Instructions on Cleaning Your Fresh Catch: An Angler's Guide

Fish can carry bacteria, so it is important that you gut and clean the fish as soon as possible before freezing or storing your fish. First cut the fins, head and tail off with your shears. Then cut open the underneath of the fish from tail to chin. Pull out the guts and push the blood out of the spinal cord from bottom up (it will appear black) and out of the fish. Rinse the fish thoroughly before cooking/storing. The bones tend to flavor the fish, but it would be easy to remove them if you don't want to work around them while eating it. Either way, if your fish is fresh, it is hard to go wrong on cooking it.