Get it done fish cleaning

[Frank S]

I had just barely finished breakfast and my obligatory 4 cups of morning coffee when a neighbor that lives about 3 miles away shows up in the driveway. I haven't seen this guy in 3 years.
The first words out of his mouth were Hey Frank do you like fish?
Sure I said.
Well find something to put some fish in a have to do something whit the ones I caught this morning.
I looked in the back of his pickup and there were 3 huge ice chest filled with fish not iced down.
So I grabbed a 5 gallon bucket filled it almost half way with water and said I'll take what ever will fit in this bucket if that will help you out.
But I have to be honest with you as much as we love to eat fish the reason I haven't been fishing since 1985 is I like to catch and cook them the cleaning I usually let a partner do most of it. He had I had a rule the one who caught the least or the smallest did the cleaning. I almost never had to clean them. the reason why I haven't been fishing since is he got ill and couldn't go fishing.
brad said well I love to catch them and eat them , can't cook and hate cleaning.
another friend of his drove by saw us transferring fish and stopped I sure would like to have some fish he said. So I took what I wanted and they left.
Now the fun part I'm not going to clean fish in the house and didn't have a table outside to clean them on.I hunted around and found an old large radial arm saw stand and drug up a small pallet then laid a piece of steep plate on top instant table a little quick sanding to remove the major rust then water rinse and stone it briefly with a wet stone. Jane started scraping the bluegill while I nailed catfish to the tree for skinning and gutting.
a couple hours and several fish later we were done. BY the way we wound up with about 8 lbs of blue gill and 10 lbs of catfish filets more than enough to last the 2 of us for quite a while.
All the while Jane kept saying that I need to make a permanent table under the tree for times like this for cutting up Hogs chickens fish or whatever.
See what neighbors are good for, nothing but to cause ideas to be formed for me to have more things to do. But the free food is never turned away LOL.

[Toolmaker51]

See what neighbors are good for, nothing but to cause ideas to be formed for me to have more things to do. But the free food is never turned away LOL.

Rest easy folks. I'm sure Frank and Ms. S do not harbor cannibalistic tendencies or zombie-isim. Just pleased with a surprise bounty of natures other critters.

[Crusty]

Heh heh - It'll be worth it when ya eat 'em.

I once went coast fishing with some guys from work and we went out to the sea channel in February for the black drum run. It was a wet, cold, really rough trip across the bay to get there and we all looked at each other like they were crazy. After we'd been there an hour, the wind died and the sun came out and the drum started coming through the channel. We caught black drum, some as big as your entire leg, until everyone was tired of catching fish. We headed back to the bay house and split into 3 two man teams, each with an electric filet knife and went to work. It took us a while but we eventually had over 100 lbs of drum filets to divide between us after having the biggest fish fry I've ever had. Cleaning the residue afterwards made me think of a slaughterhouse.

[Frank S]

Heh heh - It'll be worth it when ya eat 'em.

I once went coast fishing with some guys from work and we went out to the sea channel in February for the black drum run. It was a wet, cold, really rough trip across the bay to get there and we all looked at each other like they were crazy. After we'd been there an hour, the wind died and the sun came out and the drum started coming through the channel. We caught black drum, some as big as your entire leg, until everyone was tired of catching fish. We headed back to the bay house and split into 3 two man teams, each with an electric filet knife and went to work. It took us a while but we eventually had over 100 lbs of drum filets to divide between us after having the biggest fish fry I've ever had. Cleaning the residue afterwards made me think of a slaughterhouse.

yep coast fishing you can fill a boat to the gunnels with gulf trout when they are running before you even know it. went gulf trout fishing with a couple friends of mine back when I did go fishing a lot One time we took my friend's 27 ft Boston whaler to the gulf anticipating a large daily catch we filled the center hold with a couple hundred lbs of ice hit the water just at dawn stayed out until dark and only caught 3 fish the whole day. Day this 3 days in a row hardly caught any fish at all on our last day we figured the heck with it just go with what ice that hadn't melted no use spending more money on something we probably wouldn't need Famous last words so to speak. found a current about 12 miles out calmest water I'd ever seen almost glass smooth as soon as the sun got just above the horizon you couldn't real them in fast enough. not a single fish under about 14" most around 18" to 20" Ran out of room dropped a buoy headed in unloaded Iced everything down filled up with ice headed back out found the buoy cast our rigs and it was as if we had never left. finally we are so wore out from casting and reeling in we called it quits back to shore loaded the boat and drove home. Actually instead of going home we stopped at the Masonic Home and school in Ft Worth and gave all but about 50 lbs of fish to the orphanage and school I'd like to think we brightened a lot of hearts but I bet the staff wasn't thrilled so much

