In my youth, I’d occasionally play hooky from university and go fishing at North Park Lake in Pittsburgh. I’d start charcoal going in one of the park grills while watching my lines.
If I caught a legal (stocked) trout I’d cook and eat it, but I always had a fallback in my cooler.
One day a mom rushed her toddler down towards me when she saw me fighting a fish. I was hungry and my coals were fading, so immediately after landing my trout I gutted it, took of the head, and got it into the pan. Mom wasn’t happy.
It brings back memories, but my grandmother had a “fish pond.” If I went fishing, I would put them in a cooler with lake or river water as needed and take them to her house. They were a lot worse for wear after being in the cooler but sprang a lot back to life after being put in the pond. Jefferson had a similar one at Monticello.
My grandfather could pick them up and snap their necks before gutting them. I never could get the hang of that trick and they slipped out of my hands, so I simply cut their heads off as @kayaker described. Better than any grocery store fish, “fresh” or frozen. But if you didn’t eat them, then freeze them, don’t refrigerate.
And if you come to White Sulfur Springs, WV, you can pay about $400/night and stay at the Greenbrier, our governor’s place. Your guide will take you trout fishing and take your catch right back to the restaurant and clean the fish and you may specify how you want it cooked (e.g. filleted, whole, extra garlic, Old Bay, etc.) and they will bring your catch cooked to your room.
By the same token, when I was at NAS Keflavik, about once a month the USO would go down to the docks early morning, buy a half-ton or so of cod from the top of the hold of a boat that’s just come in, and offer fish and chips that afternoon.
