>>1713850The thing is, fish are different from mammals. For fish that live in relatively shallow water (which is most freshwater game species), the blood tends to just collect in the swimbladder, not in the flesh, anyway. Killing the fish quickly (which stops them thrashing about and prevents further release of adrenaline, lactic acid, etc.) is more important to preventing nasty flavors than the actual bleeding part.
The old timers (in Europe and America, anyway) never bothered with bleeding, they just knocked them on the head with a "priest" or manually snapped their necks, and then tossed them in their creel to be cleaned later. If they fished all day, they might clean the morning's catch before lunch, but I know plenty of older fishermen even today who don't clean their catch until they get home (and who never bleed anything).
Deep sea fishing is a different matter entirely, mind you. Many of those fish do really need bleeding because their swimbladders are pressurized and so the blood won't drain. Even then, the meat isn't really spoiled as such (blood is actually nutritious), but it definitely does result in strong flavors which many people dislike.
