As a kid, when we got home from a fishing trip, the job for us kids was to scale the fish with a spoon, and then Dad would clean them. We’d fry them whole. On the big bass over 5 lbs, Dad would cut 1-inch thick slices and fry them up.
As a kid, you never heard about filleting your catch. Then somewhere in my teenage years I heard the word fillet, but Dad said it wasted too much meat. Then after college, my brother and I would hire a guide once per year.
The first guide filleted our catch but didn’t know what he was doing, so it lent credit to Dad’s advice that filleting wasted a lot of meat, but as the years passed, we met other guides who knew how to fillet but I still thought they wasted too much meat, especially with the stiff electric fillet knives they used. I eventually switched over to filleting fish, but I used a 6-inch semi-flex knife.
I think the day the light switched on for me to use an electric knife was when me and a buddy caught 243 crappie in one day. We didn’t keep all of them, but still we kept a bunch, and it took forever to fillet them by hand.
My youngest daughter was my best fishing partner, and up until then, she’d be holding a lantern until 2:00 am while I filleted our catch. I’m sure she now loves electric knives as much as me.
If you’re in the younger crowd, then you probably already use an electric fillet knife, so this article is probably geared for you older fishermen that don’t. But also, I’ll throw out some tips that you youngsters may not know, so read on.
I love crappie fishing in the evening. The bad deal, though, is that I don’t get home until after midnight, so I’m beat and don’t feel like filleting a cooler full of fish. No big deal, throw a bag of ice over the top of them and then you can fillet them the next morning when you wake up. While fishing, I throw them in a cooler with two milk jugs of ice so the fish are already chilled when I get home.
To make your process efficient, here’s the set-up I do. I bolted a sheet of plywood to the top of a card table. This works great because I can cut on it and the wood can withstand an
inadvertent cut; plus, it doesn’t dull my blade when I hit it. Spray it with water first so the fish slime doesn’t stick to it as bad.
Then I have a short stool that I can sit on while filleting so I’m not hunched over. Next thing I like is to have a little table to set my camera, phone, hand rag, etc. off to the side.
Now for the cutting equipment. The best electric fillet knife that I’ve found is the yellow/green Mister Twister knife. It is an economical electric knife with a semi-flexible blade. To do a good job, you need a semi-flex blade. I love it, and it does a great job for me.
You’ll also want a 6-inch semi-flex fillet knife for when you mess one up and have to finish it by hand (Which I occasionally do). Then you’ll need a big bowl to throw the fillets into.
I once saw a guy at the dock cleaning his fish with an electric knife that plugged into his truck. That’d be nice so you could clean them at the lake and recycle the guts (Via catfish). I also heard a rumor that there are rechargeable fillet knives. That’d be way nice too.
To fillet them, I start on the right side. I make an angled cut back under the head/gills so as to remove all meat. At the end of the cut, I twist the knife around 90 degrees and press along the backbone while cutting through the rib cage and push towards the tail. Right before I hit the end, I flip the fillet over, press the knife against the skin and push towards the front of the fillet. This will result in a skinless fillet. Repeat on the left side.
I leave the rib cage on and remove it when I thaw the fish to cook, just to save time when filleting. Take the fillets in the house and rinse off. Most people vacuum pack their fillets or put them in a zip lock bag. I do something a little unorthodox. I put a family serving size in a grocery bag and throw in about two cups of water and tie off the end. Cut off the excess end and wrap in one more grocery bag.
When ready to cook, pull out a bag and thaw. Frozen in water like this, I’ve had them last two years and not be freezer burned. Happy eating!
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