Cleaning fish - The reason for the post.

[fishnsled]

Just curious to see how many leave the skin on or take it off when preparing to cook fish later in the day. Just looking for percentages not comments. You'll see why later. Thanks

Edited June 28, 2007 by fishnsled

[Patches]

Comment Withheld

[douG]

This begs the question: "Is putting skinless filets on a plate in your fridge 'storage'?". If it is, we is all breakin the law.

[tonyb]

It's such a pain to de-scale a fish. Boneless skinless is the way to go, rarely do I transport fillets and if I do, I'll keep a tab of skin on by the tail of the fillet in case of a check stop (I sense where you are going with this )

[Kirk]

Skin always comes off...slides off with one swipe of the fillet knife, scales are a pain in the butt, plus taking it off can take some fat off as well, leaving you with a leaner and healthier fillet.

[Whopper]

Always comes off unless I'm transporting, which doesn't happen much anymore.

 

Whopper

Edited June 28, 2007 by Whopper

[Tacklebuster]

boneless, skinless everything, except T-Bones.

[fishnsled]

Just as I thought. Over 85% of you are going to jail, well, could be getting a fine. (At the time of this post.) Here's the scoop. While on my trip to Floodwood Lake we had the MNR drop in a pay us a visit and this is how the story goes.

 

One morning we had kept 4 walleye and 1 whitefish to go with our dinner that evening. During the trip I was the designated fish cleaner and while brunch was being made I had my job of cleaning the fish. Cleaned them up into nice fillets, no bones, no skin, into Ziplocs and into the fridge. While getting ready to head out for the afternoon fish we hear a plane coming and lands on the lake, low and behold it's the MNR, 2 officers and a pilot. They do the usual checking of licenses, how's the fishing been, have you got any fish to which one of the guys says yes and tells him what we have.

 

The officer asks to see them and is not very happy. Asks how long we've been fishing and if we ever have read the rules and regs? We all respond with most of our lifes and yes we have read the rules and regs. He asks who has cleaned them, I tell him it was me and then the lecture starts about leaving skin on the fish so that they can be identified. I was always under the impression that if you were transporting or freezing fish they needed a piece of skin to identify them. Apparently the skin needs to be on until the oil is hot in the pan, in the CO's words, not quite what it says in the rules and regs. It does say this though on page 4.

 

Packaging Fish for Transport or Storage – When you are

exporting, transporting or storing fish, you must ensure that

the fish can be easily identified and counted. Where length

limits apply, you must also ensure that the length of the fish

can be determined except as described in “Transporting

Sport Fish in Ontario” (Refer to page 6).

 

So keeping your fish in the fridge counts as storage I guess, well I know now as does the rest of the group. He said he could charge all of us but wouldn't as I was the one who cleaned the fish. I was also with in my limit (sport license) of 4 fish (walleye) and therefore wouldn't be charge with being over my limit as well even though they fish were caught amongst the group. So a $125 fine for me for not having the fish being identifiable but we got to keep our fish. (BTW – The guys all chipped in on the fine, thanks again.)

 

Now I'm not posting this to complain about what happened but just to make everyone aware of this rule. One of our pilots told us on the way out that last year the MNR were into 2 of the lakes once each. This year they are in every week so far. So save yourself a few bucks if you are heading up to the Cochrane way and leave the skin on until you’re ready to cook and the oil is hot in the pan.

[misfish]

You never mentioned " transporting" in your first post.I would say that 95% of us would of answered different.

 

BTW,I soak mine in butter milk before frying.LOL

[tonyb]

I can't believe the officer fined you, that's Bull. What is the definition of 'storing' it could be considered 'storing' until you crapped it out the next day

[Hellfish]

Sorry to hear that, but thanx for informing the people that do not know including myself. Sorry to hear about the fine but itz good to see they are doing their job

[Roy]

could be considered 'storing' until you crapped it out the next day

 

That's why I always eat a piece of skin.....

[snag]

You never mentioned " transporting" in your first post.I would say that 95% of us would of answered different.

 

BTW,I soak mine in butter milk before frying.LOL

 

Yeah, sorry your poll was flawed.

 

I always transport the whole fish.

Clean in the afternoon

Eat at night.

[fishnsled]

You never mentioned " transporting" in your first post.I would say that 95% of us would of answered different.

 

BTW,I soak mine in butter milk before frying.LOL

 

 

No transporting involved Brian, so I didn't mention it. I believe that close to 100% of us here would be transporting fish with the skin on when going back to camp, cottage or home. I know I always do that. The point I was looking for was once back at camp, cottage, home and cleaning the fish for a meal later in the day,(hence the fish will be stored for a period of time) do you leave a piece of skin on? According to the regs you must. We were just back at camp and had no intentions of moving the fish any further then to the frying pan when it was time for dinner and got the fine.

