Best with Sink
Our #1 Choice
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Fishing season is right around the corner, and many seasoned anglers are already breaking out their equipment.
Yet, whether you consider yourself a beginner or a professional, properly cleaning and gutting your fresh catch can be a challenge. Cleaning your fish requires precise cuts and techniques that can only be accomplished with the right equipment, including a cleaning table.
With the right stable platform, you can clean your fish from anywhere: from the campground to the back patio to the fishing dock. That’s why we’ve put together this list of the best fish cleaning tables on the market.
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Fish Cleaning Tables & Stations Compared
Preview | Product | Materials | Dimensions | Check Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Magma T10-449B-HDP | Stainless Steel & Polyethylene Surface | 47.5” L x 19.5” W x 38” H | ||
Tricam MT-2/SKFT-44 | Stainless Steel & Plastic | 44 “L x 23.5” W x 37”H | ||
Palm Springs | Stainless Steel & Plastic | 45.3” L x 23.6” W x 33.9” H | ||
Outsunny 50” | Steel Frame & Polyethylene tabletop | 49.75” L x 25.5” W x 37.25” H | ||
Magma T10-313B | Stainless Steel & Aluminum Mount with Polyethylene platform | 31” L x 13” W x 4” H | ||
SEEK SKFT-485 | Metal & Plastic | 48” L x 26” W x 37” H | ||
Kotulas | Aluminum & Plastic | 50” L x 25.5” W x 37” H | ||
RITE-HITE | All Stainless Steel | 37” H x 24” D x 44” W |
Why Use a Fish Cleaning Table?
Using a fish cleaning table gives you that sturdy outdoor platform with enough room to clean one or more fish. If you prefer to catch fish and clean them before placing them on ice, then a fish cleaning table is right for you.
It's also perfect for those weekend camping trips and keeps your fish off the ground so you can enjoy a fresh meal wherever you decide to set up camp. Some tables even come with built-in sinks, so you have a place to wash away the blood, guts, and loose scales before placing your filets over an open fire.
Choosing a Quality Fish Cleaning Table
Usage
How and where you intend to use your fish cleaning table is a key factor in deciding which one is right for you. Do you want it to be a station on the back porch or in the garage? Or do you prefer to fold it up and take it with you?
Permanent vs. Portable
Part of usage includes deciding if you want a permanent fixture or a portable table. While permanent tables are nice to have at home, portable ones give you plenty of flexibility that you can enjoy anywhere. You can even select a dockside table or one that you could use directly from your boat if you have a bigger fishing vessel.
Stability & Durability
No matter where you choose to use your table, stability and durability is essential. Look for a table that is made from durable materials, has anti-rust properties, and is the right size for the type of fish you like to catch and clean. Many tables are either made from plastic, fiberglass, or aluminum materials.
Quality Tabletop Surface & Frame
When selecting a fish cleaning table, look for a frame that's made well and constructed properly to give you the stability required for cleaning fish. You'll also want to find a tabletop that's easy to clean, water-resistant, and non-porous. This way, you can avoid fish blood and stains as well as giving bacteria a place to grow.
Ease of Set Up/Clean Up
If an easy to use and easy to clean table is important for you, then this feature is something to keep in mind. Fish cleaning tables can either come with a flat tabletop surface that makes washing away residues easy, while others have a raised rim where flesh and blood can live. Keep in mind the cleaners you can use and get a table that does will with the everyday household cleaner or mild soaps.
Odor Resistant
Fish can smell, especially when cleaning them. That's why you'll want to look for a table that's made with a top that won't absorb odors. This will ensure that you don't take the fish smell with you when you head home after a day at the lake or from your weekend camping trip. The sink should also be odor resistant and resist rust year after year.
Extra Features & Functionality
When it comes to extra features, you should look for a table that comes with an option for a sprayer to make it easier to clean your fish and the table, a sink with drainage, and even a faucet hookup so you can hook up the sink faucet for easier access of water. If you don’t have access to a hose, look for a table that comes with a bucket for water or extra-large drainage slots.
