# filleting tips and techniques?



## dan1985 (Sep 29, 2011)

Anyone have any neat filleting tricks they've acquired over the years? Any weird finds in a fishes stomach? Let's hear it!


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## jlami (Jan 28, 2011)

Heard stories of license plates in catfish off the mississippi when I was a kid... Every one in Stl had the same story of an uncle that it happened to though.lol



"Big fish only get caught because they open their mouth."


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## Nimi_fisher5 (Jun 12, 2011)

I found a complete jig inside a pikes stomach on a lake in Canada that you have to drive 5 hours of logging roads just to get too and we hardly ever see people on it.


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## Bono Joe (Mar 2, 2009)

Was that Lake Sheila or Lake Shekat on the map North of Wa Wa? Next lake would be Long Lake?


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## mccurdy.64 (Mar 18, 2012)

I'm a chef and one of the easiest ways to fillet a fish (especially getting that second fillet) is cut the head off first, then your fish will have a perfectly level surface for the second fillet. 

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## Mr. A (Apr 23, 2012)

I once caught a catfish with two other hooks in it's mouth. Apparently two other people hooked but couldn't land him. He was only about 8 or 10#'s so I don't know why? Was kind of funny, like catching a teenager now a days, with all those piercings! LOL

My uncle was filleting out a cat once and there was some kind of bird on it's belly, not a duck so we figured out fell from a nest and became lunch.

Mr. A


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## JohnPD (Jun 12, 2012)

Aside from keeping a sharp blade to filet, keep it wet with water too, it makes a cleaner, smoother cut that way. That's the only tip I can give.


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## BassariskY (Sep 8, 2006)

mccurdy.64 said:


> I'm a chef and one of the easiest ways to fillet a fish (especially getting that second fillet) is cut the head off first, then your fish will have a perfectly level surface for the second fillet.
> 
> posted using Outdoor Hub Campfire


Great tip! I will I have to give that a try.:good:

I've always fillet one side down to the tail and left it on, flip the fish over, fillet other side, then take both fillets off. And it never fails, that one side is a better fillet than the other.


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## ezbite (May 25, 2006)

bleed your fish by cutting the gills as soon as you are going to keep it. makes cleaning much less messy.


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## boss302 (Jun 24, 2005)

1) Its easier if the fish are dead. 2) even easier if they've been on ice a while...long enough to firm up the flesh. 3) remove any & all dark meat 4) big filets can be cut in half to make 2 thinner ones. 



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## jonnythfisherteen2 (Mar 5, 2011)

Mr. A said:


> I once caught a catfish with two other hooks in it's mouth. Apparently two other people hooked but couldn't land him. He was only about 8 or 10#'s so I don't know why? Was kind of funny, like catching a teenager now a days, with all those piercings! LOL
> 
> My uncle was filleting out a cat once and there was some kind of bird on it's belly, not a duck so we figured out fell from a nest and became lunch.
> 
> Mr. A


Hold on, i ain't got no piercings!!


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## Schrandle (Apr 29, 2013)

With saugeye and walleye there is "zipper" (lateral line) that runs down through the middle of the fish filet (the length of the fillet) that I always take out. It usually eliminates a lot of the "fishy" taste that some people say the fish might have. To remove it, all you need to do is put a notch on either side of it at the end of the fillet, and then you can just take it out like you are undoing a zipper. It usually just zips right out.

Also like everyone else is saying, its easier if the fish is dead. Letting it sit on ice for several hours does not always do the trick, so I usually hit the fish pretty hard on the hard with like a screwdriver just to make sure it is dead. I was filleting a fish up in Toledo after the walleye run a couple years back and I had the fish on ice all day while I was fishing. After I had filleted the one side of the fish later that night, I went to the other side and just before I started that side, the fish jumped on me. No harm was done besides me about shitting myself. I'm not sure if the fish was actually still live or whether it was just a twitch because it only flopped once, but either way I still hit fish on the head now-a-days and it hasn't happened to me since.


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## Wow (May 17, 2010)

Schrandle said:


> With saugeye and walleye there is "zipper" (lateral line) that runs down through the middle of the fish filet (the length of the fillet) that I always take out. It usually eliminates a lot of the "fishy" taste that some people say the fish might have. To remove it, all you need to do is put a notch on either side of it at the end of the fillet, and then you can just take it out like you are undoing a zipper. It usually just zips right out.
> 
> Also like everyone else is saying, its easier if the fish is dead. Letting it sit on ice for several hours does not always do the trick, so I usually hit the fish pretty hard on the hard with like a screwdriver just to make sure it is dead. I was filleting a fish up in Toledo after the walleye run a couple years back and I had the fish on ice all day while I was fishing. After I had filleted the one side of the fish later that night, I went to the other side and just before I started that side, the fish jumped on me. No harm was done besides me about shitting myself. I'm not sure if the fish was actually still live or whether it was just a twitch because it only flopped once, but either way I still hit fish on the head now-a-days and it hasn't happened to me since.


That's a little creepy! ZOMBIEWALLEYE!:bulgy-eyes:--Tim


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## glasseyes (Jan 28, 2012)

I have been saugeye fishing in dead of winter and catch fish and throw them in a bucket on the bank with no water in it. The fish I took home would be like bricks, hard as a rock. On more than one occasion I would put water in the bucket when I got home just to soften them up a little to be able to fillet and come back in a little while to find them swimming around in the bucket, hard to believe but true.


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## Shortdrift (Apr 5, 2004)

Don't bother with any of all those methods. Just get a good meat grinder and run the whole fish through it, dead or alive, frozen or unfrozen. Mix in some bread or cracker crumbs with egg and some seasoning. Form into patty's and fry in bacon grease or duck fat. No waste plus the ground scales make for roughage that improves digestion and reduces constipation.


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