Cleaning Panfish

[duckman#1]

Ok, I know theres some of you that use electric fillet knives to clean gills, perch etc. I have tried it and yes it was alot faster, but I seem to get "pin bones" in the fillets from it. I always use a 4" Rapala and tho it takes me longer, its a true bone free fillet. I recently saw clips of a video on cleaning fish and I think the techn. was called "unzipping"? It looked great when he cleaned and completely de-boned a pike in about a minute and both fillets where still attached at the bottom. anyone seen this or do this?
I think its the same techn. that the commercial industry uses (example would be white perch in the Meijer fresh fish counter. both fillets are still attached but its boneless). Very fast method.:fish: :fish:

[baydog2]

Butterflying is the term for this type of filleting. It's basically the same thing I do but I seperate the fillets for frying. Really no difference except if you scale its an ok process. If skinning its easier to seperate the 2. On the fish that you remove the Y bones from itseasy just feel the bones sticking up and go down each side with the knifeand peel the row of bones out.

[duckman#1]

I'll need to try the "butterfly" method on gills. I couldn't find a video on the net like there is for Pike.

[MuskyDan]

I just do the old fashioned scalem' and filet em' and it relaxes me!!:)

[flamety13]

i filet them too!

[Splitshot]

Duckman,

I used to have a pictorial on how to clean panfish, but cleaned out my gallery like I usually do at the end of the year.

I use an electric knife for panfish and when I'm done there are no bones. If your talking about pike, you have no choice but to cut out a the section of the filet that contain the y-bones.

With an electric knife, it is possible to filet a two man limit in a half hour and clean up the mess as well.

If your interested send me a pm and I will send you the pictures of how to do it step by step.

[walleyeman2006]

butterflying means you get one solid piece with no bones( perch and walleye) i love it on walleye over 18 inches smaller fish are easier to just fillet and then take the ribs out...but the bigger fish are very easy to butterfly its faster and less messy........ive never tried to buttterfly a pike i just fillet them and cut the y bone strip out............if you butterfly big fish make sure to discard the belly meat,,,i use it for cat and dog food makes a good treat for them

[jakeo]

I personally can clean panfish with the best but there is NO way I will butterfly only because of the belly fat and silver attatched to the bottom is the part to not only make the fish taste more fishy but, the major PCB's are attatched to,(Thats what i call the posions ) I scale my perch, bluegill or crappie with a electric scaler(old bearclaw?) scalers and then take each fillet one at a time.
I know I will hear about cookingthe fillets at a certain temp to kill the PCB but.........

Just my opinion.

[Snocross418]

Because of the cold temps today my fish all froze along with everything else! So I soaked them in water for 10 minutes or so and surprisingly they were allot easier to clean and less of a mess.

[9mmruger1]

I use an electric to filet all of my fish. After skinning them I use a regular filet knife to cut out the lateral line pin bones that are left in the filet. This is real easy and when finished provides a boneless filet.

The lateral line bones extend to the rear of the rib cage so I simply cut above and below the lateral line to the rear of the rib cage and then remove that tiny strip. The filet then looks like the store bought Pollock filets that you buy at the store. :p

[woodie slayer]

I personally can clean panfish with the best but there is NO way I will butterfly only because of the belly fat and silver attatched to the bottom is the part to not only make the fish taste more fishy but, the major PCB's are attatched to,(Thats what i call the posions ) I scale my perch, bluegill or crappie with a electric scaler(old bearclaw?) scalers and then take each fillet one at a time.
I know I will hear about cookingthe fillets at a certain temp to kill the PCB but.........

Just my opinion.

i used to do all my gills and perch the same wayas above but now i filet (4 inch rapala knife)first and skin with electric knife..much faster and no scales to mess with