Densmore on drying and freezing fish

Fish was caught in a seine and was eaten fresh, or stored by either drying or freezing...Fish were dried by laying them on a rack over a slow fire or by stringing them on wigub and hanging them in the sun. The fish were dried until hard and then packed in layers without salt. When needed for food they were boiled. Small fish, such as perch, were dried without cleaning. Sunfish were split lengthwise and laid on the horizontal poles of the rack while large fish such as pickerel or bullpouts [catfish], were cleaned and cut along each side of the backbone, leaving the head attached to the body of the fish and also to the backbone. The fish was then hung over one of the top rails of the frame, the body being on one side and the backbone and tail on the other. When the fish was partly dried the flesh was split lengthwise, making a thinner strip, the inside of which was exposed to the fire. For winter use the fish were frozen without cleaning. It was said to be better not to clean them if they were to be kept in this manner. If sunfish were to be packed they were split down the back and laid flat. The usual way of packing them was to lay three fish in the bottom of the barrel as the lowest layer. piling the others on top of these. A Canadian Chippewa said that in the fall his people strung the fish in bunches of 10 and froze them for winter use. He said they "peeled off the skin when they cooked the fish."

from

Frances Densmore, Chippewa Customs (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1979) 42-43.