Learn Bushcraft skills by videos
watch the best bushcrafters explain techniques and skills

Bushcraft & Fishing - How To GUT & CLEAN FISH | BUSHCRAFT BOWDRILL FIRE | BAKED FISH

Description

We show you how to catch and cook black bream. How to clean, gut and fillet fish, start a fire bushcraft style using a primitive bowdrill (friction fire).

Using various fishing techniques, Graeme shows you how to catch Black Sea Bream (Spondyliosoma cantharus). Using light tackle, a swimfeeder and some chum, you catch this fish with small squid bait on the ocean floor. They are a summer time species here in the UK. They are one of the best eating fish in British Waters. You can pan fry, bake, grill and more. The best way to eat this fish is whole, either pan fried or baked. Graeme then shows you how to prepare the fish for cooking on a campfire. How to descale the fish with a knife and then wash and clean it.

I start a fire using a primitive bowdrill method, a key wilderness survival skill to have, and one that you should learn should you end up in a survival situation it might just help you out. I used a pine hearthboard, a hazel spindle and a sycamore bearing block. I also used a piece of birch bark as an ember pan and a length of silver birch stick for the bow. I then blew the ember into a flame using dead grass as a tinder bundle.

To cook the fish, I stuffed the body cavity with herbs. Using Chives, Thyme, Lemon, Salt & Pepper and a light sprinkling of olive oil. I then wrapped it in kitchen foil and cooked it over the fire. It tasted incredible!

Thanks for joining us on the adventure! - Mike

Subscribe to Dad's Channel TAFishing: https://www.youtube.com/tafishing

OFFICIAL TA OUTDOORS MERCH: https://taofficial.com

TA OUTDOORS PATCHES: https://www.taoutdoors.com

TA INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/taoutdoorofficial

TA FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/totallyawesomeoutdoors

TA TWITTER: https://twitter.com/OutdoorsTa

BEGINNER BUSHCRAFT GEAR: https://www.taoutdoors.com/bushcraft-gear/

INTERMEDIATE BUSHCRAFT GEAR: https://www.taoutdoors.com/intermediate-gear/

ADVANCED BUSHCRAFT GEAR: https://www.taoutdoors.com/advanced-gear/

MORE CATCH & COOK VIDEOS:

How to cook Deep Fried Fish: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B29Q5senZMU

How to Spit Roast whole fish: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZJ1pF4R1Ks

Catch & Cook Fish on a Stick: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3tvi8j28mc

Catch & Cook Pheasant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9uQdzWFBBg

Music:

http://www.epidemicsound.com/

Tags: catch,cook,catch and cook,black bream,how to,clean,gut,fillet,bushcraft,bowdrill,friction fire,primitive,primitive technology,baked fish,pan fried fish,grilled fish,fried fish,deep fried fish,baking fish,survival,survival food,survival skills,wilderness living skills,black sea bream,snapper,chum,bait,fishing,how to catch fish,squid,cooking,cooking fish,how to cook fish,over the fire cooking,how to clean a fish,herbs,lemon,recipe,ta outdoors

Video Transcription

hey guys Mike here from ta are those about to do a catch and cook just call the fire going come to the catch part in a minute but I've just I just did a boater and I thought I'd talk you through what woods I used safe pine hearth board where I've only got three holes being used at the moment I was gonna use I was gonna use a new hole there I figured this one had a couple more left in it and thankfully it did actually so that's that's pine bindle was a hazel spindle and I judge it usually by extending my thumb and my baby finger out and that's usually the length of my spindles it's a little bit thin to what I normally use but it works so I was quite surprised actually I usually go a bit thicker than that but I thought I'd try something a bit thinner thankfully it works so yeah pine hazel and a birch just a piece of birch for the bow with some paracord I don't really like using paracord for bow girl cordage it shreds usually after about three three or four bow drills usually it will start to fray and shred Bank line is pretty awesome for it I do like using bank line but it is expensive stuff it's not not cheap but again you pay for what you get for already I just use some birch bark for the Ember pan you see the burn mark there so once I got that ember going then tapped that into the tinder bundle itself which was just dry grass and that way I get to save this and keep this for violating another time I I could also just scrape it with a knife to make some birch dust and light fire with the pharisee and rod or a Ferro rod and I've done that plenty of times before in my videos the other thing was I think it's Sycamore bearing block which I subscriber made me feel he turned this on his on his lathe and yeah it's really good because of the bearing in there that spins super easily if this will focus at all that that bearing there spin

