A trout’s scales are so fine that it isn’t necessary to de-scale before cooking. However, if you reel in nearly any other fish, you’ll need to know how to de-scale it.
To de-scale: Take the un-sharpened side of your knife and rub it against the scale pattern of the fish. You will see them coming off and quickly learn how to make this process go faster. Once the fish is reasonably free of scales, rinse it in clean water.
To clean: With a very sharp knife, make a shallow incision in the belly of the fish starting right in front of the vent and ending at the gills. You may need to make a couple of passes to get just below the flesh. This will expose all of the internal organs. These can usually be scraped out in one quick motion with your hand. It may require a bit of trimming with your knife if it all doesn’t come out. Rinse again and your catch is ready for the frying pan.
To cook: Wrap fish in bacon and fry in hot cast iron skillet. Salt and pepper to taste. You can cook all meat this way (with or without the bacon). All the other ingredients are optional. You can bring cornmeal or a batter mix if you want to deep fry it. Maybe lemon and dill. I would recommend only bringing ingredients that you plan on using for multiple meals. The simpler the better.
Read about other campside cooking strategies in Christie Matherne Hall's story,"Notes on Camp Cooking," from our August 2019 issue.