Price & Warranty
As an addition to your fishing arsenal, a fish cleaning table should come with a good warranty that will cover structural parts. The price shouldn’t break the bank either, so look for a sturdy and reliable table that has all the features you’re looking for and comes with a warranty to match. Make sure you check the manufacturing booklet or information before settling on your table.
8 Best Fish Cleaning Tables Reviewed
1. Magma T10-449B-HDP
Our Top Pick
Material (Frame & Tabletop) | Stainless Steel & Polyethylene Surface |
Dimensions | 47.5” L x 19.5” W x 38” H |
Weight | 32.4 lbs. |
Key Feature | Folds Vertically for Easy Storage |
Warranty | 1-year |
The Magma T10-449B-HDP is at the top of our guide as the best fish cleaning station on the market, especially for anglers who spend most of their time on the dock or on their boat. This unit can be mounted to either your wood plank dock or to the platform of your boat and folds down vertically for easy storage.
The optional storage cover means you can further protect this unit when it's not in use. Ruler markings along the back panel and a slot that runs the whole length of the table make it easy to measure your fillets and then clean your table when you're done. There are numerous slots for tools and an additional tool holder that can be attached to the side so that anglers can have easy access to all of their cleaning tools.
This Magma fish cleaning station comes with a 100% UV stabilized high-density polyethylene tabletop that’s virtually indestructible and more sanitary than a wood table. You can count on this top to never peel, crack, grow mold or mildew, and absorb bacteria or odors. The drainage in the back keeps your dock area clean from scales and guts.
Two 1 ½-inch tubular stainless-steel base legs give this unit more durability and stability when mounted to your dock or boat platform. The aluminum can withstand the harsh marine environment, and you'll get plenty of use out of this table. This is the perfect addition to any fisherman's arsenal of equipment, especially if he's used to a full-sized cleaning table on dry land.
Pros
Cons
2. Tricam MT-2/SKFT-44
Best Fish Cleaning Table with Sink
Material (Frame & Tabletop) | Stainless Steel & Plastic |
Dimensions | 44 “L x 23.5” W x 37”H |
Weight | 27 lbs. |
Key Feature | Tapped Channel |
Warranty | 1-year |
As a leading consumer's products company, Tricam is perhaps one of the most trusted manufacturers of household steps, stools, tarps, garden carts, and even fish cleaning tables. The MT-2/SKFT-44 is the best fish cleaning table with a sink that we have on our list. The table stands at 37-inches high on foldable stainless-steel legs that can hold more than 150 pounds. They prop up a plastic tabletop that you'd expect to find on any type of folding table.
This table is perfect for any fish or game cleaning, and many anglers and hunters enjoy this model for its built-in sink and water channel that makes clean-up a breeze. One of the nice aspects about this Tricam fish cleaning table is the sink is built-in, but the stainless-steel faucet is removable and easily hooks up to any garden hose. The built-in ruler right on the tabletop makes it easy to measure your fish and fillet to the perfect sizes every time.
This table is perfect for anyone who wants to take it anywhere or store it away when it’s not in use. However, if you prefer to make this a permanent staple to your backyard for easy access, then you can do so with this table. No matter where you prefer to clean your fish, you can count on this table to hold up any catch of the day.
Pros
Cons
3. Palm Springs
Best Portable Fish Cleaning Table
Material (Frame & Tabletop) | Stainless Steel & Plastic |
Dimensions | 45.3” L x 23.6” W x 33.9” H |
Weight | 20.9 lbs |
Key Feature | Sink has plug |
Warranty | No |
As a portable fish cleaning table, you expect it to fold up neatly and be lightweight. That’s exactly what you’ll get with the Palm Springs fish cleaning table. We’ve put this unit on our list as the best portable fish cleaning table, but it’s so much more than that. If you’re looking for a cleaning table that’s inexpensive and comes with all the features you’re looking for, then the Palm Springs table is right for you. It’s versatile and can even be used for cleaning other items such as soccer cleats, outdoor toys, or other outdoor game you bring home.
