Fillet question...

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raven174us

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First I'm sorry if this is in the wrong place. I wasn't sure where to post it. Its not really a fillet question as much as a question about the left overs. What do you guys do to dispose of the rest of the fish once you have your fillets?
 
Great question and sometimes a problem for me. If i clean the fish at the dock, the crabs get the racks. At home, if there are not too big i bury them in the compost pile, otherwise, i find a desereted spot in the woods (away from the roads and such) and dump them for the vultures, coons and possums. the reason I suggest away from a road is because you might draw teh critters to cross the highway at night - dangerous for everyone

BTW - Black Drum skin and scales that I dumped on my friends farm is still around after 2 years Those scales are silver dollar size or larger and super thick!
 
I have been burying them but that gets to be a pain. I've thought about throwing them in the neighbors truck but he and I are the only ones that fish around here so he would know it was me. :LOL2: I believe it is illegal to clean fish on the water here in Ky.
 
Most places I've been to in the Midwest provide fish cleaning stations that you either put the guts, etc., in a barrel, dumpster, or some other provided container. When I fish in Arkansas or Tennessee, you throw it all back into the lake. Also Illegal to clean them in the boat in Illinois, as mentioned above - for control of size limits, etc. - can't have any fish with head/tail cut off in the boat....If I bring them home to clean them, I bag the guts/bones, etc., freeze them and they go out with the garbage....
 
Its kinda funny that its illegal in some places to dump them in the lake, but I guess I understand their reasoning. Most of the lakes around here have a floating fish cleaning station, and the heads and guts go down the hole right back into the lake they came from. Turtles, catfish, crawdads, or coons will make them disappear pretty quick.
If I clean them at home, I usually throw them a 1/4 bucket of water, then dump them out in the country somewhere where no one will run across them.
 
Just finished cleaning 28 fish. I double bag then put in the deep freeze til garbage day. Same thing with hunting season. It helps that garbage day is on Mondays :D
 
switchback said:
Just finished cleaning 28 fish. I double bag then put in the deep freeze til garbage day. Same thing with hunting season. It helps that garbage day is on Mondays :D

This is what I do as well... Wrap up the remains in some newspaper, throw it in a plastic bag, tie it off, and throw it in the freezer until garbage day. Early in the year, I will till them into the garden, but otherwise, I just freeze 'em.

And who am I kidding? I almost NEVER remember to bring them out on garbage day... It's usually in the fall when I have to make room for venison in the freezer that I realize there is a bunch of fish guts in there... :oops:
 
I have froze them before as well, until one day I called home to have my wife to set our fish out of the freezer to thaw for dinner that night, and she set out the guts instead. :)
 
this might have already been posted - I didn't read all of them

left over fish are GREAT fertilizers... especially on tomato plants - just dig a hole about 8" deep beside the plant, lay the leftovers on the side and cover it back up
 
raven174us said:
I believe it is illegal to clean fish on the water here in Ky.

I have never seen any official regulation regarding that from the dept. but I suspect it largely depends on what you mean by cleaning on the water. Most every marina around here has a fish cleaning station at the end of it where people pitch the leftovers back into the water.

Now, if you are cleaning fish on your boat out in the lake.. I suspect Mr. Greenjeans might take particular interest in you if he idles up and you haven't left any identifying features on the fish that are in your cooler.
 
The lake I fish at doesn't have a cleaning station. They are real strict on fish size also witch may be the reasoning. Bass have to be 15" to be keepers. With them not stocking yearly, 15" bass are hard to come by. We mainly pan fish. The kids enjoy catching a mess of bluegill to eat.
 
so many things to do with the leftovers, all of wich are fun

i put some in crawdad trap. minner trap. coon trap, and like to hang some from a tree branch to get pics of our bobcat and the rest of the critters on the trailcam

who woulda thaught fish heads had so many uses :LOL2:
 
I used to put them in the garbage can and push it out by the road to wait for the garbage pickup. Should of seen the look on the old mans face that would dig through the garbage cans when he opened that one. He wasn't worried about my can any more after that day. #-o
 
I bag then freeze them. I keep a stock for my buddies that trap so they can come get them and take up space in their freezers. Every fall I end up empty, the excess during the summer goes out on garbage day. I never want to impede on space for my tasty venison.
 

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