 

Snag - I'm not sure that the poll is flawed as I said above, no transporting of the fish was involved.

[snag]

No transporting involved Brian, so I didn't mention it. I believe that close to 100% of us here would be transporting fish with the skin on when going back to camp, cottage or home. I know I always do that. The point I was looking for was once back at camp, cottage, home and cleaning the fish for a meal later in the day,(hence the fish will be stored for a period of time) do you leave a piece of skin on? According to the regs you must. We were just back at camp and had no intentions of moving the fish any further then to the frying pan when it was time for dinner and got the fine.

 

Snag - I'm not sure that the poll is flawed as I said above, no transporting of the fish was involved.

 

Agreed!

 

That's harsh man!!!!

 

Not fair at all. If only they knew your ethics.

[dsn]

I leave the skin on. I like mine crispy. But then again I can go out and buy slices of a skinless fillet. Who would know if it was bought or caught? I usually buy the skinless fillets anyways and its frozen of course. Usually comes in slices frozen and you just chose how many fillets you want and bag them and they wiegh it. Costs according to the weight..

 

Will they bust me?

 

dsn

[Big Al]

I agree that this is Bull My neice took the course at college to work in that field and had to learn to identify fish without and with skin on. I have never taken any course and know what a freaking walleye looks like without any skin. Sorry to hear about your fine..

[Tacklebuster]

I think part of the problem was that you had them in zip loc bags, which can't be anything but storing. If you had the fillets on a plate and only covered with with plastic wrap, I wouldn't call that storing, and I think you could argue that point.

[Golfisher]

Who really leaves the skin on until the VERY MOMENT you throw the fillet into the frying pan? I think that's a tad bit unreasonable if not senseless.

[Fisherman]

I think part of the problem was that you had them in zip loc bags, which can't be anything but storing. If you had the fillets on a plate and only covered with with plastic wrap, I wouldn't call that storing, and I think you could argue that point.

I agree, rules are rules, but, I would really have to take into account the fact that your group was honest about what you caught and, albeit they were in zip lock bags, I would have been more likely to shake an index finger at you. Stiff warning, have a good fish dinner and don't do it again, lesson learned and educated, you would be more likely to help someone else from getting in poop.

[Roy]

Strapped for cash the way they are, between the fish cleaning house and the dinner house is the best place for the COs to be. Sorry, I'm bitter today.

[brkygetr]

I always leave the skin for that very "unlikely" reason...its seems silly to most of us to have to clean the fish, put them away, and then 'skin' them later when we are ready to eat them , even it is only between the morning and evening fish. When your cooler has fish in it according to the boys in green it HAS to be identifiable...it sucks you got the fine but I bet its a lesson you won't forget (I have also learned the expensive way FYI)

 

Brkygetr

[lew]

We had the exact same thing happen to us in Quebec a few years back.

 

One of our group caught 3 pickeral in the afternoon, filleted them and put them in the cooler (without skin) in anticipation of a planned fish fry that night. We went back out in the evening to catch a few more and when we returned to the dock after dark with the rest of our catch for supper, the CO's were waiting on the dock for us.

 

They searched our boats and trucks, then practically tore our camp apart including looking inside our sleeping bags for anything illegal even after we'd already informed them from the start that we had 3 filleted fish in the cooler. All the time the one goon was ripping our camp apart, his cohort was standing back with his hand on his gun and his finger on the trigger.

 

We were informed that they were sick & tired of people from Ontario coming into Quebec to rape their resourses and were fined $250 for our 3 lousy fish.

 

We were told to come to court in January if we wanted to fight the charges but we decided it wasn't worth the trip from Toronto to Temiskeming in the middle of winter for $250, but we also decided that none of us would ever step inside Quebec again either.

 

Sometimes CO's just need to use a small amount of discretion.......

[Kirk]

Thats pathetic.

 

They charge people because most will just pay, its no different than paying at McDonalds. In the boonies they get away with rinky dink fines because they know the gas to drive back up there is more than the fine but you tally up the plane costs, pilot...manhours...and what they are doing is basically providing a critique of your meal.

 

I will continue what I am doing, and fight any charges in court (oil is hot in the pan LOL).

[camillj]

You may want to seek some professional advice. .... not to be a party pooper here... but nowadays a criminal record can come back and bite you at a most inopportune time (like crossing a border) .... sounds to me like you were singled out because you 'cleaned' the fish ... who was actually in possession and who actually caught the fish IS relevant ... who cleaned it is NOT.

 

Also, this would have been even more interesting if there were 7 fish in the fridge (or cooler) .... I'd really like to hear how that gets translated into possession/catch limits - and I dnt buy that the guy who cleaned em all is responsible for them.

 

IMHO This is a really good example of how a little PR sense would go a lot further than $125 of revenue.