[Matt G]

Originally Posted by MathGeek

Great point. From the moment it's caught, it's not wildlife anymore, it's food, and it needs to be taken care of as food, which means getting it on ice quickly and keeping plenty of ice in the cooler until it's cleaned. We buy 40 lbs of ice for a 100 qt ice chest, and we are careful to keep the ice on top of the fish and to dump a bag of ice out once there are plenty of fish to cover.

Care and clean facilities when cleaning fish are a must, followed by a quick trip into the zip lock bags and then into the freezer.

Cold, cold, cold. Clean, clean, clean. I'll even take a break when cleaning a mess of fish to help myself do a good job and resist the temptation to cut corners. We've watched a lot of folks clean fish at Calc Pt and a lot of guys are almost as careful as we are, but a lot of guys rush, leave fish sit in the sun, package fillets in ice bags and walmart bags, use knives of questionable cleanliness, etc.

When I read this article, you were the first person I thought of. You always "talk" about how trash fish is just as good as any if prepared correctly.