Cermele: Clean My Shorts

Over the course of my years spent fishing, I’ve been splattered with blood from a myriad of species. In the beginning, soaking my clothes in water mixed with detergent seemed to kinda, sorta work. Then I found OxyClean…the miracle cleanser. No matter how dried the blood, no matter the species, a spritz of OxyClean fizzed away at the stains and made them disappear into the ether. That is until I caught the bluefin tuna pictured below this Sunday.

My friend OxyClean bubbled on the blood spots like it usually does, but much to my surprise after rinsing, the stains remained. They remained after five attempts. Mad at OxyClean, I resorted to desperate measures, first scrubbing away with Shout, then straight-up hydrogen peroxide.

The blood survived all attacks.

I know there are lots of little recipes for cleaning fishy messes, some concocted of your own accord and some handed down through the generations. While it’s too late to save my shorts from the designated pile of “fishing only” clothes, you can help me and others in the future. I’m curious to hear what you use to get blood out of clothes or scales, guts, and grime off your hands. Maybe it’s a bottled cleaner you swear by, or maybe it’s Smucker’s grape jelly mixed with transmission fluid. Let’s hear it.

JC