How To Fillet A Fish

First, and this is very important…make sure you have a good sharp fillet knife. The blade should be thin and a little flexible. This will allow you to get the most meat without having skin attached. If I am filleting fish at home I get a garbage bag (for the yukky stuff), a cutting board, a bowl of cold water, and rubber gloves together and trek outside to a table and hook up the garden hose. You can improvise if you are at the campsite or lakeside.

In these pictures I opened the garbage bag and tucked one side between the table and the cutting board in front of me. (These pictures were taken after our first family fishing trip this year in early spring when the crappie were hanging close to cover.)

O.K. here goes:

• Lay fish flat on board. Place knife just behind gills at a 90 degree angle to the fish. Angle the blade toward the nose on the top of the fish. Keep in mind even though the belly is the widest part of the fish there is very little meat here, most of it is on the top (dorsal side) so angle your blade accordingly. Cut halfway through fish till you hit bone. Turn fish over and repeat the cut at same angle.

• Okay, this will sound gross but take the head in one hand and the body in the other and twist and pull. You will usually have the head in one hand with most of the guts attached...and the body in the other. Now you know the reason for the garbage bag.

• Scoop out the rest of the insides with your finger. Disregard unless you like the roe (fish eggs) – Yuk. Sorry, not my taste.

• Now you have a headless whole fish like you may see in the fish market. You may want to rinse your knife and board at this point. I like the bag being just below the board since you can use the knife to scrape any unwantables into it.

• Look at the open end of the fish and slide your knife blade into the flesh just above the bone. When the full blade is inserted push up and out just above the dorsal fin.

• Now turn the fish over (I like to hold it upright) and follow the bones around the belly on one side. In these fish the meat is only about an eight to a quarter of an inch thick on the belly side, so be careful and work slowly or you will cut through to the skin. You think this is hard try it on a blue gill – yes I have filleted many and oh man they are good.

• Once you get through the bottom you still have a lot of meat from the belly section to the tail that is attached to the bone. Lay the fish in front of you with the tail away from you. Slide the knife all the way through the fish just above the bone and slice back and forth until you get to the tail but DO NOT cut all the way through. (If you slip and cut through it is harder to remove skin.)

• The upper bones will be easily visible now. Slide your knife blade just between the meat and the bones and slice toward the dorsal fin. Cut all the way through. Turn fish over and cut gently around the belly bones as before.

• Lift cut side of fillet and insert knife just above main bone and slice toward tail as before – again not cutting all the way through.

• Turn over and place fillet skin side down and remove skin by holding tail and slicing skin off meat. When you finish you will have the tail with both sides of skin attached and the bones attached in the middle.

• Rinse off any blood. Some species of fish have a dark line that runs down the middle of the flesh. I usually remove this as it sometimes has a strong unappetizing taste.

You are now ready to cook your fish fillets. I usually don’t leave the fillets in water long, they will curl and the flesh becomes mealy.

Fishing season is here. According to my husband it is always here. Plan a family outing, get your kids rigged up and catch a mess of fish. These are the memories that will stick with them forever. Now that you know how to fillet a fish you also know what’s for dinner!