Fish Cleaning Scraps

What do you do with your fish cleaning scraps?

I heard the BWCA now wants you burry fish scraps some distance from the water.
No feeding the birds and turtles out away from shore on a rock.

After day trips out to the kelp beds in California, I’d take the catch out to a cleaning station on a long pier where the scraps were just pushed through a hole and fell into the ocean. There would always be a few people around watching the cleaning process. Every time the scraps would get cleared, they’d wince and grown. Eventually, they would ask for some of the heads. So I’d make them a pile of heads. But, if they wanted those heads, I’d make them take one or two whole fish too.

Fish scraps in a compost pile seems to me would be a huge racoon and opossum attractor.

Do bury it, bag it and trash it or what?

we bury ours!!! our fish entails grave yard is close to the lake though…….not sure the reasoning behind away from the lake?????

what we have found after about 3 years you can bury them in the same spots with maybe a few bones left.

I think the Quantico rule is 150′ or more from the shoreline. But, I don’t know why. I always thought the Eagles and turtles appreciated scraps left on exposed rocks out in the water.

It probably had something to do with lazy people just leaving fish scraps around the camp sites.

Pretty sure it illegal to dump that stuff in the lake, on rocks, on the ice etc.

I agree though other critters will have no issue eating it.

Public cleaning stations (with disposal) in North Dakota

If I clean fish at home I dump the scraps in the woods (on my property), which are full of coons,opposum, coyotes, and plenty of vultures in the area, so I’m not attracting anything that isn’t already there. Usually within a day there’s absolutely zero trace of the scraps, not even a bone or fin.

Mine get walked down the hill about 100 yards out into the field, then we have a beer and watch the eagles feast from the porch. It rarely takes more than 20 minutes for one to be on them

In the state of where nothing is allowed. Why wouldn’t you put what you caught back into the eco system it came from. What do they think happens when fish die naturally. Perhaps the dnr finds them and burys them. Other places like ak etc make you put it back in water to feed the eco system. Policy is wrong
Mwal

I freeze them so they don’t stink, then in the garbage on pickup day.

mwal wrote:

In the state of where nothing is allowed. Why wouldn’t you put what you caught back into the eco system it came from. What do they think happens when fish die naturally. Perhaps the dnr finds them and burys them. Other places like ak etc make you put it back in water to feed the eco system. Policy is wrong
Mwal

Don’t want to attract sharks to the area. Safety issue.

mwal wrote:

In the state of where nothing is allowed. Why wouldn’t you put what you caught back into the eco system it came from. What do they think happens when fish die naturally. Perhaps the dnr finds them and burys them. Other places like ak etc make you put it back in water to feed the eco system. Policy is wrong
Mwal

I agree. I boat mine out away from shore at my cabin. My lake needs the nutrients.

Great to bury in your tomato patch all year long. I would freeze mine and bury them under each tomato plant as I planted them. Most by the next spring when I tilled or manually turned over the garden, the entire fish, skin, scales, bones, etc, were gone. The Native Americans did this when they planted corn. Only with whole fish.

robby wrote:

Great to bury in your tomato patch all year long. I would freeze mine and bury them under each tomato plant as I planted them. Most by the next spring when I tilled or manually turned over the garden, the entire fish, skin, scales, bones, etc, were gone. The Native Americans did this when they planted corn. Only with whole fish.

Oh heck yeah. I’ve often thought about doing this with some of the buffalo/carp/quillback/drum I hook or snag in the rivers. Need to just do it sometime- perfect fertilizer, and it’s free! Just need to decide which knife to dull up cutting them into chunks… Guess you can just leave them whole, too, just need to bury them deep before you start planting?

robby wrote:

Great to bury in your tomato patch all year long. I would freeze mine and bury them under each tomato plant as I planted them. Most by the next spring when I tilled or manually turned over the garden, the entire fish, skin, scales, bones, etc, were gone. The Native Americans did this when they planted corn. Only with whole fish.

