fish waste?

Ive never cleaned more than a few fish at a time. And I usually like triple bag the waste. And it still smells. But this year I plan to take advantage of our freezer and vacuum sealer and fill the freezer. So do you guys do anything special after cleaning a good mess of cats or bluegills? Or just toss it in the trash or water like Ive seen some?

Trash, yes. Into the water, never! The heads from salmon and whole trash fish go into the freezer for crab pots later on. I had a friend who used a shop vac to clean fish after slicing the belly. He had to throw it away after the first month but he sure had a huge collections of flies and stray cats for awhile.

I'm about 100 yards from the river bank so there's no shortage of racoon and possum around here. I can lay it out on the riverbank and it will be gone before morning. Occasionally I'll toss some in the river, the turtles and gars gotta eat too. I could probably just lay it all in a pan in my yard and get the same results, but I don't want to draw the wildlife up to my house more than they already show up. I trapped 3 possum in my yard with my live trap last summer and relocated them several miles away, back on the river.

JMichael said:

I'm about 100 yards from the river bank so there's no shortage of racoon and possum around here. I can lay it out on the riverbank and it will be gone before morning. Occasionally I'll toss some in the river, the turtles and gars gotta eat too. I could probably just lay it all in a pan in my yard and get the same results, but I don't want to draw the wildlife up to my house more than they already show up. I trapped 3 possum in my yard with my live trap last summer and relocated them several miles away, back on the river.

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Smart thinking - I do the same - return the racks to teh water or near water for some thing to have a snack.


Just as JMichael points out - make sure you dispose of the carcass away from any area you do not want to draw wild life to. Also, if you are dumping it - get it well away from a road as the possum, coon, fox or whatever (BassAddict, Fender or Popeye even) will be drawn to the scent and might get hit by a car (or worse could cause an accident)


I once cleaned two black drum that were each in the 60 lb range in my back yard - dumped those in my friends field and for years they would "discover" the giant scales all over the place. Black drum have half dollar sized scales that are super thick and clearly do not rot very fast at all!

I am banned from drum fish dumping there

I use the heads in my crab traps......some goes into the garden too...makes great fertilizer.

Garden or compost or dispose of on private property. That's what i do.

I don't want to attract racoons, etc., so I put all the waste in a freezer bag and put it in my garage refrigerator's freezer and let it freeze. Then I put it out with the trash on pickup day. I have been doing this for 15 years and have never had any issues with it.

Bass addict, did you see AHAB finally got banned from something.

gillhunter said:

I don't want to attract racoons, etc., so I put all the waste in a freezer bag and put it in my garage refrigerator's freezer and let it freeze. Then I put it out with the trash on pickup day. I have been doing this for 15 years and have never had any issues with it.

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Ditto - Some times I take it back out to the lake but the freezer bag works. The CORE does not let us clean it at the lake and it is illegal in Texas to clean it on the water if you remove the head or tail because they can not verify the length when you return to the dock.

i use the waste for coyote bait. but have farm and 600yrd rifle range so smell is way off from house, but coyotes are suckers for stinkin pile of fish waste.

I make fish emulsion...I add everything I dont eat into a 5 gallon bucket. Give it some fresh air once in a while. Not sure if the stuff is any good. One of these days ill test it on a plant. I have about a gallon and a half.

I think I added a half gal of water and molasses to feed microbes. More fresh air would be better but it stinks to all hell!

HANGEYE said:

Bass addict, did you see AHAB finally got banned from something.

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I am banned from most things - [-X

i have a creek in my yard that i feed small amounts 1-3 fish if i have much more i bury it as that is about all the minnows and crawdads can process. its easy to dig in the soft ground by the creek.

gillhunter said:

I don't want to attract racoons, etc., so I put all the waste in a freezer bag and put it in my garage refrigerator's freezer and let it freeze. Then I put it out with the trash on pickup day. I have been doing this for 15 years and have never had any issues with it.

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Me Too...cva34

I bury mine in garden also for fertilizer.

Thanks guys. Guess ill keep doing what ive been doing freezing and bagging for trash. And keeping gill heads for catfish bait.