Where do you clean your fish?

[Fish Head]

Let me give you a scenario. Lets assume you don’t have a cabin and therefore use the public access. You go fishing at some lake a couple hours away from your home. You want to bring home a few walleyes. What do you do?

Do you keep them in your livewell until you get home? You’re supposed to empty your live well before you leave the public access.

Leave them in an empty livewell? Empty the livewell of water and stop right away for a bag or two of ice?

Clean the fish on the lake? Someone told me this is illegal, but I think its only illegal if you throw your remains back in the lake.

I have done all except drive home with them rotting in an empty livewell.

What do you do with your fish?

[jlm]

Yo, how about a cooler full of ice! Its a crazy concept but works great!

[Jarrod32]

That's what I do...throw 'em in a cooler full of ice, then clean 'em when I get home or back to a cabin. Works well, summer or winter.

[This message has been edited by Jarrod32 (edited 05-25-2004).]

[CRAPPIEBAIT]

I USE DRY ICE.WORKS LIKE A CHARM,LASTS LONGER THAN REGULAR ICE.BUY A BLOCK,PLACE IN COOLER,COVER W/TOWEL,CATCH A FISH.

WORKS EVERYTIME.KEEPS THEM FRESH FROM MILLE LACS TO HOME (2 HR DRIVE)

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Greg

[SilverLakeBoy]

I usually have a cooler with ice along all the time and just take a plastic bag or two with to put the fish in.
JLM does this mean I hate my mother?

[JAR JAR]

Fillet them at the landing and put the fillets on ice in a cooler and bring a garbage bag with to put the scraps in and put them in your trash at home.

[icehousebob]

For summertime fish, I like to smash a 10pound block of ice and put it in an old cooler. Then put in some water. Drop the fish in right after catching and let them swim while they freeze to death. The blood is drawn from the meat and into the body cavity and all bacteria action stops. When you get home and fillet the fish, the fillets white and firm just like winter caught fish. If its a long trip home, I slit the bellies and pull the guts and gills before heading home.

[Slugo]

I often go the illegal route and keep water in the live well. I just like to have water in the live well so if somone gives me a bad time I can swing the trailer and give them a blast of lake water.heheheeh
I have a friend who has a set up he made that fits a rod holder...kinda of a fish cleaning tray. works great.

[minneman]

I keep a cooler with ice for drinks, I usualy buy minnows in a bag, I save the bag and put the fish in it,then it goes in the cooler, then the fish come out of the bag on to my kitchen counter top to be cleaned. and yes the wife is fine with this as long as I clean up.

[LocalGuide]

I use either a cooler full of ice or a livewell full of ice.
What ever I do, I make sure the fish are cold. It just makes them SO, SO Much easier to clean. Otherwise I normally only have to travel a couple blocks away from one lake or about 3 miles from the other, so I will just leave the fish in the livewell.

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And keep those hooks sharp!

[2dalake]

I use the cooler with the fish in the minnow bag or the livewell full of ice early or late in the season. Boy does it irritate one of my neighbors when I fillet in the driveway, but my wife won't go for filleting in the kitchen unless it's winter.

[delmuts]

when staying in a motel for a night. i will fillet the fish on the tailgate of the truck. the fillets go in one bag with the skin on; the rest go into garbage bags both go into a coller with ice til i get home.

[Tour. Pro 175]

I use a cooler full of ice. A quick tip, before putting them in the cooler cut the piece of skin between the gills and let the fish {bleed out} when you clean your fish your fillets will be store bought white and I personally think taste better.

[Wavey Davey]

My question is what everyone does with the fish remains once you clean 'em.
The problem with throwing them in the garbage at home in the summer, it doesn't take long before the stink gets out of hand. If I'm at my cabin, I bury them in the woods. If I'm at home, I don't like to put them in the garbage. I have gone to the local fast food joint and put them in their's. I know this isn't really the right thing to do, but they most likely get their garbage picked up daily, not weekly like at home.

[JP Z]

A good thing to do if you have a large freezer is to wrap the remains up really tight then put them in a brown paper bag, and then wrap them in a garbage bag ( I know a lot of wrapping but consider the alternative.) Then you put them in your freezer until garbage day. This works best if you have a large freezer out in the garage or possibly a large chest freezer other than your one connected to the fridge....as the wife may not like finding your surprise when she tries to open it thinking it's her Sunday roast.

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Tight Lines,
JP Z

[Leaky]

Wavey - Just put the remains in a bag in the freezer at home till the day the G-men come.

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IBOT #129, B-Dub Chapter. (Or is it Metro Chapter? - I'm so confused)

[Slugo]

Yup freeze um til trash day

[MuleSkinner]

My dad is 90 years old. Grew up in Southern MN. How did he clean fish? Had 10 kids. Caught all bullheads. Set up a production line.

On occasion he would go "up north" with friends to fish. His cleaning technique then was: Go to bar. Then to Morreys. (I might have the order reversed. Don't know how much planning they did).

Seriously, though the above is true, I put my fish in cooler of ice. Clean in kitchen, put guts in a plastic bag in freezer til garbage day. I love seeing those walleye eyes shine in the freezer. Makes me recall catching them and all their freinds I released.

[Wavey Davey]

OK, freezer 'till garbage day. Might freak my wife out a little...

[dfv87]

I usually throw my cooler ice in the livewell. Since I fish mostly at night I almost always have ice left. Then clean them in my garage.

[Fish Head]

I always clean them in the garage if I am at home. My wife would kill me if I ever cleaned fish in the kitchen! Ice in the livewell is what I have done the most.

The guts wrapped in the freezer 'till trash day goes for chicken and any other food remains that I don't want stinking my garage up all week.

[This message has been edited by Fish Head (edited 05-26-2004).]

[luv2senko]

I usually go about 90 fish over my limit and then just drive around until they start to go rancid.

[Mr. B]

The only thing I would becareful of if you clean them in the kitchen is having one of the fish get caught in the garbage dispossal. I had a crappie get stuck in the dispossal head down. I am not going to tell you how this story ended but thankfully my wife was not around.

[psegriz]

I'm kinda lucky the local bar where I was dumping my fish guts finally told me they didn't mind but asked if in summer I would put in plastic bag. They even give me plastic bags to put them in.

GRIZ

[Slugo]

garbage man made me mad... pick up is on thur. I put guts in trash on fri. whew

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Crappie it's not just a fish it's a attitude!

IBOT #23

[fishinphyl]

Give the remains to the barn cats. They think it is Christmas when I start cleaning fish. Actually, I have to watch out because they think they should get first choice of the fish that are not cleaned!

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Phyl

[jigginjim]

Another idea is a large garbage disposal that goes into a large container. Then bury in rose garden the roses grow like crazy. Even works in standard garden the fish mash
can be covered with a rack. As for fish from boat ramp to home the cooler or leave a very small amount of water with ice just to keep fish cool.

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Jiggin Jim's Guide Service
Take a kid fishing.