Jen Scott has been cleaning fish at the Fish On! Motel in downtown Pulaski for 25 years.
PULASKI, N.Y. –Jen Scott says she’s like a kid at Christmas just prior to the start of the fall salmon run.
“August comes and I can’t wait,” she said.
No, she doesn’t fish. Doesn’t have time. She cleans and fillets fish – lots of them for anglers on the Salmon River.
Scott, 42, of Pulaski, has been working at the Fish On! Motel fish cleaning station in downtown Pulaski for the past 25 years. She works full-time as a nurse at ConnextCare, the local health center, but cleaning fish is her real passion.
“Why? I love the people. I love cleaning fish. It’s hard work but it’s lots of fun. If I could, I would be doing this year-round,” she said.
Jen Scott, who works at the Fish On! Motel in downtown Pulaski can fillet a salmon in roughly 45 seconds.
Having filleted thousands of salmon over the years, she is popular with the anglers who flock to this popular Oswego County waterway this time of year.
“When I’m not on, they’re asking ‘Where’s Jen? Where’s Jen?” she said. “I get messages during the off-season on Facebook. ‘Are you cleaning his year?’
“I’ve gone to customers’ weddings, graduations, birthday parties. The people I’ve met here – from across the state, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New Jersey – it’s like family.”
Recently, she added, she went on vacation to Alaska with a customer from Pennsylvania who she met 20 years when she filleted his salmon.
“We’re just friends,” she added.
How’d she get into this line of work?
“I started here at the Fish On! Motel when I was 16 cleaning rooms — and voila, I was intrigued with the fish cleaning, Next thing I know, I’m bagging fish for the fish cleaners. And one day, they didn’t have a fish cleaner and Mike (Fiumano, the owner) asked me: ‘Do you want to do it?’ Next thing I know, I was filleting fish. I pretty much taught myself by watching the other fish cleaners. At first, I did if for free because I was pretty bad. But I learned.:”
Today, Scott can fillet a salmon in roughly 45 seconds and leave no bones. All for $3 a fish.
“She’s very reliable, the hardest working person I’ve ever met. And although we’re not related, she’s definitely part of my family,” Fiumano said. “The best thing about her is that where a lot of the fish cleaners can at times be in bad moods, she’s never that way. It makes things a lot easier to be working with someone who really likes what they’re doing.”
Scott said the key to filleting a fish properly is that you “actually have to care what you’re giving the customer. If you’re in it for the money, you’re going to have a sloppy fillet. I care about my customers. When they get home and o[en up their bag, I want them to say, ‘Wow, she did a great job.”
Born and raised in nearby Altmar, Scott said the blood and guts of the fish-cleaning business doesn’t bother her.
“You get used to it,” she said. “My father was a farmer and I grew up on a farm. I spent my whole childhood running through cow poop in my bare feet. So, this doesn’t bother me. Doesn’t bother me at all.”
She’s never been married, but has four children, the result of two, long-term relationships. Three of her kids are now adults; another is 13 years old.
“I make good money at my nursing job and that pays the bills so I can live comfortably. I own my house,” she said. “This (the fish cleaning), helps with things like land taxes and Christmas. This is just my extra money.”
Scott dresses in street clothes and wears rubber boats when she’s cleaning fish. No apron.
“I don’t want an apron,” she said. “When I get into my work, I don’t want something that will hold me back – particularly when I get real busy, cleaning 100 fish in an hour. I wear clothes that I wash every night when I get home – and then I throw them away at the end of the season.”
Fish cleaning takes a lot out of you physical, Scott said, and shetries to stay in shape throughout the year. “During the summer, I’m out kayaking every day,” she said.
Jen Scott, who cleans fish at the Fish On! Motel in downtown Pulaski, N.Y., shows her love for her work with her two fish tattoos.
Her love for cleaning fish is reflected on her forearms, where she has two fish tattoos. She’s planning on getting another one – “a brown trout “ at the end of this season.
During the fall salmon season, Scott works at the fish cleaning after she finishes her nursing job each day. Also, on Wednesdays (one of her days off) and on weekends. When things really get going, she added, she’ll be there cleaning fish beginning at 8 a.m. and won’t quit until 10 p.m.
The season, she added, is when the first run of salmon are spotted (usually around Sept. 1). The Fish-On fish cleaning station stays open until Nov. 15. The business keeps the fish for free for anglers until they’re cleaned.
Scott stresses the motel’s fish cleaning station continues to process fish even after the fall salmon run is over.
“Mike’s and my number are posted on a board. If (someone calls) and we’re in the vicinity, we’ll come down,” she said. “Several times I’ve driven down and done just one.
FISH PHOTOS:
Send your fish photos to outdoors writer David Figura at [email protected]. Angler who caught the fish must be in the photo. Include the angler’s full name, where he or she lives, where and when the fish was caught — and on what.
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