My filleting adventure

[Geezle]

Was out at the river with BBJ today and decided that if I caught any goldeyes I'd keep them and give them a try in the ol' frying pan since I've never had them before.

Well as it turned it, I got skunked but BBJ and a guy named Mike who we met out there both pulled one in and were sporting enough to offer them to me (thanks guys!)

So I got home and decided to clean them up. Here's where the fun began. I'm honestly not sure if I've ever actually cleaned a fish before, and if I have, it was a *long* time ago, but I've watched family members clean fish tons of times, so if nothing else I know the principle pretty well.

The first fish I cleaned I almost felt a little bad for...the first side I did I made quite the mess of, but the second side actually went pretty well, though I definitely left some meat behind. The second fish went similarly, though at least a little better than the first Oh yeah, when I was eating them I also noticed I had a couple pieces with bones in them.

So any tips on what I could do to make this go better next time aside from practise? Particularly with the bones.

The knife I have is sharp but still questionable...seemed like more work than it should have been, so I think that may be next on my 'to purchase' list. My family has always used the Rapala knife with the wooden handle and leather sheath, so I was thinking I should maybe just pick one of those up. I saw another Rapala knife with a plastic handle and sheath but I'm not so sure about that one...if anybody's used it let me know what it's like

[buckmaster]

Originally Posted by Geezle

Was out at the river with BBJ today and decided that if I caught any goldeyes I'd keep them and give them a try in the ol' frying pan since I've never had them before.

Well as it turned it, I got skunked but BBJ and a guy named Mike who we met out there both pulled one in and were sporting enough to offer them to me (thanks guys!)

So I got home and decided to clean them up. Here's where the fun began. I'm honestly not sure if I've ever actually cleaned a fish before, and if I have, it was a *long* time ago, but I've watched family members clean fish tons of times, so if nothing else I know the principle pretty well.

The first fish I cleaned I almost felt a little bad for...the first side I did I made quite the mess of, but the second side actually went pretty well, though I definitely left some meat behind. The second fish went similarly, though at least a little better than the first Oh yeah, when I was eating them I also noticed I had a couple pieces with bones in them.

So any tips on what I could do to make this go better next time aside from practise? Particularly with the bones.

The knife I have is sharp but still questionable...seemed like more work than it should have been, so I think that may be next on my 'to purchase' list. My family has always used the Rapala knife with the wooden handle and leather sheath, so I was thinking I should maybe just pick one of those up. I saw another Rapala knife with a plastic handle and sheath but I'm not so sure about that one...if anybody's used it let me know what it's like

goldeye are boney, not sure if there is a proper way to get all the bones out.Did bbj atleast buy you a coffee ?

[Geezle]

Originally Posted by buckmaster

goldeye are boney, not sure if there is a proper way to get all the bones out.Did bbj atleast buy you a coffee ?

Hmm...well then maybe I won't have to feel so bad about the bones...just the butchering!

Gonna have to try to catch a few more of these guys before the end of the season for a little more practise...this is something that I really should know how to do properly.

[-JR-]

Thats one fish i would not fillet either ,best is to descale them .

[Geezle]

Originally Posted by -JR-

Thats one fish i would not fillet either ,best is to descale them .

Descaling fish is a new idea for me...all the fish we ever dealt with when I was younger we would always just fillet.

Though I did notice that the goldeyes had big scales that came off easy but seemed to be a minor pain to cut through at first.

[slingshotz]

Goldeyes are not a great fish to fillet like others say, the best to start off with are the nice flaky fish like perch, walleye, trout or whitefish. Pike have tricky Y bones that unless you have some experience are not for the first timers. Burbs are nice to fillet but have a different technique. Here's a decent video for filleting http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzTFBQ07s3o

It's always easiest to descale all fish before you gut them if possible as it's easier to get the belly scales. Perch can be peeled with skin and scales if you so wish http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjTlFwQb7D0

Any decent flexible fillet knife will work for fish as long as the blade is razor sharp, the handles are personal preferences. I have a wooden Rapala knife, a bone handled crafted knife and a curved Japanese meat/fish knife, they all work well as they are sharp just using differnet styles. In a pinch I even use a semi-flexible basic $5 thin Henkel for fish.

[Geezle]

Originally Posted by slingshotz

Goldeyes are not a great fish to fillet like others say, the best to start off with are the nice flaky fish like perch, walleye, trout or whitefish. Pike have tricky Y bones that unless you have some experience are not for the first timers. Burbs are nice to fillet but have a different technique. Here's a decent video for filleting http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzTFBQ07s3o

It's always easiest to descale all fish before you gut them if possible as it's easier to get the belly scales. Perch can be peeled with skin and scales if you so wish http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjTlFwQb7D0

Any decent flexible fillet knife will work for fish as long as the blade is razor sharp, the handles are personal preferences. I have a wooden Rapala knife, a bone handled crafted knife and a curved Japanese meat/fish knife, they all work well as they are sharp just using differnet styles. In a pinch I even use a semi-flexible basic $5 thin Henkel for fish.

