Thread: cleaning fish

Originally Posted by limbhook

Does anyone clean their panfish whole, and if so has anybody ever used a spoon to remove the scales.

I prefer them that way, for myself ... Crappie or gills/bream/sunfish/etc. (I clean them like Blackhawk's pic shows) That's the way I cleaned the last mess of Gills & Shellcrackers I caught ... last month.
Now, when I clean them, and there's a possibility that someone else may be eating them .... I use a elec knife and filet them.

The trick with using a spoon to remove scales, and not have the scales flying all over the place ... is to not let the scales dry out. Scaling them with a spoon, under running water, will also keep the scales from flying.

... cp

I fillet my fish now, but many years ago i didn't know how so i would dress them whole, and use a spoon to remove the scales. It is in deed a drawn out process, but now and then we like to eat our fish whole, i think they taste better whole, but they also taste good fillet i was just wondering how many used a spoon as opposed to a knife. I think the tail taste the best.

when i clean small fish like brim, crappie or white perch, i fillet one side off and leave the other side intact. around here fried fish tails are a delicacy and is my favorite bite on a small fish. filleting one side of give you two different cuts to offer, which also satisfies those that dont wanna deal with bones.

I like to filet mine, like some others, my father taught me to cut the heads off, gut em & lay 'em to the hot grease. He loved them that way. Now to me, that's alot like work, picking out bones, I do have a small metal scaler, but have used a spoon.

Most the time it depends on the size, if I have a good mess of good sized fish, I'll filet them, if I have a few & they are small, I'll just cut & gut and away we go.

Originally Posted by willk

That's how we did it when I was young....many years ago. I like to eat bream on the bone once in a while. Love the fried tails.

:D me too.

Ehhh, I dont' know, my Grandad and my Dad made the transition to fish I'd fileted and seemed to enjoy them.

When it comes to gills I think they have more taste if scaled & fried whole. I use a hack saw blade folded in two then wrapped with cord to hold together & is the handle also. Crappie are filleted. Gills tail is cats meow.............:D

Whole, skin on scales off, no rib bones, cut on each side of dorsal. Tail is good, so is eggs.