[Frank S]

While crewing on a sail boat during a Regatta between Florida and Texas once we were becalmed for several days nothing much to do but sit there and discuss our bad luck for missing the wind or drop a hook We got ta eat don't we/ The captain hooked something I don't think it ever broke surface but he fought that fish until his arms gave out. Pretty much everyone took their turn on trying to just get a glimpse of what ever was on the hook this went on for what seemed like hours and maybe it was hours but the main billowed and it was time to cut and run fishing was one thing but the race wouldn't wait for us. we came in 12th out of 50 so at least we weren't the only ones stranded on dead waters that time.

[Crusty]

Sea story time - now this ain't no ****e. We had an overnight in Freeport and while walking from one bar to another we passed a bait shop with a large hook in the window made out of 3/8" rebar. Had to have it and bought it. Several days later we were out in the blue water heading to another area to work so I attached that hook to the 5/8" cable on the big deck winch, got a roast from the reefer, put it on the hook and then it went into the water with a few hundred yards of cable paid out for overnight fishing while we slept. I spooled it in the next morning: the roast was gone and the hook was completely straight. Whatever it was I really didn't want to catch it.

[Frank S]

Sea story time - now this ain't no ****e. We had an overnight in Freeport and while walking from one bar to another we passed a bait shop with a large hook in the window made out of 3/8" rebar. Had to have it and bought it. Several days later we were out in the blue water heading to another area to work so I attached that hook to the 5/8" cable on the big deck winch, got a roast from the reefer, put it on the hook and then it went into the water with a few hundred yards of cable paid out for overnight fishing while we slept. I spooled it in the next morning: the roast was gone and the hook was completely straight. Whatever it was I really didn't want to catch it.

depending on where you were at it could have been an amberjack or an Allison tuna barracuda sword fish shark you name the species there are some really large critters swimming the deep. Guys on offshore rigs would make huge treble hooks then suspend them on a cable attached to the hook of the rig crane just swing it back and forth through the waters to pass the time. Never seen any of them catch anything but heard stories of 900 lb Allison's and amberjacks being caught what way.
Biggest fish I ever caught in my life was a 60 lb channel cat on a trotline when fishing with my dad and a friend of his the fish was fouled up with a dozen hooks hanging in him from thrashing the trotline took all 3 of us in the 12 ft. Jon boat to wrestle the critter aboard

[Crusty]

For all I know it could have been a Russian submarine.

While tied up to a rig overnight I put a line near the bottom using my heavy pole and gear and hooked a 5' shark. I got it to the top and then (stupidly) heaved it up on deck where it immediately spit the hook out and then I had a loose shark flopping all around and snapping at everything in the vicinity. One of the other guys grabbed a fire axe and tried to dispatch it but there were chop marks all over the deck and gear before he finally got 'er done. Never again brother.

[Frank S]

Had a friend who got a wild idea about selling tackle at the bass tournaments. Thinking along the lines of mobile tool trucks he decided to rig up a mobile unit to go around and catch the big money bass tournaments he figured he would make a killing.
So he invested close to what the National debt was in 1980 in rigging up. headed out for his first weekend sale OOPS! no sales permit OOPS no state sales tax agreement oops, oops, oops the list went on an on. finally gets through the learning curve figures out how and when and how much to hind pocket certain individuals.
Life becomes good starts to recover on investment learns what sell the most at which tournament. Begins to have regular repeat customers takes special orders mails direct after first year actually has to pay sizeable income tax due to more income than can write off spends more time on the road going to and from events than at the events wife gets tired of him being gone all the time decides to accompany him everything is going better than imagined. Wife starts thinking she could make even more money on the side visiting anglers even brings them to their rig when friend is off somewhere else having a brew or something. Friend catches wife files for divorce wife winds up taking him to the cleaners even though it was her indiscretions which brought about the divorce even gets alimony settlement contract. Friend winds up with only his old pickup and a bass boat No job no house and flat broke. last time I saw him he was working at a Bass pro shop selling tackle happy as a clam at high tide because ex went bankrupt and wound up living on the streets