Thanks for the links, I'll check them out right away

I'm learning that the goldeye aren't the best for learning on, but well, it's sort of a matter of convenience. Where I've been fishing recently no matter what you're fishing for, you end up with a couple goldeye, and since they're one of the only fish I can keep out of there, I figured it'd be worth a shot Gotta start somewhere!

Maybe I'll have to see about getting my hands on some of those perch from Sundance (hint ) if I can ever make it down there.

[Geezle]

Ok, I watched those vids and the second one definitely showed me a bit of where I went wrong

It was also pretty slick the way the guy in the first vid cleaned that perch super quick!


So what about scaling them lik JR mentioned?

[Geezle]

ok, I did a little youtube searching and scaling the fish is simple enough in itself, but then what do you do with it?

[slingshotz]

Well most of the fish I scale I cook with the skin and don't fillet them. Either I steam them and pull the meat off, or pan fry them and crisp up the skin so it's tasty.

Or do you mean how do you gut them after you scale them?

[WayneChristie]

Goldeye arent the best eating fish in the first place, and out of the NSR in the Edmonton area? I dont eat anything out of a major river anymore, I dont care how clean they say they get the water, its still ugly.

[Fishfinder]

Chef's knife n practice is all it takes. One knife....find what works for u. Goulda lucka

[Geezle]

Originally Posted by slingshotz

Well most of the fish I scale I cook with the skin and don't fillet them. Either I steam them and pull the meat off, or pan fry them and crisp up the skin so it's tasty.

Or do you mean how do you gut them after you scale them?

I guess i mean how do you gut them after they're scaled. And when you gut them, does that take care of the bones?

I'm sure before the end of the night I'll just search through youtube...I'm sure there's somebody out there explaining it

[Geezle]

Originally Posted by WayneChristie

Goldeye arent the best eating fish in the first place, and out of the NSR in the Edmonton area? I dont eat anything out of a major river anymore, I dont care how clean they say they get the water, its still ugly.

It's more about the learning experience now than it is about eating them. Been fishing since I was a kid, with the exception of about a 7 year hiatus, but I've never really learned how to clean a fish, in any manner. Scaling and gutting a fish is an even newer concept and I'd like to learn how to do it.

The goldeye just happen to be the only thing around that I can keep, so that's what I'll keep. They didn't taste bad...not particularly 'fishy' or anything...I'm sure I'll eat them again.

As for the river thing, yeah I suppose it's questionable, but for the small amount of fish I'll actually end up eating out of there, I'm pretty sure I'll be fine.

[slingshotz]

There's a lot of bad stigma attached with eating fish out of a major river like the Bow or NSR which is all wives tales. These rivers are plenty safe and the mercury that occurs are from natural runoffs from streams and tribs. That said, even natural occuring mercury is still dangerous but unless you eat 3 fish everyday from a river for years, it's not gonna make any difference. One cig or second hand smoke is probably much worse. They dump raw sewage from Victoria into the ocean and guess what's also in the sea there, salmon farms

Anyways back to the main topic, what I usually do is scale the fish, take the point of the knife and start from the anal opening and slice open the belly all the way to the gills, then I cut the gills attached to the front of the mouth (I use a pair of fish scissors for this), cut the back of the gills attached to the spine and pull the gills out with all the guts, most fish have a dark blood cavity running along their spine, slice it open and scrape out all the dark stuff (it's bitter). If you are filleting the fish then you don't have to bother with cleaning out the cavity or removing the gills.

The following two videos is almost exactly what I do:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVI9nP2U8gc&feature=fvw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pk55...eature=channel

[Cal]

I prefer skinning them to scaling them, this is my method of cleaning any fish I do not fillet.

Split the belly open from head to the anal vent with the tip of your knife. Then cut the head most of the way off but not quite, just cut it from the top untill you go through the backbone. Now pull the head the rest of the way off and the guts will come with it. If its a trout your done.

If its anything else take the tip of your knife and cut a shallow slit down the back all the way to the tail, your slit will have to go down both sides of the dorsal fin. Do the same on the bottom of the fish from the anal vent to the tail. Now kind of peel up the skin on on the top/forward corner of the back, grab it with some pliers and just pull it off, do the same to the other side. Pull the dorsal and anal fins out with your pliers, they generaly come out better if you grab the back of the fin and pull it out towards the front of the fish.

I think this is faster than scaling and makes less of a mess.

[BBJTKLE&FISHINGADVENTURES]

Quick way of filleting .

