homemade fish scaler

[Ezee]

Friends and I have been catching a lot of bream, google eye and a few crappie. I usually save a gallon of whole fish for our annual wild game cookoff for the cancer society. I have heard a few folks mention an electric homemade fish scaler. Does anyone have some pictures of one and how difficult is it to build one?

Thanks

[speediib]

you can use a water hose with a jet nozzle or if you have an old washing machine or no someone that does the work also. i think bps and/or cabelas sells some that you pull with your boat

[papasage]

put a sheat of expanded mettle about 2 ft long around a 2 disk wit a pipe through the center on a couple of pillopw berrings with a water hose on it and turn slow the expanded mettle will rub the scales off . i know of some around here and they work fine .have seen some with a eletric motor on them and some with a crank handle . cant turne fast .
a air hose works good to with no water splash

[Ezee]

Thanks for the info..

[snal]

Somebody just told me about the water hose/nozzle idea...sounds like it would work. Just hold em by the tail and spray a jet stream towards the head is the way it was explained to me.

[rango]

i got a friend in south georgia that has one of them fish scalers. its like a drum about 2 or three ft long, with the mettle around it. he has a hose hooked to the center shaft with holes drilled in it that squirts water out while the drum is turning and washes the scales out. it turns slowly and works great and it gets all the scales off the fish. However I think i could clean fish faster than the machine works. when the scales are rubbed off, then you gotta clean em. the time spent waiting for the scaler to work then cleaning the fish i could have em cleaned, bagged, in the freezer and enjoying a good cold beer... i tried the hose thing once and made a huge mess plus i wound up wetter than the proverbial hen. I have an air compressor fairly close to the fish cleaning table that im gonna try the air thing and see how it works but i got a feeling im fixing to make another huge mess. . on fish i dont intend to fillet, i like to use a stiff bladed knife to scrape the scales off. If im filleting em, then i use an american angler electric. all these gadgets will work, but IMHO i dont think nothing beats a good knife and a little elbow grease.

[crappie66]

Your best bet is to fillet the fish, flip the fillet over and skin it. It is quick and easy, last time I cleaned fish, I cleaned 53 crappie and it only took an hour. Once you have them filleted, the skinning part is a breeze, maybe 3 or 4 seconds per fillet.

I had a neighbor up at the lake years ago who scaled all his fish, saying he wanted to save all the meat. Well he had scales everywhere, when they land on something they are like a little suction cup, and once they dry on a hard surface they are a pain to clean off.

[Barnacle Bill]

I filet them all with an electric knife too. But once in a while a good mess of bream just scaled and gutted sure are good.

[papasage]

use a filete board to hold the fish while blowing the scales off . thinking about making a flat blower . that might scale the fish with one pass ot two.
rango gave a good decription of a scaler. .
rango i live in so. ga. wher is your frind down here . he might be some one i know :D .

[rango]

use a filete board to hold the fish while blowing the scales off . thinking about making a flat blower . that might scale the fish with one pass ot two.
rango gave a good decription of a scaler. .
rango i live in so. ga. wher is your frind down here . he might be some one i know :D .

he lives in eldorendo, about 20 mi north of bainbridge..last name is grubbs