My mother-in-law, who grew up a house (small cabin, now) on the bank of a very fishy river in Idaho on her father's homestead (literally), had a way of cleaning and cooking trout that I find hard to beat. I would head to a small tributary stream in late afternoon, tie on a yellow fur grasshopper fly, and bring her a batch (10) of small brook trout. She would gut them, run them for a few seconds under scalding hot tap water and just pull the skins off like a t-shirt, drop them in a big cast iron skillet, and a few minutes later we were eating some of the best fish I ever ate. I am not a fish lover, but taking the skins off left them with just a wonderful fish taste, and she could do a batch faster than I could wash my hands. Something to be said for growing up in a two room house with five siblings and no indoor plumbing. At harvest time they used to feed 20 or 30 hired hands so I think she cleaned a few fish in her day.

No but their is a very easy way to clean a trout .Start at the butt cut shallow up the belly to just before the bottom of the gills stop there.You will notice two looks like slits just above where you stopped ,stick your knife thru one and out the other and cut toward the nose end of the fish,now stick your thumb in that and pull down and all the guts will come right out all is left then is run your thumb up the back bone to remove the blood that gathers along the back,rinse and you are done .Its by far the quickest way to clean a trout.