Fish Cleaning Tips

[muskybob]

We all have our ways of cleaning, storing, and disposing of remains so I thought this would be a good place to post your own tips on how you do things.

If I don't clean my fish at the fish station before heading home I do the following:

Disposing of remains after the clean up job is both smelly and messy in the garbage can while waiting for it to be picked up. What I do is double-wrap the remains in a grocery bag and put it in the freezer till the morning of pick up day. I put the frozen package in the garbage bag & it's gone, with no lingering mess or smell.

[Big Dave]

We remove all the dark meat and the laterial line. My fishing partner is clever at removing the pin bones that came off the ribs. At home I use an old ironing board. You can adjust the height.

[K Gonefishin]

I garbage picked a glass top from a old coffee table it's almost 4 ft long by 2 ft wide and about 1/2 inch thick, I dump the fish out of my cooler on the grass, set my glass top on top of my cooler and go to town on the fish. Hose the glass off and it's nice and clean, since it's low I just sit on a 5 gallon bucket with a extra throwable from a boat while I clean so I don't get bucket ass. I can put up and take down my makeshift fish cleaning station in less than a minute!

After a long day of fishing I don't mind sitting down while I clean fish.

[skipper19]

I got a regular butchers block board to do the operations on. It has the quality of holding the fish pretty still after hosing and makes filleting a lot easier without the fish sliding around.

Bad part is, so far I haven't gotten around to making a table out of it so I been using the tailgate of the Ford for a table. After I trade it in you'll know by the cats following around behind the truck if you end up with it .....Guts go out in the back creek for the snappin turtles and muskrats....wonder why all the possums and raccoons keep coming up to the back door at nite ....hmmmmm.....maybe Musky Bob has the best idea for gut disposal.

Mark

[spoonfed_111]

We do it on the lake. Cut, rinsed and bagged with rods still out.

You'd be suprised how many fish stop in at the last minute for supper.

Glen

[rolmops]

We do it on the lake. Cut, rinsed and bagged with rods still out.

You'd be suprised how many fish stop in at the last minute for supper.

Glen

Glen,

What are the 3 numbers 1 all about? Did you get another boat?

I never knew that chumming works in fresh water,can you write a bit more about that?

As for how do I clean.

Sometimes at home with offal in a bag in the freezer until garbage day or forgotten in the freezer for a few weeks.

When out in Cape Cod Bay or Stellwagen Bank.I always bring my vacuum packer and a 12 to 120 volt power inverter along in the boat.The fish is cleaned ,rinsed,vacuum packed and put in a cooler with dry ice all while still on the water.

Cornelis.

[Billy V]

The best tip I can offer is to buy a quality knife and keep it SHARP. Makes cleaning fish a million times easier. We have a Forschner Cimeter and it makes cleaning either on the lake or at a cleaning station a bunch easier - it literally takes Jay about 15 seconds to clean a King with it.

[Has Been]

We get sink cutouts from Countertops on the job . They are formica or somtimes corian or some other composite. They work great. A diamond hone makes life easy.

[GAMBLER]

I use a piece of counter top I got from Mr Seconds. It was around $20.00 and works perfect. I put it on top of an old card table. Anyone else remove the pin bones the same way you remove the Y bones in pike? I tried it last time and it worked awesome.

[Big Dave]

We do , we can some and freeze fillets with a foodsaver bag system. The canned comes out just like tunafish, makes great dips and sandwiches. We save the canned venison for sandwiches in the boat

[Missdemeanor]

Billy....you sponsered by forshner now?..lol.

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

[skipper19]

Anyone else remove the pin bones the same way you remove the Y bones in pike?

Yup...I gotta, because if Cher gets a fillet with any bones in it .....that's the end for her. She will dissect the fillet on her plate. It always drives me nuts to watch her do that to a finely grilled fillet. Oh and I also remove all the skin and dark fatty deposits from the fillet. Grilling, on the gas BBQ (especially with mesquite wood chip smoke ) lets a lot of the other fats dissolve and drip away which helps to reduce the risk of PCB. Mercury is a problem that can't be gotten rid of, but smaller fish with less time in the ecosystem are less likely to have high levels of mercury.

Mark

[landingzone]

Can you explain how you are removing the pin bones?

Thanks, Dick

[ray koziatek]

pull em out with yer teeth......just sorta start where the bones are with knife and sorta feel as you follow the angle of the bones then cut the backside (of the bones) at same angle....you sorta slice out the 1/2 in wide section ..I always cut the lateral line first so ya sorta end up with a long strip (narrow) of back meat with the rest of fillet in tack,,

kinda have a couple of pieces when done but the extra work will make for great tasting pieces.................or ya can cook first starting with bone side down then flipping and finish with the bones up and remove with pliers,wifes tweezers, or sorta use a knife edge and yer thumb to grip and remove after cooking...this will give you a better looking finished cooked product but its a pain...in the

[rolmops]

Try this:

http://www.chow.com/food-news/53993/pin-bone-wizard/

Or if you are so inclined,

[skipper19]

What Ray said....follow along the bones with the finger to get the lay of them then carve the top section (back) away from the larger part of the fillet (belly side). Then go back and carve along the pin bones on the other side of them and remove a strip with the pin bones in it about 1/2 inch or 1/4 inch if yer a surgeon with a really sharp knife...Billy V signature Forschner or a cheap ole rappala that is sharp. What ya end up with is four pieces of fillet..two back straps and the sides.

Mark