I Hate Cleaning Fish, I Hate Cleaning Fish, I Hate Cleaning

[greenwillowherefords]

There is a reason why I only occasionally go fishing, although I enjoy catching them when they are biting. The reason is:I hate cleaning fish!

Today we attended the annual family reunion of my mother's side. This is held on one of my uncle's/cousin's farm, on the banks of one of four ponds. They are stocked with hybrid bluegill, bass, and catfish. One of the functions of the reunion is fishing. My sons fished for hours. Their cousins fished for hours. Most of the fish went into our bucket, as none of the other Dads was willing to go home and clean the fish. This time the boys promised to do the scaling. They are now wishing that they had stopped at a reasonable number of perch, like, say 20. They tried to get me to start helping them scale the fish. I said, "No, now I've got to filet ALL of them!" The sun is beating down. The electric knife is growing hot. After about ten fish, I lost heart. On threat of me either burying the rest of the fish, or putting them in a plastic bag and putting them in the freezer for another day, my wife has now taken over the fileting. I wonder how long that will last. I am skeptical. There are probably 45 perch. Did I mention that I hate cleaning fish? Especially perch. So little meat for so much work. I have heard of men who averaged 32 seconds per fish. Not me. No matter how many years it has been, it is still a couple of minutes per head. Soon she will come for me. She will be tired of them too......I hate cleaning fish!

 

[Jake]

cleaning is why when I went fishing last friday I through the biggest of the six into the stock tank to live for a while

 

[jw]

Why not impose the rule - - "You catch 'em, you clean 'um."

That should slow them down!

 

[Beefy]

i know what you mean. my grandmother's 93rd birthday was saturday and i went back on the creek at about 11 and caught 35 (mostly bream and warmouth) within an hour and then i had to come home and clean them all. we had a fish fry that afternoon for her. they sure were good but i probably wont be keeping anymore for a while unless of course a trip to the beach is included in the deal.

 

[bullred]

One of the advantages of living on the coast and catching mostly speckled trout - no scaling and easy to fillet.

CJ

 

[ranchwife]

Why not impose the rule - - "You catch 'em, you clean 'um."

That should slow them down!

EXCELLENT advice!!!

 

[bigbull338]

oh the fish smell on your hands after your done cleaning them for a few days my dad never could eat fish the same day cleaning them b/c of the smell on his hands i love catfish fillets scott

 

[TLCfromARK]

Why not impose the rule - - "You catch 'em, you clean 'um."

That should slow them down!

That is a good rule. It took almost 5 years for one of my brothers to start inforcing that rule with his wife. She didn't believe in throwing anything back until she started having to clean them herself! Now she only keeps enough for one meal.
I'm pretty lucky, my wife cleans her own fish and cuts up her own deer. I do have to field dress & quarter the deer for her but she does everything else.
;-)

 

[greenwillowherefords]

Why not impose the rule - - "You catch 'em, you clean 'um."

That should slow them down!

That is a good rule. It took almost 5 years for one of my brothers to start inforcing that rule with his wife. She didn't believe in throwing anything back until she started having to clean them herself! Now she only keeps enough for one meal.
I'm pretty lucky, my wife cleans her own fish and cuts up her own deer. I do have to field dress & quarter the deer for her but she does everything else.
;-)

Two little boys 11 and 8. They scaled 44 fish. That's pretty good. I don't trust them with a filet knife yet, let alone an electric! BTW, wife actually fileted 34 or 35 of those fish. I got off easy. She's faster with the electric knife than I, too!

 

[TLCfromARK]

Why not impose the rule - - "You catch 'em, you clean 'um."

That should slow them down!

That is a good rule. It took almost 5 years for one of my brothers to start inforcing that rule with his wife. She didn't believe in throwing anything back until she started having to clean them herself! Now she only keeps enough for one meal.
I'm pretty lucky, my wife cleans her own fish and cuts up her own deer. I do have to field dress & quarter the deer for her but she does everything else.
;-)

Two little boys 11 and 8. They scaled 44 fish. That's pretty good. I don't trust them with a filet knife yet, let alone an electric! BTW, wife actually fileted 34 or 35 of those fish. I got off easy. She's faster with the electric knife than I, too!

Agreed that the young ones can't do it all but it sounds like you've got them started in the right direction. You just need to get the other children & parents in the program.

