Tool Lady grew up fishing in Missouri and absolutely loves it…though she doesn’t do it as often as she would like here in NM. Last Friday, however, she practiced some self-care, took the day off of work and went fishing in the Pecos River. The limit you can catch is five, and she met her limit!!!
I, personally, have only been fishing a handful of times in my entire life, though it’s something I’d like to learn how to do well. So, trout fishing, cleaning and eating is new to us and very exciting, though definitely a learning curve!
Here’s what happened once the fish came home…
Tool Lady originally thought she’d wear gloves for the cleaning process in order to keep the fish smell off her hands as much as possible, but that idea fell away quickly (a lemon cleared up the smell quickly once she was done) and she just dove in!
To begin the cleaning process, she took a very sharp knife and stuck it in the trouts anus, slicing up along its belly, up to its gill cavity.
Then, as you can see in the photo below, there is an upside down U shape…she slid her knife into where the gill cavity attaches to the jaw and cut/detached it. She then held the head in one hand and grabbed the piece she just detached with her other hand and pulled down, which removed the entrails.
After she gutted the trout she rinsed out the blood vein (the black line you see behind her thumb), rinsed them all off well, bagged them up and put them in the fridge.
At dinner time she decided to cut the heads off before cooking…since this is all new to us, she thought that dead fish eyeballs might not be as appetizing for Fish Girl and myself…especially since Fish Girl is…um…Fish Girl 😉
She then added in a few slices of lemon, butter, garlic powder, salt, pepper and (fresh form the garden) dill, wrapped them up in foil and cooked them on the grill for about 8 minutes on each side.
Awesome!! Over the years Chi has been wanting to go fishing (I’ve never been – I’m squeamish about killing things, but will be happy to cook if someone else does the killing part ;). Thanks very much for the description of how to gut the fish (Eeeewwww! But the reward is worth it). How did you deal with the scales? Chi said that scaling fish makes a terrible mess that stinks up the whole kitchen for days.
Ha! You’re welcome! Tool Lady gutted them outside and rinsed them well (using my potting table in the backyard), then wrapped them up until it was time to cook them. They were cooked in their skin which allowed it to slide right off before we ate them. The spine and bones came out quite easily after doing a little trick with the tail…I’ll have to photograph that part next time 😉 The whole process was remarkably *not* stinky 🙂
$35 is a great investment for the number of meals you will be able to catch. Have you tried smoking the trout? Delicious 🙂
We haven’t tried smoking it ourselves yet, but have purchased it smoked by other 😉 I’d like to learn how to that though! Thanks for the reminder!