INSIDE THE OUTDOORS: Cleaning, filleting and freezing fish

If there was ever one topic I’ve seldom written about, it's preparing one's fish to eat after freshly caught. Anyone who has ever eaten his or her own catch, knows that fish are best when cooked and eaten as fresh as possible, right off the hook. For fish to be eaten soon after they are caught, de-gill and gut the fish. After thumbing out the kidneys and washing out the cavity, thoroughly dry it. Place the fish on ice or in a creel lined with dampened ferns.

If the fish are larger, such as salmon, steelhead, or trophy-sized trout, bleed them by sticking them just behind the gills, then tie them (air free) in a plastic tube. The tube should be cut off a roll with a length to accommodate the fish plus two knots. Lay the fish in the stream to keep cool.

If one is driving home and planning to eat the fish the next day, do not gut and gill the fish until one gets home. Put the fish on ice. Pour or drain off the water as water is a carrier of bacteria that spoil fish.

In filleting fish, try to start the process by using a fillet knife that is as flexible as possible and has a narrow blade curving to a sharp point. It should also be razor sharp. Lay the fish on a board; cut down to the spine and around the sides. Do not cut the spine in two. Cut into the fish behind the transverse cut and slice toward the tail, cutting down to, but not through, the ribcage. After slicing down two-thirds of the length (where it begins to taper), push the point clear through, keeping the flat of the blade close along the backbone all the way to the tail. Now, lay the fillet open and finish cutting away from the ribcage. Slice it loose along the belly line, turn the fish over, and duplicate the process on the other side.

When this approach is not used, I leave the flesh on the bones and cook it intact. Then after frying it, I grab the skeleton near where the head was and make a "U" pulling it back toward the tail. I then take my fork and carefully loosen the flesh from the bones. That way I have minimal waste and more fish to eat.

To remove the skin, place the fillet knife on the board, skin side down, and take hold of the tip of the fillet with either the right or left hand. Cut in between the skin and flesh, then change one's grip. Hold tip on the skin tip while slicing forward, pressing the flat of the knife down slicing forward.

There are a number of ways I have found that have worked well for me. Smaller fish such as bluegill, crappies, and perch, after cutting off the head, tail, gills, gutting them and literally removing the skin by grasping it near the gills, I just pull it off. That way there is minimal amount of waste.

I then get Ziploc bags, fill them with three-quarters full of tap water, and deposit each fish in the bags and deposit them in my freezer. For bigger fish such as pike, I cut steaks between each ribcage and put each steak in one Ziploc bag. As for trout, I do the same as I did for the fish above, except sometimes I leave on the tail. I freeze them the same way. When I want to eat the fish, I take them out of the freezer the day before, allowing them to defrost in the refrigerator. I will check on the bags periodically, dumping out as much water that I can see through the transparent bags.

Fish kept on ice will remain reasonably flavorful for two days. Do not keep fish longer than four to eight hours in the refrigerator before freezing. All fish deteriorates in flavor after frozen, but one can reduce this deterioration markedly by freezing the fish in a block of ice (similar to my Ziploc bag approach) or with a thin layer of ice over its surface.

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