Our last trout trip, we decided to keep some fish and have them for dinner. As I as cleaning them, a gentlemen said that he had never seen fish cleaned quite that way so I figured I would take a few pictures and show you how I like to fillet fish.
Step number one for me is always using latex gloves. I do this because it helps me hold onto slippery fish easier and my wife still doesn’t like me coming home with blood under my finger nails from cleaning my catch.
The next step is to make a relatively straight cut just behind the gills and front fin to the backbone. From there all you do is angle the knife, staying right next to the spine all the way down to the tail without actually cutting through the last quarter inch or so of flesh.
Flop that fillet over and keeping your knife right next to the skin, run it all the way down the length of the fillet to remove all the skin. Wash the fillet and all you have left is to get right behind the ribs and with one cut remove them.
From there, turn the fish over and repeat the process on the other side. You now have two fillets with minimal bones, ready to cook and it only requires six cuts per fish. No gutting or be-heading of the fish is required and this method is probably the quickest that I am aware of. However, if any of you folks know a better way to do it, we would love to hear from you,
See ya’ on the water …..
Step 1
Step 3
Step 2
Great little guide! I gave it a tweet for you.
Awesome, thank you very much. I think Pops’ method is the easiest I’ve ever used.