Regarding scaling of fish, I never ran into the problem much early on since the only fish considered edible around my area was catfish, and you skin them.

When a few of us found out that carp are actually pretty good, most people scaled them, but I found that they're among the fish for which "flavorful elements" are contained in the skin, and a better (to my taste) flavor resulted by skinning rather than just scaling.

If you really like a little "fishy aftertaste" scaling is okay even for carp. The amount of flavor difference varies with the kind of fish.

The small "unconnected" bones in carp are pretty much identical to those in salmon, so recipes are mostly kind of interchangeable, although I haven't known any rabid advocates of smoked carp. (If you smoke 'em right all you taste is the smoke, so it doesn't much matter what roadkill you use.)

Almost any fish that's "filleted" will have "meat only" since with a good fillet knife you can run down the spine and then flop it over using the last bit of skin for a "hinge" and then run back inside the skin to get the "clean meat." Several fish I've encountered have a rather "tender skin" that doesn't strip off by pulling on it, but the fillet knife will "follow the skin" even on those if you want it removed.

If you can see, or feel, scales, you'll generally want to scrape them off. Whether to leave the skin depends on your taste in flavoring for most fish. For fish that otherwise need scaling, filleting to remove both the big bones and the skin at the same time (and avoid the scaling step entirely) is the quickest way to clean 'em.

Since catfish aren't flat much of anywhere, a fillet knife doesn't work well on them, so it's still back to the square-nosed pliers and some pickin' and yankin' to strip the skin off. Fortunately the skin on most 'cats is tough enough to peel off by pullin' on one end of whatever comes loose first (not quite as easy as a fat rabbit, but lots easier than for squirrels).

People around here used to ask "do you scale 'em or skin 'em" about armadillos, but I've always considered that one a bad joke. Since we heard recently that a fair number of people actually do eat them, I'm not so sure; but I very much doubt I'm ever gonna need an answer.

John