Cleaning Pompano
written by Frosty

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Step 1

Ok...lots of people ask me, "How do you clean Pompano?"

Pompano have a very firm flesh and tough skin which makes for a tough cleaning process. It's easy though, once you know how.

It all begins with a wriggling fish. I always have ice and water in my cooler. The live fish goes into this and the chilling process begins.

It's a lot harder to clean a "green" fish than one that has been chilling for a while. I prefer to chill my fish for at least 3 hours before I clean them. When leaving the beach, I pull the plug on my cooler and drain all of the water out.

Needless to say, don't skimp on the ice. The fish should be thoroughly chilled and stiff when you are ready to clean it.

I usually have about 6 inches of ice in the bottom of the cooler and I add enough water to almost cover the ice. The ice should look clear.

First I give the fish a quick rinse to remove any sand that may be on it.

Step 2

Insert the knife in the anal vent (about 1") and cut up the belly as far as you can go. This is about 1" from the fish's bottom lip.

With the fish on it's side, insert knife just behind the fin and cut around just under the gill plate and all the way up to the first knife cut. The 2nd cut should come together at the first cut. You should always follow the gill plate and use this as a reference. Notice I make this cut at about a 45 degree angle.

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