Soft Mullet

I got into some mullet the other day while fishing and decided to keep and freeze them for the next time I went surf fishing. They went straight to ice from the net then into the freezer in ziplock bags. I used water from the tap in the bags.

I thawed a bag on sunday to surf fish and they were very soft and barely stayed on the hook. Anyone know what caused that? My brother said to try freezing them in salt water next time. I’m thinking about putting them in the bag dry. Freezer burn doesn’t really matter in this case i guess.

Any pointers on how to keep frozen mullet firm after the thaw?

PS… I caught some more mullet from the beach and got one small trout in the surf. Slow day out there, no birds or bait moving.

Brine the fish before freezing. Soak cut chunks or fillets in super saturated salt water overnight Be sure to use plain salt.

Natureboy is from the old school! Right on.

I’ll give it a try, thanks guys.

I was curious about this myself and just last week froze some finger mullet in ziplock bags (no liquid) after rinsing in fresh water. They were only frozen about a week but I pulled them out yesterday to fish and they seemed to be the same texture/firmness as when they went in. They held on a hook just fine, but that didn’t stop the blue crabs from snipping them in half for a free meal.