Cleaning panfish

[winchester 88]

It has been awhile since I have been on here and was looking for pros and cons of ways to clean pan fish ,especially my favorite crappies.
I'll be turning 80 this coming week and have been an avid pursuer of crappes since the early 70's so I have cleaned quite a few of them.
My dad got me a Rapala knife and cleaning board early on and soon I became proficient with it.
My kids were wondering what to buy an old man for Christmas who pretty much had accumulated all of the "toys" associated with what I like to do,so having heard me speak of an electric fillet knife they got me one.
Beside cleaning several small catches of fish I have carved hams and turkeys with it but  for fish I usually go back to the Rapala knife.
Yesterday I brought home 20 crappies from Shenango Lake in NW Pennsylvania and decided to filet 10 with the electric and 10 with the Rapala keeping track of the time to do each.
The end result was that it took me 3 and 1/2 minutes longer with the Rapala but I didn't waste the meat from the rib cage and belly like I did with the electric knife and I didn't have to do the extra step of removing the rib cage from the skinned filet.
I would probably use the electric knife for bigger fish like walleyes or bass but prefer the Rapala for my favorite crappies.
It is said that you can't teach an old dog new tricks which I have been told many times in my life and for some of them I take it as an honor but.....

Hope that all of you reading this are blessed and having fun....time flys.....Dickie....AKA Winchester 88

[Mac Attack]

I've cleaned thousands of fish over the years, as many of us have.
Both with an electric knife and a standard filet knife.
If I have to do a small amount of fish, say 5-6 or less, I will use the filet knife.
If I have to do more the electric gets the nod.
And I accept the fact that the electric wastes meat.
When we do perch there are always more than a dozen and the meat that goes to the dumpster is a lot.
But they are perch.
From Lake Erie.
I'll go get more.
 

But yup, an electric knife does waste more meat than a filet knife.


One last thing.
The best way I have found to clean my fish is to get someone else to do it.
Hands down!!

 

[winchester 88]

Attack...

I appreciated your comments on my post.

My friends that perch fish Erie have em cleaned which I probably would do also.
Being a senior member who fishes Erie do you remember when Blue Pike were to Erie what Perch are now?

My friend and I were crappie fishing for crappie one day and an old black guy was fishing near by.
We watched him catch one after another and put them in a wire basket hung on the side of his boat .
When he finally quit and was headed for home ,the basket was so heavy that he couldn't get it in the boat so we pulled along side to help him .
My friend commented that if he was going to have a fish fry he had better get home and get em cleaned,to which he replied"Oh no I catch em,SHE cleans em."

Have fun.....W88

[perchgypsy]

I use a electric knife mostly,but when it comes to panfish like crappie's and sunfish nothing beats a sharp filet knife
I slice at head then stand the fish up (belly on table)running my blade down the spine without getting into the rib bones and guts as I cut through tail meat I rip the skin down off ribs and then meat off skin,seems to be quickest way for me and no guts or much to clean afterwards,good luck with the crappie's winchester 88