1) make a cut behind the pectoral fins ,towards the gills , Turn knife around cut as tight to the back bone as you can and come out on the tail , so this for both sides .

2) Keep the skin on until you get the bones , so basically there's just the rib bones , so there will be Little black line where the vein is near the bottom of the rib bones , get your knife in there and Cut up removing the bones but keeping the meat . Then tail side make a notch and hold your knife steady and move the skin of the fish side to side removing the meat from the skin . Very simple .

Can be done in less then a minute . Next time we have fish Ill do it for you and you can watch .

Also the key is a good knife , that is Sturdy but yet flexible , I recommend the Alaskan filleting knives , bought one there for about 160 bucks , well worth it .Youll never need another filleting knife agian .

[Cal]

or you could buy a $20 rapala knife. They work good

[Geezle]

Originally Posted by Cal

or you could buy a $20 rapala knife. They work good

That's what I'm thinking. I think just about every member of my family has the rapala knife with the wooden handle that goes for about $20, and they all seem to work fine.

I'm not hard-core enough like BBJ to need the $160 model just quite yet!

[pikester]

Wow geezle, you definately enjoy a challenge if you chose to hone your filleting skills on a goldeye Seriously though if you want to deal with goldeye regularly the best way is to gut them, cut the head off, then split them in half & smoke 'em.

[Geezle]

Originally Posted by pikester

Wow geezle, you definately enjoy a challenge if you chose to hone your filleting skills on a goldeye Seriously though if you want to deal with goldeye regularly the best way is to gut them, cut the head off, then split them in half & smoke 'em.

Like I said, just making use of what's available And if I can get the goldeye figured out, then I should be set for pretty much anything else I come across

That being said, I'm seeing that gutting them and getting rid of the head seems to be the way to go. Don't have a smoker so that's a non-option at this point.


edit: I do enjoy a challenege from time to time

[DarkAisling]

Originally Posted by Geezle

That's what I'm thinking. I think just about every member of my family has the rapala knife with the wooden handle that goes for about $20, and they all seem to work fine.

I'm not hard-core enough like BBJ to need the $160 model just quite yet!

You just wait. It doesn't sound like your too far off from being as hardcore as BBJ. Birds of a feather . . .

Bought son #1 one of those Rapala knives for his birthday. Very nice Much better than the POS I tried to clean perch using.

Originally Posted by Geezle

I do enjoy a challenge from time to time

Try itty bitty perch next. It isn't a good time.

[slingshotz]

Originally Posted by Geezle

Don't have a smoker so that's a non-option at this point.

If you have a bbq and tin foil, then you have a smoker! Hell I've even smoked fish in the oven or wok, it works well if you turn off the smoke detector

[Geezle]

Originally Posted by DarkAisling

You just wait. It doesn't sound like your too far off from being as hardcore as BBJ. Birds of a feather . . .

Bought son #1 one of those Rapala knives for his birthday. Very nice Much better than the POS I tried to clean perch using.



Try itty bitty perch next. It isn't a good time.

BBJ's good people...I could definitely find worse to hang out with

I'm pretty sure next time I hit the Mart of Wal I'll probably pick up one of the wooden handled Rapala knives...I'm sure it should be adequate

And get me some perch and let's have at it!

[Geezle]

Originally Posted by slingshotz

If you have a bbq and tin foil, then you have a smoker! Hell I've even smoked fish in the oven or wok, it works well if you turn off the smoke detector

Ahh...well I've got the BBQ, never even thought of that!

[Cal]

I love my rapala knife, either the wood or rubber handle ones work good. The blades are made of very hard steel that hold an edge very well but keep them sharp, once you let it get dull it can take a lot of sharpening to get that edge back.

[BBJTKLE&FISHINGADVENTURES]

Originally Posted by Cal

I love my rapala knife, either the wood or rubber handle ones work good. The blades are made of very hard steel that hold an edge very well but keep them sharp, once you let it get dull it can take a lot of sharpening to get that edge back.

Don't get me wrong , Ive used one of those Rapala knives for years , Good knives until I used this Alaskan knife . Man what a difference.

[Big fish]

YEA I HAVE A TIP
DONT EAT FISH FROM THE NSR??????

[BBJTKLE&FISHINGADVENTURES]

Originally Posted by Big fish

YEA I HAVE A TIP
DONT EAT FISH FROM THE NSR??????

Why ? There is nothing wrong with them , I just wouldnt make it a common practice .

[WayneChristie]

not that I mind eating fish, but this is why I wont eat from a river anymore. not quite all the way to the SSR but not far upstream either. Geezle you are correct, BBJ is a good dude, needs a lesson in Southern Alberta pike fishing tho waiting to learn him good one of these days!