Hi guys,

I'm going to be going fishing for my first time in the ocean not on a party boat this Thursday/Friday. I've been searching around on here and Google looking for articles/pictures/video's of how to clean common fish you find on piers. Also how should I go about storing my fish to I get home? I have a 50qt cooler thats bout it right now. Still getting together all the gear I need for later this week.

Thanks

best think would be to cut away gills and guts just after catch and store in the ice in big zip bags or plastic wrap, remember you cannot fillet fish on a pier, it must be whole length for occasional FWC control

So I should just slit the belly of the fish, get all that poop out and throw it back into the water?

Is it ok just to throw a fish inside a cooler in a plastic bag (heard letting fish sit in water for awhile is a bad thing) and then taking care of it when I get home later.

Sorry for all the questions I've been posting on the board, I don't have any experienced fisherman to ask these questions to. Most of the fishing I did back home we didn't keep the fish or if we did there was a livewell on the boat.

you just need a cooler with enough ice cubes inside, as you catch one fish, slit the belly, take gills and guts away and throw them back into the water, then place your fish in a plastic zip bag and dump into the ice
If the ice melts, first drop water out of the cooler, then just go to the pier bait shop and get some more ice (every pier has it), same thing for bait

that's the best way of storing fish, but you can also more simply drop the fish into the ice and then clean it as soon as you get home

Ahh ok thanks for the clarification, I'll try and clean it out and everything while I'm there, if not I'll just throw the fish in the cooler if there biting like crazy

honestly , if you really want to ensure excellent seafood , scrape the slime off the fish you keep before going for your knife. The protective slime on fishes bodies can sometimes pick up unwanted flavors from the surrounding enviroment. Just scrape off with the back side of a blade while rinsing.

Thanks for the tip robalo