really easily so it just allows for a lot less friction on this end of the spindle this can spin really easily then because the you want you want the least amount of resistance on this part of the spindle you want that to be able to spin as easily as possible so by having that bearing in there it actually it actually almost it's like a lubricant it just spins for it there's no resistance there at all so it makes it you know it'll make this spin as easily as possible these the spindle again because it's blackened up I can just scrape off the black charred wood with my knife and then a flat spindles ready to go I've probably got I've got a good amount of I didn't take much material off that tool so I can keep using that and obviously it's nice and dry so this can just stay as my kit now it can be like a bow-drill kit I make these quite small my hearth sports or hearth board I like to make them small so it's nice and compact for the backpack the downside is obviously I won't get as many burn holes in them but that's why I'm using a thinner spindle so that I take up lots less space on the hearth board itself so there's loads of different loads of different ways you can do this you know you could have big wide fat ones of these I could go double the thickness and then do some some more burn holes the other side with this one sadly I probably won't be able to get one this side cuz they're too it's too narrow should have made it a little bit a little bit wider but I made it pretty neat and square because I spend some time doing it but I've got another one two three maybe four more holes there and I'll get three or four out of each hole probably maybe even five depending on how much pressure I put down yeah that's essentially my bow drill kit these are obviously nice and compact and small the bow is pretty big I don't really need a bow that big I could go up to here you can't even use a straight stick as a bow I've used that before that's not very portable I would have preferred to have a smaller boat but the basics of the fire lighting material the Ember pan you can use anything those spindle hearth board and bearing block but got small buddies that can just all go together literally like in my paracord case if I wanted to so it just shows you know you those are different ways of doing it maybe I'll do some videos soon on on bow drills maybe a little tutorial but yeah good fun to practice obviously it's a lot of effort to light fire this way but you know it doesn't it's it's wilderness skills it's good skills to learn it's good to have that knowledge and it's good to know as well that you do have those skills so that in if a survival situation were to occur you could apply those that knowledge and apply that skill and get fire going obviously a light is gonna do it way quicker so I've got the fire burning now got some birch sort of sticks on there might get some bigger logs to begin with because I need that to burn down because this is a catch and cook that's the fish that I'm gonna cook it's called a black bream arguably one of the best eating fish here in the UK in British waters that's for sure

I believe there you can catch them all over Europe summertime is when you catch them they give them gonna get to the catch part and the prep part in a minute I'm gonna what I'm going to do is just it's only is small in there but I'm just gonna shove some herbs and things like that in here in the cavity and just cook it straight on the fire because it's only a small fish so there's not sort of much meat to it so it makes sense to cook this whole and not and not you know fill it it because if I did fill it it it just wouldn't be as nice so got my I usually processed food with just my open all stainless steel this is number eight and I like to stay in the steel version because a lot of time I cut in lemons and I'll use it on sea fish and things like that this is a sea fish it's salty it will rust rust a carbon still played a lot easier so lemon has found it with most fish he's only small so I'm only gonna cut a couple of slices and take this lemon back home let's do maybe three he's not got a huge cavity time here fresh thyme and some chives and what I'm gonna do is actually just chop these chives up a bit smaller just just crush them up like that get that flavor out shouldn't be cutting on to him for all I know but with the time I'm just gonna pull off a tip so I would use the whole plant usually but because it's only a tiny cavity in this fish I'm not gonna be able to get all of this in there so look that's like that's it as well as cavity it's a cram in some choice get some time in there it's gonna taste good lemon slices just a couple if I can get me there's not much room in there but the other thing I'm gonna do put a bit more choice on top of that lemon and then as well a little pot of pepper and salt I'm gonna salt this fish it's already a salty fish anyway but so I won't need loads but just a little bit in the cavity and the spring cleaning both sides a bit more on the sides bit of pepper you can season it with what you want for any guys it's kind of up to you olive oil I don't know this is a big bowl we don't sprinkle some oil on there you know I still got the rest of these say sprinkle that on the fish top some underneath as well that's all will add into the flavor so we're going to cook inside so basically placing this on the fire

