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Help needed. How to preserve Marlin Bill

Santa

Santa

Red Skull Member
Joined
May 19, 2020
Member Number
162
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1,262
Loc
North Pool
In November of 21, I caught a roughly 150lb striped marlin while in Cabo. I brought the frozen bill home with me.

Now I finally have the time to figure out what to do with it and then make a wooden mount for it and have a plaque made. I have had no luck finding the best way to clean the flesh and preserve it. All I have found and heard is throw it on an ant hill and they will do all the work. Being in the SF bay area, we don't have ant hills.


Oh great Irate outdoorsmen, let me know your ways. PS the gardeners for the people we stay with got the rest of the fish, so it did not go to waste.


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marlin.jpg
 
Dermestid beetles. They eat decaying flesh. Taxidermists use them to clean skulls. Being near the coast I would think that someone who does fish mounts would do it or know who does.

Dermestidae - Wikipedia

In NC we can bury things in the back yard and the beetles will do it for free. But you need to put chicken wire over it weighted with cinder blocks to keep animals from digging it up. Probably illegal in Cali...:flipoff2:
 
You can use salt around the base to draw out all of the moisture. Leave it for a few days then rinse it off and place it in the sun for about a week but keep it dry. Ive done a sailfish bill that got sharked so it couldnt be released this way.

Ive read you can pack it in borax as well to draw out the moisture but Ive never done it. I dont generally kill billfish if it can be helped. I really dont like the meat all that well.
 
Johann said:
Dermestid beetles. They eat decaying flesh. Taxidermists use them to clean skulls. Being near the coast I would think that someone who does fish mounts would do it or know who does.

Dermestidae - Wikipedia

In NC we can bury things in the back yard and the beetles will do it for free. But you need to put chicken wire over it weighted with cinder blocks to keep animals from digging it up. Probably illegal in Cali...:flipoff2:
Click to expand...

I got fawking coyotes in the front yard. I'm shopping for a nice quiet air rifle before they get mine or one of my neighbors old dogs. But I gots no beetles :(


Stuck said:
You can use salt around the base to draw out all of the moisture. Leave it for a few days then rinse it off and place it in the sun for about a week but keep it dry. Ive done a sailfish bill that got sharked so it couldnt be released this way.

Ive read you can pack it in borax as well to draw out the moisture but Ive never done it. I dont generally kill billfish if it can be helped. I really dont like the meat all that well.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Meat went to the gardeners and they were THRILLED to get it. Only because it is to big of a fish to process where we stay. We don't waste meat:smokin:
 
When I was in Grenada we ate the hell out of Marlin everywhere. Not bad at all.

When I caught one in Cabo, took a picture, got the fight on video, tossed that bastard back. Good luck to you
 
Santa said:
I got fawking coyotes in the front yard. I'm shopping for a nice quiet air rifle before they get mine or one of my neighbors old dogs. But I gots no beetles :(




Thanks. Meat went to the gardeners and they were THRILLED to get it. Only because it is to big of a fish to process where we stay. We don't waste meat:smokin:
Click to expand...
To big to process? Gut it. Cape it around the neck. Filet around the ribs. Steak the tail section.
 
Stuck said:
To big to process? Gut it. Cape it around the neck. Filet around the ribs. Steak the tail section.
Click to expand...


Yes, when you have to clean, package and freeze all in an outdoor kitchen that is 3' x 6'. Yes it is to big for us to process and not make the entire place a disgusting mess. I'd also like to be invited back again:laughing:
 
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