Any help is greatly appreciated.

We went to the tailrace at Lewis Smith Lake as a lark because a neighbor said we could catch trout there.

Limited in about an hour and some of them are 14"+/-. Mrs. Geno and the neighbor's wife caught most of them. When you're baiting the hook and taking off fish for the ladies and they're actually biting, you get very little fishing time and a lot of baiting/unhooking time.

I have a great recipe for bourbon bacon glaze but I was wondering if there is a quick and easy way to clean these slimy rascals. They've been on ice since we pulled them from the water two hours ago.

Meh - I guess I'll just get to work scaling and gutting.

I have never personally scaled trout, the little scales they have are so small and fine that they seem to dissolve when you cook em.

I'd cook em like salmon skin on grill on a cedar plank

Wrap the trout in a dish towel when gutting them. You can hold them better this way. They are slicker than snot! Clean them out good and put lemon juice, butter, and what ever you like on them. Wrap them in aluminum foil and steam them until done. Season to taste and enjoy.

Years ago I use to work at a restaurant that served Pan Fried Rainbow Trout. They served with head on, but, Id lose the head. Split the trout from throat to tail all the way to the spine when gutting. batter an open the fish up like a book on a table when frying in a pan (cast iron preferred). HONESTLY IT WAS THE BEST without question the best fried fish I have ever had. The meat was so delicate and sweet. I would use panko bread crumbs for the batter. Try it I bet you will love it.

I bet those trout are great. One word of advice never eat trout from Tanneyhill State park. The creek is called Mud creek and the trout taste like mud.

After they die you can blow the scales off of them with a water hose. Spray against the grain of course. If you wrap em up in foil and grill em, the meat will fall off the bones. Bony critters.

Take your thumb and mash the blood out of the spinal column after you open em and get gills and guts out. That's how dad and uncles made me do it. I've cleaned a bunch of em over years.

As already stated.Hold them with head facing away from you and spray em with a hose.Scaling is instant.

Same way we scale crappie.

Scale them with my hand and fillet like a bass. Deep fry, well done, so those little bones are soft.

Here's how I do it.
#1. Take fillet knife and cut from anus to top of gills.
#2. Just below the lower jaw, cut a slit across them.
#3. Insert finger into mouth, insert thumb into throat slit and hold onto lower jaw and pull down towards tail. All the guts will come out.
#4, Cut off head.
#5. Use thumbnail and rake it across the spine to remove the main artery. Rinse, ready to grill.

I've cleaned thousands of them that way. A little butter, some lemon pepper. Wrap air tight in foil and put on the grill. Not my favorite eating fish but not too bad.