sighing completely see that Christmas cracker style and probably cook up about 15 minutes maybe 10 minutes each side city is looking service let me taste it while that's cooking down there I'm gonna show you some footage now dad he went to court the other day he was making a video for ta fishing or the each Channel and he went it caught quite a few of these black bream so gonna show you some footage now of how he had to catch these fish and he also preps them on the boat as well he's done a one way of cleaning them but there's also another way that we filmed back at home as well so you're gonna see you know a bit of graphic content coming up so heads up for those who were you know offended by that sort of thing it's coming up your way now you might want to look away or a tentatively if you want to learn something carry on watching then we'll come back here this will be cooked but enjoy it and we'll chill out and enjoy time in the woods we got one down it's on light drag somebody watch out the corner of their eye for me so just had a hammer and bite on it so let me think what I need I need some Coleen which is here on ham wonder I've made it our plywood see you grip as well quite artistic actually yes there's a fish look - but don't leave the ground babe a proper good god this anglers and anglers this is the octave oh good gal well this is a good break breathe it's really ripping me around my god that says gonna be a great finish that day look at the bend in his rod this is where the black bream are great fighters mike wants one for his kitchen cook this is not a bad fish man this is not a bad fish god I haven't even got the ground bite down yet what oh my god oh my god oh god swing committee Graham that's it no no no that naughty wants to swing it look at that broom boys three point five minutes and it's a clunker I've hopefully you can see this here look at the colors in the top there I hope you can see this iridescent colors there's the squid I'm pretty sure that one's good sizeable that's I think a nice unhooked yourself be very careful of this mine's different type of swim feeder all the lead weight is at the base there so that should sit nicely I'm cramming it full of all my mashed up bits and bobs freezer clear out and tell me what you want me making the sandwiches would you tonight no probably stay out so late I won't have any sandwiches lower this one down no no I great big piece of we please go away and leave me got one on the swim feeder oh I love it I love it then have big ears but he's going pretty well you might might have my other life there we go Blake bream hopefully you can see it here people is a swim feeder and here is a black brief here I'll show you all the spines now fish like snappers I've got the same spines so anybody around the world it's sort and rough scaled fish like this they want cleaning so I'm going to put this in the water give it a wash off first just like this gets a bit of the slime off it I've got a long bait bald a sharp fileted knife ouch there's a sponsor' spines everywhere and just start a Knick just here and what I like to do just put the fish's head in the corner so you're cutting away from yourself and it's tough between these two fins here just cut those out like this then you can bake these fry them this variety away and apparently baking is the way so when you open up just put your hand in there they have quite a small body cavity you can rip out the main digestive tract go right in and pull as much as you can out here they'll be very careful with the knife shot so I'm just going to go in and get a nick I'm gonna call it a gullet all this stuff is good Chum this is good ground mate for other fish do not waste it I am still fishy so you can take the gills out if you want no just here you'll see that sack you want to pop that sack there like this and then just basically bleed that fish now my tip is you do not want to put it in the water and drop it it's a good eating fish this one so go in through the gills like this is just my way doing it look I daresay there's some black bream expert ready to hit the keyboard I go in through this or I got it locked in my fingers I'm not getting spiked in water and then you can just watch all those backbone blood particles out yeah I do when you get home you can do it do it now we're going to the tide shifted not probably want to get back this is full of scale so you're going to scale this fish but I'm going to do it after I frozen because I found one to be frozen thawed out they're easier to scale that you don't want to cook it really with all the scales on the gate in somebody's food there if I show you are all the spikes just there so you're going to scrape these off let's get this one in the cooler with this pile which is even bigger over here he's been all cleaned out get them in the cooler and now I can get them back get them in the fridge or freezer keep in the in the top a little bit left not much there's not much coolness left in that's a nice fish that was a noise that's a noisy eater couple of noise fish in there for YouTube one for the camp took Anna camp catch and cook or where you call it might cause it and the other one for wifey and me right next phase will be throwing it out ready for cookie I just show you about the descaling on Scotty fish like this I have got it on the boat as you saw earlier I just cleaned filmed it put it in the fridge to keep it chilled last night and now we're gonna take the scales off it I like to give them a bit of a I've rinsed here because that gets any slipperiness off a little bit like this in fresh water now a thing with scales they go in a pink there's no way around it you can use the sharp blade or you can use the back of the blade like this to get underneath em look just ping those scales off they go everywhere so I recommend doing it outside rather than inside I use a blade you don't want to cut into the fish as I said watch the spikes as you can see I didn't watch the spike there lesson learned it'll be a marinade there for whoever's gonna eat this one right well having spiked my thumb I think I should I should be taking my own advice here and just pop in those scales off like this then you won't have any trouble of course you've got to get it in the oven if you're gonna bake it or you're gonna fry it whatever you're gonna do if you're throwing it and these stick out there obviously