By the way, if I'm doing something that needs to be done and I don't like to do it I try to remember the following verses.

James 1:4 and Luke 21:19 ( KJV )

;-)

 

[stocky]

when i was growing up, there were alot of the neighbors in their 60's and older and they were always tickled to death for me to drop off any extra fish. i could catch fish all afternoon and just drop them off at the different neighbors and they were tickled to clean them while they milked. i would gig 200-300 suckers in a night and on the way home drop them off in 5 gallon buckets at several different houses and the people would get up in morning and find them and clean them and can them, always had people who wanted those fish. now, all those fine people are gone and i am stuck with only catching or gigging what i want to clean. as those people passed on, their kids divided up the farms and there are lots of new houses and new people, will never be the same, i will always appreciate those people i thought of as old but now know they were smart

 

[Arnold Ziffle]

stocky -- I guess I'll display my ignorance here, but what are the "suckers" you referred to? Maybe its just a difference in local terminology. The only gigging I'm familiar with is flounder and frog gigging (other than my dear friends from up around College Station). The only thing that comes to my mind for "suckers" is possibly "carp", which nobody around here eats unless they are on death's doorstep due to starvation.

 

[stocky]

arnold, suckers are a distant relative of the carp. they live in the streams here and go from 1-4 pounds each. during the winter when the water is ice cold they are great eating.. When fixed right, they have a taste almost as good as crappie at that time of year. they have alot of little hair like bones running the length of their body, so you scale them, filet them and leave the skin on and then score them every 1/4 inch down to the skin from the inside of the filet and then deep fry them and that cooks the bones up. canning takes care of all the bones with just scaling and gutting and de-heading them. they make outstanding filets fried or alot of people would can them and eat them like salmon cakes all winter long. in the warm water, i dont care much for them. at night, with a big light on the front of the boat you use a 12-14 foot gig pole with a heavy 3-4 prong gig on the end and spear them. i agree with you on the carp. i have had alot of people tell me how they can be fixed and taste great, but those same people, when i offered to get them some carp always turned them down----i dont think they actually knew how to make them taste good. we have alot of get togethers on the creek or river bank in the winter and gig fish and cook the fish and fried potatoes and just enjoy a winter evening, lots of fun

 

[Arnold Ziffle]

Thanks for the info stocky -- it sounds really interesting. And I think I know what you mean about those get-togethers down by the river. Some of my fondest memories are of the "clan" getting together for outdoor fish fries down in the river bottoms, eating freshly caught catfish and gaspergoo (a freshwater drum). Something about outdoor frying seems to make the fish taste much better.

 

[D.R. Cattle]

Something about outdoor frying seems to make the fish taste much better.

I can definitely agree with that. Straight cornmeal and throw 'em in the grease.

 

[stocky]

and when they float to the top, they are ready to devour----love those times

 

[Bret]

I agree with the cornmeal. As for as cleaning fish goes, I'm leaving for Canada Friday to try to get in touch with these true inner feelings. Fhsing for a week. I can't quite make up my mind today. I will also try to get in touch with J.D. and 7-up while the deep frier is heating up each evening. I'm turing the ranch over to a young person headed for Purdue soon. I know he can handle everything while I'm gone. Did I say Ranch? I guess the J.D. is already clearing my thoughts.

 

[Dave]

The other way is catch and release. I was at a buddy's place last week. He has a private lake about 35 acres full of trout. We cooked up steaks for dinner and then we went fishing. I caught 9 rainbow and brook trout from 14 to 21 inches on a fly rod in about 45 minutes. Turned every one of them loose to catch another day. I had lots of fun. The steak was great and I didn't have to clean fish.
Dave

 

[greenwillowherefords]

I can't remeber which vacation we were on at the time, but there was a pond stocked with trout where you could fish. Once you were done fishing the people who owned the pond would clean them and cook them for you and there was your lunch. The water was very clear and you could see hundreds of fish below, we had a great time. This was one time we didn't have to clean the fish.
Greenwillows wife

 

[Arnold Ziffle]

Seems like I remember, from many years ago, there was a famous camp or resort in Arkansas, either on the White or Little Red river, that would also cook your catch for you. And the trout fishing in the river was usually quite good. I want to say the name of the outfit was Gaston's. Do any of you folks from Arkansas know anything about it? Still in business? Would you recommend it these days?