Question

Why is it important to scale or peel the skin off the fish before I gut it?

Community Answer

Once you've made the main cut to open the fish and gut it, the skin loses so much tension that trying to scale it leads to more tearing than scaling and damage to the meat underneath. If you get the scales off first, then you will have a much easier time and you won't tear up your hands if you want to filet it. Similar mechanics with the skinned fish, you risk ripping off chunks of tissue with the skin when you try to pull at it if the muscle under it is already cut.