Filet techniques

[Pete]

I'm interested in how people clean their fish. Until this year I used pretty much the same method on salmon and steelhead for 25 years; slice in behind the gill plate, slice open the belly, clean out the guts, then slice along the spine, cutting the ribs and running down to the tail to remove one big slab from each side. Finally, I remove the fin-rays.

But I got a new filet knife for Christmas last year which allowed me to use a new technique which I find superior. First cut is again behind the gill plate. Then I cut the down the spine, just off center, from head to the back of the body cavity, plunging the knife through the fish behind the anus and running along the spine to the end of the tail. Then with one hand I roll the flap towards the belly and in 3 or 4 successive slices I remove the filet - leaving the ribs attached to the spine and the guts undisturbed. After removing both filets I go after any eggs.

This technique avoids contaminating the filet with gut-junk, but still allows clean removal of eggs. It's also nice to have a rib-free filet.

What are your filet tricks?

[Pilar]

Ditto, Pete. After all that add one more trick. Pull out the pin bones that stick out sideways from the spine along the lateral line with a pair of tweezers. Then you have a true boneless filet.

Do you scale your fish first Pete? I like the skin on for smoking so I use the garden hose to scale my salmon before I cut them up.

[Beer Waggin]

I can't remember the last time I gutted a salmon or steelie. Fillet them out just as above with one exception, I make a cut just before the tail so I don't have to deal with it.
As for scaling, I have a couple of small pieces of wood that have six bottle caps screwed into them. Simple and easy, just scrape both sides of the fish a couple of times, hose off and no more scales.

[fishbait]

I usually cut the belly from anus to bottom of what would be the throat. If hen, remove eggs. Then I pretty much fillet as Pete does now that he has a good knife. (Welcome to the club Pete) Some trick, razor sharpe kinfe as always. I try to pull the belly away from the eggs as I am cutting toward the head to avoid cutting the skeins. I work down the fish, that is, cut behing the gill plate, then down the backbone a few inches, then to the ribs, slicing down from the backbone. Lay the knife against the ribs and or the backbone. A good fillet knife will have a blade that will bend to allow you to do this. Repeat the backbone /rib cutting as I progress down the fillet. Don't scale any of my fish. Helps alot if you have a gunny bag or old towle under the fish to keep it from sliding as you are cutting. At my fish camp in the fall I use a gunny bag, at home I have about 5 old bath towels that I cycle through. Also keeps the wifes kitchen counter celaner...........

[Snapset]

First, I gut and gill the fish.
Then I insert the tip of the filet knife under the base of the first rib forward of the **** vent. Pushing the knife forward, I can get all of the ribs and membrane freee from the filet. Then I roll the Belly meat to clear it down from the spine. This gives me a line of pin bones to guide my next cut, which cuts along the pin bone line from spine to skin. Then I make the 2 spine cuts to the pin bones, slice from **** vent to tail, and with a good shake, dem bones all fall out.

[WheresMyBobber]

I've found when removing the "pin bones", they come out easier if you let the fillet stay in the fridge overnight. The meat must loosen up or something, but it is easier the next day. Also, I use a clean needle nose pliers (not the ones from your tackle box) to grab the bones with because I can get better leverage.

A fillet technique I use to quickly remove the skin on steelhead and smaller chinook is this:

Use the regular fillet method by starting behind the gill plate, cut along the spine all the way down to the tail, but stop just before you cut the fillet from the carcass. At this point, flip the fillet over onto is skin side. While the fillet is still connected to the carcass, you can easily use your knife to cut between the meat and the skin, working from the tail back up towards the rib section. Having the entire fish carcass to hold onto while you skin the fillet makes it much easier and quicker.

If you couple this with removing the pin bones and the ribs, you get a nice, easy to use fillet with no bones or skin.