We are planning to go to the BWCA a lot this summer and would like
ideas, thoughts the best way to clean fish - where to clean them,
what to do with the entails, etc. Also, the best way to carry
them when enroute. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
V

Clean your fish a long ways from camp!! Plenty of bears in the Bdub- you certainly don't want one any closer than than it needs to be!!! Fish guts smell is just ringing the dinner bell. Bring a baggie with and carry the fillets back to camp with you.

Sometimes we'll clean fish in camp and then paddle the entrails a good distance away. Most times we will clean fish away from camp and bring the fillets back in a cooking pot.

I try to paddle away from camp at least 1/2 mile or so. Clean fish there and then bury entrails in the woods as the USFS would like. That keeps the smell away from camp, and hopefully by doing so, decreases the probability of a visit from wild creatures!

quote snakecharmer: "Sometimes we'll clean fish in camp and then paddle the entrails a good distance away. Most times we will clean fish away from camp and bring the fillets back in a cooking pot."

+1

At the camp landing (or wherever is relatively flat), flip the canoe over and use logs to stabilize. Kneel on a life jacket (or cushions) and filet the fist on the bottom of the canoe.
Throw the entrails into a landing net while cleaning.
Carry them a ways from camp and discard.
Rinse off the bottom of the canoe - possibly in the lake if it is bad.

Never once have I had a concern on bears due to cleaning close to camp. They will smell your own food before they smell remnants of fish cleaning - especially if you aren't messy about it.

Something I plan to try this year after reading about it is filleting them right after catching one we plan to eat. Store them in a baggie with a wet rag around them and let the evaporative cooling keep them cook in the shade in the canoe. That way the remains are away from camp, the fish stress hasn't tainted the meat, and the fillets don't go bad.

quote snakecharmer: "Sometimes we'll clean fish in camp and then paddle the entrails a good distance away. Most times we will clean fish away from camp and bring the fillets back in a cooking pot."

What Snakecharmer said.

Stop on the way back to camp and filet the fish on an island or opposite bank somewhere away from camp. I've done both with regard to deep sixing the remains or burying them. Usually deep six.

Not many species of fish that I know of that bury their dead on land. :)

ehh, just swallow it whole

We stop on a small island or point, away from camp, to clean fish. The remains are scattered in easy view. Eagles, gulls, etc will take care of the remains.

Last trip (2009) one day we noticed sea gulls following us back to camp as if they knew we had fish????? We cleaned fish at island we were camping on. left fish carcass' at water edge and as we cooked fish noticed ALOT of commotion with gulls. As we were sitting just before sundown eating supper, waiting on gulls to clean up fish parts.... we saw a bald eagle swooping around. It looked like "Wild America" on T.V. eagle flew down and grabbed fish carcass, hardly slowing... AWSOME end to another great day in the BWCA!!!! (See photo.)