much about the genetic expression and keratin fixation in the white muscle, but I hope I gave you a decent explanation.

vocab flexin

[Dean2]

Originally Posted by Dragless

vocab flexin

Did that smart man stretch your "Google Foo" too far?

Diet clearly affects the color of Pike fillets as it does members of the Salmon class of fish, including Lake Trout. Perch and Walleye are not as affected by diet when it comes to the color of their fillets. There - simplified it for you.

[58thecat]

Diet.


You are what you eat.......

[MooseRiverTrapper]

.

[muzzy]

I love watching pike slizering

[Whiskey]

Well, the darker the meat means the muscle needs to work hard and long. If you only use your muscles short term or very little the meat tends to be white. This is because meat contains myoglobin which helps move oxygen, and the more a muscle needs to work the more myoglobin it has. Think of a store bought chicken or turkey. The breasts are white (they don't fly anymore at the 'farm') and the legs are dark (they walk everywhere). Now think of a duck and how dark the breasts are. Think of a pig raised in a feed lot- Very white meat. Now think of a wild pig- the meat is much darker. Salmon and tuna are also dark/pink while other fish are white.

This doesn't answer the OP though. The color difference in various pike would be from diet/water quality.