A well dressed #7 or old style #8 would fit the bill quite well in my opinion. Much bigger doesn't work too well for cleaning panfish, walleye, or the occasional northern pike. A 4-5" blade is just right for other fishing camp chores also. Not much that can't be done, actually, with a 5" blade. That's just my opinion, it will certainly be interesting watching this build progress.

I agree, descalers look horrible. Not that we could get that on this knife anyways. I'll stick to scaling them with a spoon or the spine of my knife.