go into the frying pan and I have seen other people do this right they just knit those fins off now listen I'm no chef this is just the way I'm doing it it's all edible food but if you tidy it up like this first it does make life quite a bit easier that's it now just dip those loose scales in here and then we'll do the other side let me scrape it all off get it in the fresh water now you can take the head off this fish if you're baking or cooking to be honest there's lots of juices in here the help enhance this meat and the next phase with that lovely and smooth now that's ready for oven frying pan baking whatever you want to do with it in hindsight I should have scored the fish a bit I think that would have would have got the juices cooking a bit more but I'm just gonna sort this fire out try and break up the coals a bit ready to flip it over I hope you enjoyed that little catch bit the catch segment essentially what I'm doing here is keeping the fire going this side and then with a stick just lifting the fish up and raking the coals from underneath over - this fish site so that this is my cooking side here where these coals are and that way that that fish cooks without kind of burning it's probably burnt a bit I can see its flames burnt it but just by doing it that way it helps it to cook a bit more evenly and cook through rather than burn so keep my fire going it's it's like a barbecue like when you have barbecues you cook it usually keep the fire going on one side of barbecue and cook your food your meat on this sort of coal side and then when it's let the flames die down there and scrape some more coals across that's just how I cook personally on fires a lot when I'm cooking like in tin foil like this move the coals across they're all hot enough even though there's no flame there they're very hot and that way it's helping to bake it a bit more rather than like burning so now I'm gonna rotate it as you can see I did burn it a bit but that's what the Tim Paul is there for as well stop it stop it kind of bone all these always small bit these small coals they're all giving off a lot of heat you know I've got the glove on but even keeping my glove there is really hot so these little coals here definitely hot enough to cook this fish so give it another maybe seven eight minutes on that side and then you should be done you can see the burn marks for probably perhaps cooked a bit too much but you know what it's gonna go down we're saying definitely cook this too much

mmm that's so good tastes so good gotta watch out for bones cuz obviously it's a whole fish but something else that is really nice you can see how it's one of the best one of the best eating fish here in the UK I know people are gonna say don't cook in aluminium foil because it's bad for you there's there's so many things out there that about here you know it's a case of just doing it in moderation I'm not cooking in alum in your fall every night if I cooked in it every night I probably would get old or something but do things in moderation you know it's it's just it's been done for years people have cooked in aluminium for years and yes there is a link without Simas and aluminium but I you know I think if you do it I personally do it in moderation so I'll leave it up to you guys and just enjoying the fish and being out here in the woods just so good I did invite dad on this cook part but actually he's doing some paperwork he said I think say you're missing out dad he's actually got some anyway for the TA fishing to cook up so you probably see that on his channel soon go and subscribe probably see the fire they're just letting that go out now I am at the cabin camp where our little palette with cabin is I'm in the tiki bar now but I'm only here for a swift visit just to cook this fish because I'm gonna edit this video and get it up you guys because the next video is a big one good what did Goodwin hmm this is good getting there just pull the bone out a bit like that so I can get underneath that is the the spine backbone the ribcage of a black bream you can see these big old bones here nice and easy to see the skin is lovely and salty not as crunchy as I like it but look at that there we go that's how it should look when you finished it in the belly that is tiny little head to them but good fish nonetheless content and satisfied that's awesome

so um next video I know this is a bit bit of a filler video guys for the next video it's gonna be awesome without giving too much away there's gonna be let me put it simply dear cooking camping that's what I'm gonna give you next videos gonna be a good one guys I promise you so thanks very much guys for watching this catch and cook episode I hope you enjoyed it please hit the subscribe button if you did enjoy it and also do take the little Bell notification icon because a lot of you have been saying you're not getting email notifications when I've uploaded a video the other thing to check is is pop back to my channel every couple of days that way you won't miss an upload because I know I get so many emails of people saying they're missing stuff and they're missing content so just you know I try to upload a peep you know at least every week maybe twice a week just come back every two days or so and just check the channel to see if there's a new video up in case you miss it don't forget to subscribe to my channel where there's lots of this called ta phishing pop some links in the descriptions of that thanks so much for watching guys I really appreciate it thank you for all your support and I'll see you soon in the next video we just get a be a good one cheers guys you

About the Author

TA Outdoors

TA Outdoors

Bushcraft, Wild Camping, Wilderness Hiking Trips, Solo Overnight Camps, Shooting, Hunting and Backpacking. My dog joins me on some of the trips. His name is Jaxx.

My name is Mike. And I'm addicted to adventure...

Check out our other YouTube Channel TAFishing: https://www.youtube.com/user/TAFishing

More articles from this author