Sido Posted August 15, 2011 Share Posted August 15, 2011 Hello All, This may be a silly question - I am interested in anyone's tips on how to clean fish on your boat without making a huge mess - scaling, gutting etc. By that I mean that the boat ramp i use does not have fish cleaning facilities and I would prefer to clean them before getting home - I understand it is illegal to fillet fish on your boat. Thanks heaps. Sido Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 15, 2011 Share Posted August 15, 2011 You could do it in a large fish tub filled with water. Make sure that the head is not removed as the fish has to be whole as per fisheries rules. Cheers Stewy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musty Posted August 15, 2011 Share Posted August 15, 2011 Hello All, This may be a silly question - I am interested in anyone's tips on how to clean fish on your boat without making a huge mess - scaling, gutting etc. By that I mean that the boat ramp i use does not have fish cleaning facilities and I would prefer to clean them before getting home - I understand it is illegal to fillet fish on your boat. Thanks heaps. Sido Just go nuts on the baitboard or gunwhales- nevermind the mess. When your done dump a couple of buckets of water over it all and walla! Musty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff Posted August 15, 2011 Share Posted August 15, 2011 When there are no cleaning facilities at the ramp this is our solution As for scales , if you scale slowly they tend not to fly around every where. When finished a wash down with the deck wash hose cleans any mess before it can dry Geoff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pongrass18ft Posted August 15, 2011 Share Posted August 15, 2011 Hello All, This may be a silly question - I am interested in anyone's tips on how to clean fish on your boat without making a huge mess - scaling, gutting etc. By that I mean that the boat ramp i use does not have fish cleaning facilities and I would prefer to clean them before getting home - I understand it is illegal to fillet fish on your boat. Thanks heaps. Sido I always scale and gut the fish on the cutting board which keeps the mess at the rear of the boat,so any mess is easy washed out through bungs when the boat is being cleaned. chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basil D Posted August 15, 2011 Share Posted August 15, 2011 I always scale and gut the fish on the cutting board which keeps the mess at the rear of the boat,so any mess is easy washed out through bungs when the boat is being cleaned. chris Yeah But it was like an Butchers Back Room on the boat yesterday before we cleaned the boat up after the mess Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keflapod Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 G'day Sido, Start up your live bait tank circulating and keep it running. Wear suitable gloves. Hold the fish (by the head) in the live bait tank filled with water and scale it (roughly). This doesn't need to be a perfect job yet. The fish underwater prevents the scales from flying around. Just ensure you can empty the scales in such a way that no plumbing get scales blocking it. Cut the fish on the baitboard and immediately place it back in the live bait tank and extract internals, plus rinse in there. Use a small handled brush to clear out as much of the cavity as possible against the underside of the spine. Place the resultant cleaned fish in an esky with clean chilled seawater (ice slurry). The soaking in the slurry will help to leach out the gutty smells and flavours from the cavity, as well as keeping the fish chilled. This is critical. Keep a floating pillie in the resultant burley trail (or a jiggling soft plastic)..... This way you will catch extra fish and delay your trip even longer. Just ensure your hands are not too slippery to grab that rod..... When you get home, do the fine tuning for the scaling or leave it until when the fish is ready to be eaten. Tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giffo Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 Be careful, my brother was cleaning a few flathead off Cronulla one day, only to berley up a sizable mako, similar length to his tinny. Needless to say he got the hell out of there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marlin01 Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 We used to use an old ironing board covered with nylon and fitted with a couple of washing tubs, one for first rinse one for final. cut a couple of slots for knives and your done, good on the beach too. Cheers Marlin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sido Posted August 16, 2011 Author Share Posted August 16, 2011 Thank you everyone - some fantastic ideas and advice - will put them to the test and see what works on my boat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
outfisher Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 Thank you everyone - some fantastic ideas and advice - will put them to the test and see what works on my boat. Be careful its againts the law to clean your fish in the boat and within 50m of any water edge. For instance you catch a 20cm taylor and you fillet the fish... fisheries can not tell what size it was by a fillet that goes with all fish and you will get fined its happened to someone i know all the best j Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
delta hbar Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 Sorry for coming into the thread late. But the post by OUTFISHER twigged my interest as I thought you were allowed to clean fish on the boat. But agree you cannot fillet. According to the saltwater fishing guide (page 58) "You are not permitted to: * alter the length of a fish or invertebrate by filleting/shucking and/or removing the head/shell until well away from the water. This rule does not apply at areas normally used for cleaning fish such as a boat ramp cleaning tables; if the fish are for immediate consumption or immediate use as bait; or for fish that do not have a legal length. You may clean fish by gilling and gutting" I'm going to rely on the above as my defence.... your honour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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