while a guest in another fish house, this guy pulls out a short piece of broom handle with a beer bottle cap screwed onto the end. he used it to scale the sunnies we caught. it worked really slick. the small size of the beer cap fits the sunny much better than a standard sized scaler or spoon. it was a little small for the 13 inch crappies but for sunnies it was fast.
Standard equipment of fishermen and resorts in the 50’s and 60’s.
There were 3 beer bottle caps on the deluxe scalers.
Inexpensive and effective, but in the days of steel rusted.
fieds I’m adding this because there are some younger fisherman (no names Mnick) out there that think the only way to clean fish is to cut the skin (and scales) off like one would a walleye.
THE best part (flavor) of a gill is found by scaling them and leaving the skin on. Some, like me will argue the best tasting gills are left whole and not fillet.
Filleting is best for walleyes and northern in my book. 
Amen Briank. Been useing beer cap since I started fishing in the early 50s. Another trick to help with mess is to scale them in a 5 gal bucket(lay it on it’s side). Now I use an old cooler. Little more room.
Great idea!
The only reason I would take off the skin is if I had to clean them in the house. The FW always seems to find a few scales no matter how hard I try to hide my indoor fish cleaning from her. 
Now…. where can a guy get all these bottle caps from ???? 
big G 
Quote:
Now…. where can a guy get all these bottle caps from ????
big G
This is why I like making homemade stuff.
Quote:
The FW always seems to find a few scales no matter how hard I try to hide my indoor fish cleaning from her.
hey brian, run about 3-4 inches of water in the side of the sink with the garbage disposal and scale em under water. softens scales and keeps em from flyin all over.
then when you are done … just flush scales away.
Quote:
Quote:
The FW always seems to find a few scales no matter how hard I try to hide my indoor fish cleaning from her.
hey brian, run about 3-4 inches of water in the side of the sink with the garbage disposal and scale em under water. softens scales and keeps em from flyin all over.
then when you are done … just flush scales away.
Another great idea…but your assuming I have a disposal. I’m not sure I would want scales going into the septic system, but then with the amount of fish I bring home, what can a couple three scales hurt. 
Way cool idea…now I know what to make the wife for Christams
I will sometimes scale both sides, and then fillet! Then into the flour salt/pepper and butter! 
Get a older metal ice scoop.Step on their head and a swipe or 2 will remove the scales.Flip and repeat.I do this on the ice and you can do a bucket full in a few minutes.
Quote:
I will sometimes scale both sides, and then fillet! Then into the flour salt/pepper and butter!
It’s all about the skin! 
…and yet there are some that leave on the tail and back fin.
I was in my 20’s before I learned how to fillet a fish smaller than 20lbs. 
Before that everything was scaled,cut the heads off and gut…..
I still do this quite frequently….nothing finer!
Got me an old Magic Fish Scaler. Found it laying somewhere. Best thing I’ve ever used for panfish. Scale them in the kitchen sink. No mess. 
Quote:
Got me an old Magic Fish Scaler.
I would never get away calling my FW that!
She made the rule. The person who catches the biggest fish has to clean them. You know when she’s with me , I can never get that big one in.
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
