First time cleaning fish... How young were you?

[bessiedog]

Just watched my 8 year old clean and prep and cook his first trout.

Not bad!

All smiles all around.

Reminded me of when my dad insisted I clean my perch... He showed me how to fillet them boneless, and left me to it .. It was Mons Lake, we called it Bear lake for some reason...... There I was, 35 perch to do, fillet knife in hand while dad loaded the boat. He made me also gut out the trout we got at Shemeluk the next morning. Waist deep in those weeds tearing the guts out.

My Baba loved fish!.... I was 6.

My boy did the typical thing... Ask to cut open the guts... Examine what it was eating, which part was which.

Better than any video game if you ask me.


How old we're you or your kids?

[Graffy91]

8 years old, learned on a jack.

Was one hell of a bad job haha, dad said gotta learn sometime now I am pretty good at it, :sHa_shakeshout:

[Walleyes]

I was cleaning fish on a regular bases by the time I was 5 or 6 years old. I was raised at a sawmill site along the banks of the Heart River and spent many a long summer day with my native friends either casting for or snaring fish. My mother had no problem cooking the fish for us to eat but they had to come in cleaned. It was very rewarding to share your days adventures with your buddies sitting on a sawdust pile over looking the river,, ah childhood days..

[AppleJax]

Probably since I was 6 or 7, if I wanted to keep it I had to clean it, and cook it for that matter. My daughter is 2 and helps me clean fish, she gets right in there, not allowed to touch the knife though.

[Ken07AOVette]

Likely 16. Dad always cleaned them.

[bubba 96]

Was about 6 or 7, what we use for pike bait here, the niagra river ice fishing was smelt heaven, 2 five gallon buckets, means lots of cleaning of guts...
And they were tasty..flour salt pepper quick fry..mmmmm....defininitly prefer Wally's and pike these days now tho....

But the 11 old gets to wack and clean fish now.....
Except when we fish with fishinab...the man is a god with a knife..

[alacringa]

Probably since I was 6 or 7, if I wanted to keep it I had to clean it, and cook it for that matter. My daughter is 2 and helps me clean fish, she gets right in there, not allowed to touch the knife though.

My dad had the same rule. If we wanted to keep it, we had to clean it. The cooking rule came a little later. I expect I probably learned on perch...and would have started about 5 or 6.

And yes, I always checked the stomach contents, and sorted out & identified the organs.

[Fishingaddict]

6 years old on a perch parents always told me if I wanted to keep it I clean it.

[chriscosta]

My dad had the same rule. If we wanted to keep it, we had to clean it. The cooking rule came a little later. I expect I probably learned on perch...and would have started about 5 or 6.

And yes, I always checked the stomach contents, and sorted out & identified the organs.

me too but it was my grandfather and I was no older than five on nakamun lake we had one of those fish clipboards great memories probly my best memories

[brobinson]

Probably 8 or 9. On a rainbow trout in the mountains. Dad had the same rule. If I wanted to fish and have one to eat, I got to clean and cook. The word around the campfire was that I was a mean cook! And have since evolved. There's videos on the Internet to help with fish I've never cleaned before now though! My generation has it easy!

[slough shark]

I think I was 5, trout out in the mountains.

[OneGirlWolfPack]

I haven't cleaned one yet. That would require me to first catch one worth keeping. :p I need an embarrassed smiley face.

[BeeGuy]

I have no idea when I started.

By the time I was 10 or so I fished by myself pretty often and always cleaned my own fish.

Mostly bass and brookies until I could drive, and then everything was fair game.

[Sooner]

Back when you couldnt cross the Mcleod river anywhere and the Gregg river had to be crossed in certain spots, i learned along with my friend to clean alot of rocky mountain whites. We cleaned our dads catches and uncles. We still camp there and joke that the two flat rocks we used year after year must have scales embedded in them still. We were around 12 when we started.

[Rabdo]

27 lol best fish i ever ate hahaha

[Wild&Free]

I was probably 13 or 14. One of the last trips my dad took the boat to a lake in Northern BC. Cleaned and cooked a nice 2-3lb rainbow out of Morice Lake. I was told I couldn't keep it unless I cleaned and ate it so that's what I did. After that my dad took up golf and I didn't get to fish all that much for the next few years.

[kevinhits]

I haven't cleaned one yet. That would require me to first catch one worth keeping. :p I need an embarrassed smiley face.

Your first one to clean should be a :bad_boys_20: burbot

[ak-71]

As long as I can remember, filleting wasn't known or at least common where I was, so just scale and gut. Still can't learn fellet well and try to avoid it if I can.

[greylynx]

I thought cleaning fish was women's work.

[kevinhits]

I thought cleaning fish was women's work.

Those happy days are gone....My wife wont even look at the fish I bring home...LOL

Women's LIB:bad_boys_20:

[Ken07AOVette]

I haven't cleaned one yet. That would require me to first catch one worth keeping. :p I need an embarrassed smiley face.

....and all the guys get stuck on OGWP bareassed.....:scared0018:

I thought cleaning fish was women's work.

HA! ow Zing!!!!

[ak-71]

I thought cleaning fish was women's work.

Judging by your avatar picture, you didn't have a problem to find yourself a woman when you were 5 y/o :)

[tacklerunner]

Ak-71: :sHa_shakeshout:Hahaha. Funny stuff. Well done

[Redfrog]

Catfish at 5 yrs. old. Hanging on a pair of pliers trying to get the hide off.:)

[greylynx]

Catfish at 5 yrs. old. Hanging on a pair of pliers trying to get the hide off.:)

Are we talking about channel cats, or fluffy the cat you were hanging a pair of pliers on?:)

[aviador]

I must have started pretty early as well but the one i remember was when we took a camping trip out east from Ontario. I think i would have been 7-8 or so and during a day of exploring we watched the fishing boats come in to unload. After they were all done there was one fish left lying on the dock which my dad picked up and we took back with us to the trailer. Dad asked if i wanted to clean it and of course i was all excited. Now that i think back (to the early 70s!!) i'm sure he was laughing from inside with the drapes pulled back watching me trying to figure out what to do with this fish as it was a flounder or sole or some other flatfish. All i know is that once i started trying to figure it out i had no idea what to do, with fins on each side and both eyes on one side of its body! Just remember shouting out "Hey Dad......help!"

[fishdude17]

Last year at age 37, a 10lb rainbow I caught and brought home from BC for my wife. That's the only one ever, I don't eat fish. Told her next time she has to catch and clean her own!

[Zip-in-Z]

I believe I was 9 or 10 when Dad took me spring fishin with him in the late 60's to a small creek that drained into the Whitemouth River in Manitoba. We caught a pail full of Red fin Suckers with my Zebco & worms, I remember, I had to scale the buggers & gut them while Dad prepared them for the smoker. Reflecting on the past, it was alot of fun growing up on a farm, those were the days ....

Zip

[Alberta Bigbore]

I was in grade three and dumb. I brought a goldeye home from the NSR and tried to gut it on the concrete with one of my dads diving knives. what a mess

[GregT]

about 14yrs on a slimy ol jackfish

[OneGirlWolfPack]

....and all the guys get stuck on OGWP bareassed.....:scared0018:



HA! ow Zing!!!!

Hahahaha! No one's missing much. :p

Thanks Kevin! Now I know which fish to pawn off on you if I ever go fishing with your group. :D

[ogre]

I cleaned my first trout at 30. Dissected my first dogfish @20.

[kevinhits]

I cleaned my first trout at 30. Dissected my first dogfish @20.

30..... Must of been all those trout you caught for me a couple weeks ago...LOL