How to Clean Trout

You caught those fish on your trip and had lots of fun, now it is time for the work. Properly cleaning your trout will make it a tasty meal. You can either cook it immediately or you can freeze it and eat it later. Caution there is some graphic material presented.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Bucket
• Water supply
• Scaling knife
• Knife for cutting
• Cutting board
• Trout
• Plastic Bags

1. Catch your fish.
2. Set up your cleaning station. We use an old bench, a hose, old cooler and a bucket. But you can do it in your kitchen sink with a cutting board on the counter. Doing it outside keeps the fish smell outside. We place the fish in the old cooler and fill it with cold water.
3. Select a fish to clean.
4. While firmly holding the fish, use a scaling knife (or any serrated knife) and scrape all of the scales off of the fish on both sides. You may need to rinse the scales off to see ones you have missed.
5. Rinse fish, make sure all scales are off the fish.
6. Firmly holding the fish, in the palm of your hand with the fish belly up, and the head away from you. Place the tip of your sharp knife in the vent hole start cutting towards the head. Continue the cut until you are near the jaws.
7. Place the fish on the cutting board, on one side. Using a sharp knife, cut off the head. Make the cut all the way through and completely remove the head. Place te head in a waste bucket.
8. Remove all of the "guts" from inside the fish. Most of this can be pulled out with your hands or scrapped out with a spoon. Place in the waste bucket.
9. You will see some tissue along the spine with blood underneath it. You need to scrape this out, I usually do this with my thumb but you can do it with a spoon. Rinse the fish again. Remove any miscellaneous tissue and rinse.
10. The fish can be placed in a plastic bag for storage. You can add a little salt if you want. We usually place a single fish in a single bag and then place enough fish for a meal in a larger Ziploc bag. Write the date and type of fish on the outside of the bag with a permanent marker. Refrigerate or freeze.
11. Go onto the next fish.
12. Once you are done with all of the fish, you need to dispose of the heads and guts. We usually jsut bury them in the yard, but you need to get the ole a couple of feet deep to keep animals from digging the parts up. You can also dispose of in the trash, but make sure to secure warp it to reduce the smell.
13. Clean everything.

Tips & Warnings

• Most states do not allow you do this in or near the waters where you fish.
• Do not throw the fish waste into the water.
• Be careful not to cut yourself