How to Fillet Fish - Freshwater

the next thing we're gonna look at is the standard filleting technique which works for walleye bass perch crappie and other pan fish because this technique represents the foundation for flame any type of fish we're going to look at it a few times starting with the most popular eating fish walleye when you have a toothy critter like a walleye here I strongly recommend the glove we have these spines on the back that are like needles sharp teeth and we add a sharp knife to the equation this glove is made out of Kevlar it's a Rapala product the same thing they make bulletproof vests out of although it's not puncture proof it is cut proof so if you do make a slip it's not going to cut your hand so when cleaning the wall ice I'm going to show you a simple technique with this least mess as possible and I'll show you a couple tricks to go with it where the skull ends and the flesh starts is a single cut all the way down pass that front fin and pass those other two so straight through like so for that I'm using this section of the knife rounded end it's a straight cut now what I'm going to do is take the fish so I'm gonna insert the knife about an inch that's all I'm sticking it in it's that far and I'm running down the side of that dorsal fin once I'm past that that's dorsal fin I know I'm past the ribcage I push the knife all the way through use down pressure on the backbone all the way out to the tail I'm gonna show you the same moves on the other side behind both fins diagonal cut up to there I'm gonna use the tip of the knife only sticking it in an inch pass that dorsal fin all the way through out to the tail now what I'm going to do is make shallow cuts nice straight using this section of the knife nice gradual cuts nice gradual strokes with the knife right knife is gonna take the path of least resistance when it hits a rib if you push hard it'll cut through the rib if you just let the knife take its natural course it'll go around the ribs you're left with that nice fillet just like so I'm gonna show you that again on the other side straight sweeping motion very very effortless nice gliding strokes and removes the fillet just like so one thing before you throw the carcass away two good pieces of meat on a walleye you have these cheeks right here this is where the glove comes in really handy they're a little slippery but a nice little morsel of flesh like a little scallop I take that out and give the glove a little turn and just cut it off cheeks very good T do the same on the other side bottom side you feel down pressure on the jawbone and make that circular move it's like a giant reverse see get your finger under there with the glove give it a little twist and just cut out the last little bit again just a morsel of meat put this off to the side before this hits the frying pan and then we're going to show you how to skin it out again the glove comes in handy get a hold of that there nice gradual separate the flesh what I do typically when I'm on a charter is I will leave us chunk of skin for identification if you're traveling that's the way the Ministry of Natural Resources wants it when you get it home just pull off that tag end and then it's almost ready for the table the other thing I'm going to show you here walleyes in particular have a very pronounced lateral line down the center it's that discolored section of meat there that little pink section there what I'm going to show you real quick has a neat way to take out that last set of pin bones in a walleye and also any bit of fishy taste that the walleyes gonna have if you remove that the fish is gonna taste that much better so what I've done is I just make a cut on either side of that lateral line I call this zipper in the wall I just pull it off like so that lateral line is completely out and the pin bones are out as well so you're left with two nice pieces of flesh I'm gonna show you that one more time here again nice sharp knife get the angle on it right out to the end leave the tag on if you're taking it home or traveling once you get it home for the frying pan just pull off that tag end again on that lateral line it's just where the color changes cut on either side of it like so and a very slight tug pulls right away boneless you're ready to go perch are easily filleted using the same technique Paul demonstrated for walleye Paul's gonna show us that technique again and then he's going to show us a slightly different technique with the electric knife although it should be noted that this second technique also works great for walleye bass and pan fish with a traditional fillet knife I am going to show you how to clean a perch now for this I chose a shorter blade I could do it with a larger knife but with the smaller blade it's easier on the smaller fish again I'm using the glove we have this sharp fins on the back here and also the sharp gill rakers and of course this guy is pretty slippery as well so what I'm going to do is make that first cut straight back where the flesh starts and the head stops back behind that front pectoral fin and all the way through same on the other side again it's just a straight cut down like so to the end now what I'm going to use just use that top tip of the knife got that nice slender taper I'm going to just put it on either side of that dorsal fin so I'm just on the side of it there and what's happening is I'm using down pressure to feel the spine of the fish once I'm past that dorsal fin there I'm past the ribcage go straight through now I'm using that down pressure along the spine again out to the end I'm gonna do the same on the other side again I'm starting out with the first just the tip of the knife I'm only sticking that knife in less than an inch just feeling that spine once I'm past the dorsal fin I know to go all the way through because I'm past the ribcage now I'm using down pressure out to the end now I'm gonna use the center of the blade nice gentle sweeping action the knife will take the path of least resistance and go right around those ribs if you push too hard you're gonna cut right through the ribs which isn't a big deal you just a little Messier so there's your first fillet same thing again I'm using the center of the blade nice light gentle sweeping action very little pressure at all and then peeling the flesh back as I go and again the knife will take the path of least resistance around those ribs they're your now before they hit the frying pan there's one more step this is where the glove comes in handy now for grabbing a hold because everything's slippery you make a little cut along the skin and just ever so gently drag the knife on that angle separating the flesh from the skin left with a fillet same thing here again just get a good hold on it and use down pressure with the knife separate the flesh from the skin this techniques is good if you have you know not a whole lot of fish when you have a bunch I'm going to show you how what the electric knife works like remember the old turkey knife that grandma used to have for slicing turkey the good folks at Rapp love taking it one step further and what have they done they've taken an actual fillet blade and made it adaptable for an electric knife what happens is it's a two blade system that locked together and what they do is they call a sawing motion and they both rotate like so if you have a lot of fish to clean in a short period of time and you know perch panfish great great little tool for that is this cordless model comes with two batteries and a charger it's good in the bush when you don't have a cord very very good piece of equipment for clean and fish in the field the neat part about this electric knife is you can clean a lot of fish in a hurry and typically what will do is you'll find to find where this the skull of the fish stops in the flesh like we did with the traditional knife and I'll make a single cut down and straight out to the side going right through the rib cage once I've removed the fillet I'll have the rib cage in there I'm going to use the knife and now it's upward pressure just to take that rib cage Oh same on the other side it's gonna be straight down to make a cut and the next one is all along the spine again take the rib cage Oh once the ribs are out I'm going to remove the skin same here and that's that

Channel: FilletingFish

Views: 7,655,715

Keywords: filleting fish, filleting walleye, filleting bass, fish fillet, fillet knife

Id: 1Hkt3Q5y84U

Length: 10min 57sec (657 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 03 2012