I'm Guilty

[Phunybonz]

Went out on a charter today and caught a couple silvers. This is when the crime was commited.
I came home and made an attempt at fileting them. oh my god, I am so sorry Mr. Fishy. The first one went ok, but the second fish was 17# and no match for my sharpest fillet knife. I am truly a rookie and have much more to learn.
Could someone do a little video on the art of filleting? I felt pretty bad about what i did to that fish. Practice....makes me have to catch another victim.

[SlabQuest]

I hear ya. Put me down for one of those videos. I tried to filet a king last night. I hadn't done it for a while. Good God! What a mess! I steaked the rest of them images/icons/frown.gif

[springer4you]

I'm guilty also, I do better on Salmon,But Strugeon are another thing. I didn't know you had to be a professional wrestler to fillet a sturgeon. Please Help!!!! images/icons/confused.gif

[RKB]

Take a look at this site might help.RKB
http://www.piscatorialpursuits.com/tips/fillet.htm

[Firedog]

one of the biggest keys is a really sharp knife. The bigger the fish the sharper your knife neads to be to get through the bones. Practice and take your time, once you get good at it it is very easy and quick. Good Luck.

[Salmonator]

Sharpness #1, length of knife #2. A sharp knife that will pass through an entire fillet belly to back will make it as easy as filleting a sea bass....

[Joe Schwab]

I've seen some real butchering when it comes to fileting. A chef who worked for us in Alaska taught me the easy way. No fancy strokes cutting in and out just one easy cut. And take an old or inexpensive filet knife with reasonably good steel and use a lure Jensen hook sharpener on the blade just enough to put slighly serrated edge. This will cut through bones better than the sharpest edge. Lay the fish flat, make angle cuts under the pectoral fins and around the neck towards the head. Lay the knife flat against the backbone and with just enough pressure let the knife, point toward the belly follow the backbone all the way to the tail. Voila!! Filet!! Repeat on the other side. You now have two beautiful, unhacked filets and no wasted meat. It is now simple to remove the rib cage with the filet knife and --- no bones. Try it, you'll like it.

[Fishin Magician]

Wha charter are you going on???????? All of the trips I did and all the trips I go on now the guide takes care of the processing for you. If you are fishing astoria take your fish to "Sturgeon Pauls Smokehouse" They do a great job.

[Jennie@ifish]

http://www.ifish.net/filet1.JPG
Bob is always two steps ahead of me!
I took pics of Bill fileting the other day and was going to do a feature on it.
Don't have to now, thanks Bob!
Jen

[Michael J.]

Great topic! I hate to 'practice' filleting on a beautiful salmon I just caught - I always feel like I've wasted some fish.
I think my problem is attempting to navigate around the rib cage - now just to be certain should you cut through the rib cage along the spine and then remove the ribs once the fillet is cut away?
Thanks for your help! MJ

[Kwiky]

I tell you what, I've been using a Mister Twister electric fillet knife for the last 5 or 6 years, and it has really made life easier. Cuts thru the fish like butter. Filleting takes about a 1/4 of the time it used to. Is this considered cheating images/icons/grin.gif ?

Kwiky

[cureless]

depending on where you catch your fish but you can go to a fish market charter outfit or their is a place in warrenton sturgeon joes or something like. You can pay to have them teach you how to do it they will also if you ask give you a hands on teaching thats how I did it.

Cureless

[Pilar]

Here's a couple more hints.

The fish should be as cold as possible, short of freezing. A properly dressed and iced fish will be pretty stiff and have firm flesh.

Start the filet with a cut down each side of the dorsal to the backbone. Start both sides before you remove the first filet and the fish will lay flat for easier cutting. Otherwise once that first side comes off the fish lays cockeyed while you carve off the second side.

When you remove the skin from the filet, move the filet not the knife. I always skin the filet tail to head. Leave a small chunk of fish at the tail for a handle and start the knife across the filet. Then hold the knife still and pull on the skin handle. The knife will slide right down the filet and you wont cut through the skin.

Use the sharpest knife you can find. Have several so you don't have to stop to sharpen up. I use one blade for boning and a different one for fileting. The boning knife gets dull pretty quick. A dull knife requires more pressure and will cut the hell out of you if you slip while pressing or pulling.

Use gloves to handle Rockfish. Sharp fins and gill covers. The fin sticks are inevitable if you ditch the gloves and can get badly infected. Very painful in a finger joint. Skip it if you can.

Watch the fish cleaner babes in action at the charter dock. They make a living at it and some of them are artists. Fast and neat. Practice makes perfect. They can also teach you how to sharpen a knife.

[FishinMission]

'Bonz and the rest reading this...I started slicing off the meat left on the backbone last year and putting it in those little Glad plastic freezer containers and freezing it. If you or your wife are a "gifted" cook..that meat makes an awesome addition to stir fried veggies. Almost makes absolutely zero waste of your fish. Try it....if you like stir fry..you'll love it!! images/icons/grin.gif images/icons/grin.gif images/icons/grin.gif

[BUGLEMAN]

Filleting is easy to learn especially for salmon. This is the tech I use and is highly recommend it for beginners it is clean and fast. I just taught it to my friend, it was a verbal instruction and he went home and did well. Here it is for you.

1) gut the fish you can even remove the head.

2) Ice that baby up real good and go home. Leave the carcass it tact. The skin will protect the meat from blanching in water. It depend how far you have to go. Ice is nice!

3) Now you are going to wack off the sides. Start at the head end and slice in behind the gill plate and when you get to the spine turn towards the tail while holding the knife paralell with the vertical bones off the spine. Now you are going to cut the ribs off at the spine and continue to the tail. I think the hardest part is when you get to the fin behind the anus. The tech is to cut a few ribs with the tip and then cut down the back some then work in a see saw motion. You push more than slice and the see saw motion is more like pivoting around the tip and then the handle. Not slicing back and forth and you need a sharp knife. You keep checking in the cavity and along to back to make sure you don't cut away from the spine and slice into the fillet. Lift the fillet if you have doubts. Soon you won't be just cutting a few ribs at a time and will shed the see saw motion. You are doing good when you knick a little off each vertibre and there is a row of white left in your fillet when you are done. The see saw action works for getting around that hard anus area and fins too.

4) Know you have a the ribs to remove. This is easy! Just flip the fillet on the the skin. I put the belly part to me. Hold the knife parallel with the length of the fish and point the handle away from the tail (if you will the tip towards the tail). Now take the knife tip and slide it under the ends of 4-6 ribs and push towards the belly while planning the cutting edge towards the bones. The cool thing is you can see the knife under the skin as a guide and in 5 or so swipes the inner skin and ribs are off. I have done 30 or so fish with this tech and can now do a coho this way in about 1 min. It is so easy and not wastefull. I think this is what Pilar was discribing but I felt like putting in a few details for the beginner.

As for the skin check the other posts.

I agree Pilar on the knife issue for filleting the skin off but for whacking the fillet off, the cheap gerber with the cerramic rod sharpener on the end kicks it! For 7 bucks you always have a razor sharp knife to knock the slabs and ribs off. Just give the blade a few wet licks after every other fish or so.

Good luck!

[ 08-28-2001: Message edited by: BUGLEMAN ]

[Fishhead]

FM, What a great idea! My kids like it when I use that left over thin flesh for jerky. But now, I'll save for a better use ! Thanks for that info.... images/icons/grin.gif ........Fishhead Vic