Cleaning a fish?

[slipbob]

John,

Thanks for your generosity & the demo the other night. I certainly appreciate it. Our family had a beautiful fish dinner of walleye & crappie Sun. night. Every piece of fish was consumed. They were excellent. Our 1 yr old grandaughter loves fish. She had her first boatride on Saratoga Lake yesterday, what a joy. I'll be talkin to ya GJ

Your welcome GJ.  It was a fun walleye outing and I'm glad you enjoyed the fish.  I ate some last night and have a couple small pieces left for tonight.  We'll get back after em soon enough I am almost out of fillets and I feel a weeknight walleye trip in the works.

[grumpymoe]

sorry everyone....i will post the pics on northern pike boneless filets after this weekend...heading out sunday morning....for walleye....my spare time is consumed with my quest to get a healthy supply of morel mushrooms...til later....grump

[grumpymoe]

i've got the pics for fileting boneless northerns on photobucket....tried posting them last night but a couple would not show....rechecked all pics this afternoon and it looks like there's a small problem with their site....shows unable to link database....too many users....so i will try posting the pics and instructions tomorrow.....grump

[camo_fish]

I hope these pictures come out okay. 
Take your fish in this case an eye and make a cut from the top along the back of the gill to the bottom.
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Next make a cut along the back and down one side of the fish from head to tail.
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Turn the fish over and repeat on the other side.
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Then just start filleting the sides off of the fish keeping the knife as close to the ribs as you can so you leave nothing on the fish.  This takes years of practice to master but once mastered you waste no fish.
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You just do the same on the other side and you have your 2 fillets skin on.
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Now you just lay the fillet flat and take the skin off.
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Do that with both fillets and then we can zip em.  You make two cuts from the tail section parralel to the bone or mud line about 2 inches long and then just zip the sides off the bone line.
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When you are done you have the top and bottom sections of each fillet so one fillet becomes 2 pieces which are completely boneless and minus the nasty mud line.
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I hope this is okay and most of us know all this but it's for someone who may be new to filleting fish.  With small fish you don't want to zip the bone line out there's no need just cut the first 3 or 4 inches out of the fillet from the thick part down and leave the mudline part in by the tail.  Small fish have small bones so it's not a problem.

Cool, that is very similar to the way the guides in Canada did it. But they didn't zip the bones, they just cut them out, to leave the fillet in a "V" shade.
Cool stuff. 

[slipbob]

Taking the bone line out completely is a good idea I think on any walleye over 15" because they taste better.  That's my opinion but I always get out the  mud line and because the fish in NY have to be 15" to keep it's done on all my eyes.  I do take out the first few inches of the bone line on panfish because they are small enough so the bones aren't a problem.  I recommend the zipping method over cutting out the bone line because there is less waste and it comes out so easy leaving you with 2 segments.  It's true the fillets may look nicer in a v shape but I still zip them all completely and leave appearences aside when it comes to my fish dinners.  It's all about maximum taste and that's why I also keep fish from lakes that are nice and clean to get what I call "sushi grade walleye" which is the best.  There are only 2 lakes in our area where you can get these walleyes that taste every bit as good as any Canadian lake walleye and one of those lakes is Sacandaga and you know the other one cfish it's called @#$%!@@$%^. 

[camo_fish]

It's all about maximum taste and that's why I also keep fish from lakes that are nice and clean to get what I call "sushi grade walleye" which is the best.  There are only 2 lakes in our area where you can get these walleyes that taste every bit as good as any Canadian lake walleye and one of those lakes is Sacandaga and you know the other one cfish it's called @#$%!@@$%^. 

Saratoga throw the ice eyes are tasty too.    and I still havn't got my dues in for @#$%!@@$%  , one day hope too thou.
And I like to cut my fillets into finger eatting size, too.
thanks sbob

[slipbob]

Your're right in the winter the toga eyes are pretty tasty too.  Come summer with the weed growth and warmer water they lose it a bit.  You gotta get your dues paid, you're missing out buddy.  You probably know it's not easy though over there it took me a long, long time to start cashing in because it's a tough place to score if you don't know it well.  But now it's an absolute bonanza for me but I paid my dues and am now reaping the tasty "sushi grade walleye" rewards.  Let me tell you,  they are a notch above everything else because the water is just so clean.

[fishkeeper]

Slipbob, thanks for the pictures on cleaning walleyes by the "zipper" method . Last spring one of my buddies showed me that method .Later that summer ,up at Lac Seul(about 40 miles north of here) that method sure came in handy cleaning and eating all the 'eyes we kept.( I never threw back so many over-slot size fish back in my life )
I do the "zipper" a bit different....but not by much.
Just wanted to tell you thanks for sharing .

[slipbob]

Slipbob, thanks for the pictures on cleaning walleyes by the "zipper" method . Last spring one of my buddies showed me that method .Later that summer ,up at Lac Seul(about 40 miles north of here) that method sure came in handy cleaning and eating all the 'eyes we kept.( I never threw back so many over-slot size fish back in my life )
I do the "zipper" a bit different....but not by much.
Just wanted to tell you thanks for sharing .

You're very welcome.  I'm happy to have helped someone and glad it worked for you.