I take the head off although some people prefer to cook their fish with the head on. They say the head will add some more flavor to your fish taste. Not sure about that one. Also you need to cook your fish on a low heat and not cook it into the pan or foil. On a camp fire I get a set of coals and wrap the fish if aluminum foil and put the fish right on the side of the coals and keep rotating it to cook evenly. Seems to work pretty well. Make sure to add some butter to the inside of where the fish is spliced down the middle. Not only with the butter give your rainbow trout a good flavor but it will allow the meat to come off the bones a little easier at the end. If fact if you cooked your rainbow trout correctly then you should be able to grab the end bone and kinda shake it a little and pull the whole skeleton of fish bones in one shot leaving you a couple of good pieces of fish without any bones. Of course you always want to check with your tongue while eating. Even when you order fish out at a restaurant you want to double check to make sure there are no unwanted bones left. I always seem to be able to find a bone or