Packing up the Palm Springs cleaning table is a breeze. The stainless-steel foldable legs fold into the underside of the table, and the removable 1.5-gallon sink can be removed for easy cleaning and storage as well. It's perfect for your outdoor camping trip or in the shop for cleaning off game indoors.
Not only do anglers and hunters love this table, but so do soccer moms or those households with athletes. This table is perfect for cleaning off outdoor gear that you prefer not to clean inside your home. It’s also perfect for cleaning off those gardening tools. The quick hose attachment means you can hook this up to any water source in a matter of minutes. The extra-long sink pipe allows for easy cleaning anywhere on the table.
Pros
Cons
4. Outsunny 50” L
Best Folding Fish Cleaning Table
Material (Frame & Tabletop) | Steel Frame & Polyethylene tabletop |
Dimensions | 49.75” L x 25.5” W x 37.25” H |
Weight | 37 lbs. |
Key Feature | Built-in Cutting Board w/ Ruler |
Warranty | 1-Year |
Are you looking for the best folding fish cleaning table for your backyard or camping trips with the kids? The Outsunny 50” L may be your answer. This table is one of the biggest on our list and features a long and wide tabletop that’s perfect for preparing your fish, fresh game, or camping meals in general.
With its high-strength steel frame, the Outsunny can hold up to 220 pounds of meat or equipment, making it the perfect addition to your camping gear. The sloped surface and raised edges help you keep your work area clean, and the tabletop faucet can be connected to a garden hose for quick access to water.
Not all fish cleaning tables come with accessories, but Outsunny has equipped this table with a wire mesh shelf to hold utensils and other camping gear, two stainless steel bowls, a fillet knife, an odor removing bar, cutting board, and trash bag holder. With all of these accessories, you can make this table the one-stop-shop for all of your fish cleaning needs.
The odor-resistant bar will come in handy when you're ready to clean up and wash your hands or utensils. The bar is an everlasting piece of equipment that's meant to neutralize fish and bait scents when you wash your hands underwater. This will keep your table and your tackle box clean and odor-free.
Pros
Cons
5. Magma T10-313B
Best Fish Cleaning Tabletop for Boat
Material (Frame & Tabletop) | Stainless Steel & Aluminum Mount with Polyethylene platform |
Dimensions | 31” L x 13” W x 4” H |
Weight | 10 lbs. |
Key Feature | Mounts to Your Boat |
Warranty | 1-Year |
Are you looking for the best folding fish cleaning table for your backyard or camping trips with the kids? The Outsunny 50” L may be your answer. This table is one of the biggest on our list and features a long and wide tabletop that’s perfect for preparing your fish, fresh game, or camping meals in general.
With its high-strength steel frame, the Outsunny can hold up to 220 pounds of meat or equipment, making it the perfect addition to your camping gear. The sloped surface and raised edges help you keep your work area clean, and the tabletop faucet can be connected to a garden hose for quick access to water.
Not all fish cleaning tables come with accessories, but Outsunny has equipped this table with a wire mesh shelf to hold utensils and other camping gear, two stainless steel bowls, a fillet knife, an odor removing bar, cutting board, and trash bag holder. With all of these accessories, you can make this table the one-stop-shop for all of your fish cleaning needs.
The odor-resistant bar will come in handy when you're ready to clean up and wash your hands or utensils. The bar is an everlasting piece of equipment that's meant to neutralize fish and bait scents when you wash your hands underwater. This will keep your table and your tackle box clean and odor-free.
