Once you have caught your first fish...now what!

I like to feed the guts to the birds, circle of life and all that. If you gut and scale on the beach then you dont get half the hassle from the partner when you turn up with a pile of dead things and a happy grin. You can gut the fish in open water and use the sent to bring in the Bass..

Turn the fish upside down, watching out for spines, look along the body from the head down to by the tail and you will see a small anal opening. Insert your knife a little and just cut the skin open away from you all the way up till you reach just under the gill plates. Dont cut too deep as this will rupture the gut and make loads of mess! Put your fingers in to the open cavity at the head end and find the first rubbery tube...grip and pull.

All the entrails should come out in one easy motion, wash the fish out in the sea and if its a Pollack then drain all the blood out too as the fish will taste better for it.

Once you have gutted the fish you are ready to take its scales off. Hold the fish by the head ( Use a smaller gun if your fish never have heads.. ) and holding the blade horizontaly to the fish run your knife up from the tail towards the head. If you use the same motion that you would whisking and egg you will find it a very easy job. Take off as many scales as you can then wash the fish again.

Wrasse dont taste very nice but this is what they look like!