I only tried that once and the raccoons pretty much tilled that area of the garden. They took out most of the pepper and tomato plants to get all the fish scraps.

3rdtryguy wrote:

I freeze them so they don’t stink, then in the garbage on pickup day.

X2. If I’m at the cabin and have the fire going, they go into the fire.

-J.

I throw them in the woods behind the house.

Toss em in the field about 150yds behind the house. Good crow practice with the.223.

I bag mine up and take them to the work dumpster in the summer. Winter just bag them and toss them in my trash at home. I have tried the freezing method, just always forget them.

On the rare occasion we keep fish they get bagged and in the freezer until pickup during the warm months otherwise bagged and in the garbage during the winter.

3rdtryguy wrote:

I freeze them so they don’t stink, then in the garbage on pickup day.

^^^This^^^

jwellsy wrote:

I heard the BWCA now wants you burry fish scraps some distance from the water.

This is nothing new. This has been the BWCA regulation on fish remains for as long as I can remember and I’ve been going to the BWCA for almost 20 years.

Always seems like there’s one idiot who stayed at your campsite a few days before you who threw all their fish remains 5 ft from shore at camp and its always in the spot that is best suited for getting drinking water. I always filter my water anyways but prefer to not be getting it 5 ft from a pile of fish guts.

The full regulation is at least 200 ft from shorelines, campsites, and portages. Just remember, every law and regulation out there is the result of some idiots actions.

3rdtryguy wrote:

I freeze them so they don’t stink, then in the garbage on pickup day.

I do this at home. It amazes me the different thoughts around the country. They threated to kick a guy out of the campground in up north for throwing a few scraps in the river. They insisted on the garbage can on a 90-degree day. You couldn’t walk to the shower house after dark without tripping over a skunk.
In Missouri They would shoot you if you threw them in the garbage. Nature has a system there. Soon as the skin hits the water at the cleaning station. 20 carp the size of your leg fight to suck the skin down. Bluegills eat all the little pieces. On the bottom with the clear water, it looks like garbage can lids on the bottom. Huge turtles eat the carcass.
In the boundary waters, we were told unofficially to put them on a rock just under the surface. Amazing with no gull in sight, within 5 minutes there are a dozen out of nowhere. If an otter doesn’t show up first. Makes more sense than trying to bury. Between the roots and rocks you may dig a 12” hole. Law dictates a grave must be 6′ deep to avoid animals digging them up. Sure an otter, coon or bear could easily smell and dig fish guts up. My guess they are worried about the carcass that swallowed a hook that’s still in it. Always have to draft the law around the one-in several hundred chances. Or afraid the gulls will never find them. Out of dozens of times, I’ve seen that never. If they would happen to not find it, you can easily recover it.

I’m all about returning them to nature as well. But I wonder for the BWCA, maybe they don’t want people getting lazy and not going far enough away with them? Then you get critters that start to acclimate to campsites for scraps. But i suppose the same could be said about burying if you don’t do it far away and deep enough…

i dont fish much around home cept for the winter months maybe. i’ll bury them in the garden in my wifes flowers. key is deep enough. winter time garbage can.

at the cabin, i usually dig 1 hole for the time i’m up there. there are all kinds of critters there. usually dump the guts in and lightly cover with dirt. usually no issues during daylight hours. when i’m done for the day i usally pee in the hole or dump some bleach in the hole we have in the cleaning shack for cleaning the fish cleaning shack. seems to work good.

main key is to have enough dirt on the top after all is said and done.

i was told not to say what i do during ice season!!! but yea i feed the wildlife!!!

When staying up in Canada on an island we would take the bucket of scraps and dump it on some rocks at the edge of a shoreline. It wouldn’t take long and a couple eagles and a small flock of gulls would be all over it. Fun to watch actually.

We have a fox den in the backyard so they don’t last long.

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