Pros
Cons
6. SEEK SKFT-485
Best Fishing Cleaning Station with Sprayer
Material (Frame & Tabletop) | Metal & Plastic |
Dimensions | 48” L x 26” W x 37” H |
Weight | 32.8 lbs. |
Key Feature | Sloped Tabletop |
Warranty | 1-Year |
SEEK offers a full line of fish and game cleaning tables, but perhaps the best one in their lineup is the SKFT-485. This table is our version of the best cleaning station with a sprayer. While other tables come with a sink and retractable spray head, this table comes with a host nozzle as well, making clean up a quick and easy.
The tabletop has a sloped surface and raised edges, creating a shallow bowl-like working surface that tapers to a single drainage hole for easy cleaning. The legs fold inward, allowing you to pack this cleaning station up and store it away or add it to your camping gear.
You can have all of the convenience of your kitchen right outdoors when you go with the best fish cleaning station with sprayer. SEEK has crafted a durable table with a hard-plastic surface and metal frame that can handle any of your game or fish cleaning needs. The wire mesh shelf gives you easy storage and accessibility for all of your fishing and gaming tools.
Whether you’re looking for a tabletop to clean fish, game, or pot plants, this cleaning station is right for you. With the extendable spraying nozzle head, you can easily hook this up to your garden hose and clean any outdoor equipment or anything in your tackle box. Need to spray off muddy cleats? No problem! This table makes doing so simple and easy.
Pros
Cons
7. Kotulas
Best Backyard Fish Cleaning Station
Material (Frame & Tabletop) | Aluminum & Plastic |
Dimensions | 50” L x 25.5” W x 37” H |
Weight | 30 lbs. |
Key Feature | Comes with Accessories |
Warranty | 1-Year |
Kotulas offers two different styles of fish cleaning stations, but we’ve labeled the Deluxe table as our best backyard fish cleaning station. This table makes the perfect gift for any angler and comes with a built-in cutting board, ruler, and sink. The spray nozzle on this table can easily be attached to any garden hose, giving you access to water whenever you need it. This unit even comes with an additional trash bag holder, making cleaning your fish and discarding of waste that much easier.
In addition to the built-in sink, cutting board, and ruler, the Kotulas Deluxe Fish Cleaning Table also comes with two bowls, a fillet knife, and an odor removing bar. For the price of this unit, these features give you more bang for your buck, especially if you’re new to fishing and don’t have a lot of equipment for your table already.
Anglers love this table for its sturdy plastic tabletop and aluminum folding legs. If you live by the ocean or want to use this table near your dock, then you won’t have to worry about saltwater rusting your table legs. This gives you plenty of years of use without damage.
Pros
Cons
8. RITE-HITE
Best Commercial Fish Cleaning Station
Material (Frame & Tabletop) | All Stainless Steel |
Dimensions | 37” H x 24” D x 44” W |
Weight | 63 lbs. |
Key Feature | 6” Deep Sink |
Warranty | 5-year |
For anglers who love cleaning their fish right on the dock, RITE-HITE has made the best commercial fish cleaning station that's heavy-duty and durable. Constructed from all stainless steel, this table can become a permanent fixture on your dock for easy access and easy cleaning.
It's resistant to corrosion, rust, and is easy to maintain for years to come. The RITE-HITE fish cleaning station is easy to assemble and can be broken down into different sections for easy transport. Still, if you're looking for a table that can be attached to your dock, this is the right table for you.
You can break this table down into different components, but we don’t recommend taking it on fishing trips or lugging it around with you. Instead, the flexible legs allow you to set up shop with this table on any uneven surface, providing you with a flat, sturdy cleaning station from anywhere near the water.
Constructed from 16-gauge stainless steel, the RITE-HITE table is the best commercial fish cleaning station. It's perfect for use in the garage or any workshop as well, and the edge around the front is rounded to provide a small lip to keep water on the table. It also has a 2-inch backsplash panel that keeps water and your fish from falling off the back of the table and into the water.
