One of the “to do’s” on my bucket list was to catch a fish and eat it. Sounds simple enough, but it took me 26 years to get the chance to do this. While at the beach I caught my first “real” fish, descaled and filleted it myself, and cooked it at home. Of course, I had my handsome instructor to guide me the whole time, but I still consider myself a pro now.
Descaling was awesome. Now I know what to do after a stressful day at work. Actually, fishing at the beach in general was so relaxing and I thoroughly enjoyed it…just don’t tell the hunter boys or else I’ll be forced to get up at the butt crack of dawn to tag along on their fishing excursions!
While on the beach, Nate would “fillet” some of the puffer fish to use as bait. Something about cutting an animal that is still alive just gets to me, but filleting this fish, I had no moral problems with it! So I guess I could never hurt a fly, unless it was already dead haha. But really, was this any different?
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| Descaling. Grab that sucker by the tail and give the fish a back rub with the back of the knife. All the scales should fly out…all over the place. No one said this wouldn’t be messy! |
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| You can run your finger over the fish to check for missed scales. They are easy to feel, so just keep going until the fish is nice and soft (the scales are rough/hard). Yes I am wearing a Backstreet Boys t-shirt to do this. I think that just makes me more of a bad ass 🙂 |
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| Sorry if this grosses anyone out, but I think everyone should see where their food comes from and the process it goes through to get to your plate. There is a line under the fin that you make your first cut, until you meet the bone. Then you turn your knife towards the tail and head towards it. *TIP* score the fish along the top fin to use a guide when filleting. |
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| It was almost like slicing through butter. Nate said I did really well for it being my first time. It was fun at the end to chase him around and make him smell my fingers. Now I can live in the wild!! |
Stay tuned…what’s up next? The cooking of the fish!
This Carolina Girl 
I am so impressed! I could never (and would never) do that! My husband would love you :)p.s. I LOVE that you're wearing a Backstreet Boys Shirt…hilarious
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Because I did this, it has stirred up the question in Nate's mind “What else will she do?” haha
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Good for you!! I have to say that the whole scaling a fish thing is not on my bucket list, but I'm totally impressed that you did it!! Well done! 1'm eager to see the cooking part as well.
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Nice! I used to do this with my dad, but haven't in a long while. Also, your shirt rocks!
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Oh wow, I bet you are way better at it then! Any tips? And thank you for the support of the t-shirt! Haha love it.
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You are my hero! This reminded me of top chef or food network star where they have the skill challenges, now you can rock it out no problem.
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Now THAT would be entertaining! My hubs says I should clean my own dear…baby steps.
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Hopefully I can get the post up and all the pictures along with it tomorrow. What's fun is, my chef played “photographer”. So we had a role reversal in the kitchen!
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I have yet to fillet a fish…you're brave! 🙂 I'll get there…sometime! 🙂
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You should do it! Seriously, it wasn't bad at all.
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Oh dear. I don't think I have the stomach for that!I nominated you for the Versatile Blogger Award. See it here: http://treatstrinkets.blogspot.com/2012/04/chocolate-whoopie-pies-and-surprise.html
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You go girl! That is daring stuff right there. 🙂
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Very cool. I did this when I was a little kid and my vegetarian Aunt was fuming in the background.
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Oh man, I would've paid to see that! Some vegetarians are so funny!
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