Pros
Cons
Setting Up a Fish Cleaning Station
Depending on where you plan to use your fish cleaning table, setting it up properly is essential. When using a fish cleaning station for a boat, make sure your boat is equipped correctly and can handle a cleaning table.
Make sure you have the right anchors and that your table is made out of heavy-duty aluminum to withstand rust. If you have a private dock, you might also consider a dock fish cleaning station.
These typically fashion directly to your dock and hang out over the water so you can easily discard bones and flesh back into the water. Have a dock near saltwater? Consider one that’s made from aluminum as this tends to withstand the corrosion of saltwater best.
A popular fish cleaning station idea is to use one outdoors either in the backyard or while you're out camping. With an outdoor fish cleaning station, make sure your table is set up on flat, sturdy ground, with all of your accessories: a bucket, a garden hose, cleaning knife and brush.
Fish Cleaning Tips & Techniques
When learning how to clean fish, it’s important that you don’t skip any of the initial steps, especially during the initial prepping. Make sure you have a plastic bag or bucket for scales and guts that you’ll remove during this process.
First, you’ll start with the scales and remove them by gently rubbing a dull blade or spoon over them in the opposite direction of their growth. You’ll rake up from tail to head in short, shallow scoops, getting under the scales to remove them quickly. Remove the scales under water to rinse them away into your discard bucket and to keep your cleaning table clear.
Next, you'll want to make a shallow incision from the anus up to the head of the fish. Be careful not to go too deep, or this will cut open the intestines, and you'll have a bigger mess.
You'll use your fingers or dull spoon to clean out the innards of the fish. Everything must go, so look for any lingering organs in the back of the fish. You'll also want to scrape out any dark, inner membrane that is an oily and smelly cavity found in some fish.
Following this, you’ll want to cut off the fish’s head just behind the gills and cut off the dorsal fin. Then, run your fish body under cold water to remove any loose scales, flesh, or innards. But don’t rinse too much as this can water down the flavor of your fillets. Once your fish is clean from the inside, you’re ready to cook or further fillet your catch.
For more guidance on how to fillet your fish into multiple services, you can find video tutorials and other guides online.
Cleaning & Maintaining Your Fish Cleaning Station
Cleaning and maintaining your fish cleaning station is not that difficult, especially if it comes with a hose attachment and spray nozzle or sink.
Once you’re doing cleaning your fresh catch or game, make sure you spray down or wash the tabletop clean with mild dish soap and warm water. This will ensure you clean away any remaining scales and bacteria. If you want to eliminate odors, invest in a stainless-steel odor bar that will eliminate fish and bait scents from your table.
If you don’t plan on leaving your fish cleaning station out, then make sure you dry the surfaces thoroughly so mold, mildew, and bacteria can’t grow, and then fold your station up for easy transfer.
If you have a sink and hoses that need to be disassembled, now would be a good time to do so. If you store your table and hoses for more than a year, you may want to invest in new hoses to avoid awful smells lingering in your garage or shed.
People also Ask (FAQs)
Can I make my own fish cleaning table?
Yes. You can make your own fish cleaning table right at home. There are plenty of online resources that give you guides and templates. Here is a great video that showcases this.
What other tools do I need to properly clean a fish?
Any angler knows you need a proper pair of fillet gloves and knives if you’re going to clean and fillet your fresh catch. If you’re looking for some recommendations of cleaning kits, you can find plenty of them online.
What are the best cleaning table brands for fish?
Our guide includes all of the best cleaning table brands that you’ll find on the market.
Where can I buy a cleaning station for fish?
The tables we’ve mentioned in this guide can be found on Amazon. If you purchase through Amazon, you can also find recommended cleaning accessories or spare parts.
Conclusion
Finding the right fish cleaning station for your needs can elevate your fishing experience. Our favorite is the Magma T10-449B-HDP because of its stability and durability, and the FDA approved cleaning surface. It can withstand any marine environment, and the optional cover is a nice touch.