Fillets

[Bankc]

Generally, if I'm going to fry the fish in oil or grill it on a plank, then I fillet it.  Otherwise, I leave the skin on.  It usually tastes better with the skin if you're not going to plank grill it or fry it.  

 

If I'm cooking dinner with fresh fish, I'll just use a regular fillet knife.  They're much more accurate and fun to use.  If I had a particularly good day on the water and have a whole mess to clean for either a big fish fry or to store in the freezer, then I'll use an electric knife.  They waste a lot of meat, but they're the only way to go if you're trying to clean 20+ fish at once.  

[QED]

13 minutes ago, Bankc said:

Generally, if I'm going to fry the fish in oil or grill it on a plank, then I fillet it.  Otherwise, I leave the skin on. [stuff deleted]

Skin on - definitely.  When I was in Paris, the French restaurants had special tools to separate the skin from the fillet. I love French food but they definitely got this one wrong.

[Skunkmaster-k]

4 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

I never use an electric knife unless I’m very very sleepy and there’s a bunch still left to clean 

That’s a neat table. Where’d you get it ?

[TnRiver46]

1 hour ago, Skunkmaster-k said:

That’s a neat table. Where’d you get it ?

That’s my buddy’s , I can ask 

 

I wish there was a bigger flatter spot on it 

[T-Billy]

I bought an electric Bubba Blade this year. That thing is...

 

[Skunkmaster-k]

3 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

That’s my buddy’s , I can ask 

 

I wish there was a bigger flatter spot on it 

I was thinking about building one, but depending on the price that might be a better option. 

[TOXIC]

20 hours ago, Catt said:

Mr Twister electric fillet knife & fillet everything! 

 

I worked as a deckhand in a charter fishing boat the heck with manual knifes.

 

I got one for y'all ?

 

Back in the 70s on Toledo Bend & other area lake many marinas had scaling machines the looked like a big upright washing machines that had wire mesh inside. You put the fish in, a couple quarters & your fish came out scaled & slime free. This was extremely fast when you had dozens of Bream or crappie. 

 

Y'all ever heard of that?

Never have seen a descaler but when I fished lake Powell, at the ramp they had fish cleaning stations that were big stainless steel bowls that were at least 20 feet across and had a ledge that went around the inside top of the bowl and water sprayers that hung from the top.  In the center of the bowel was a huge grinder that you washed all of your fish parts into.  It ground them up and stored them in a big tank where I was told, they were pumped out and used for fertilizer.  Pretty nifty since the DNR wanted you to keep every striper you caught and we had over 200.  

[DitchPanda]

I've done bluegill scaled,gutted fried whole...also done small channel cats skinned fried whole. Now days I'm a fillet guy 100% of the time. I almost never keep fish in the freezer because I never seem to eat them...so I keep enough for a meal or two and that's it. Im not an electric guy choosing a manual knife all day every day. Normally I use a 6in rapala marttini knife that's probably 20 years old.

[Alex from GA]

I filet as the original poster does and I also have a 12v knife in my boat to filet fish @ the dock.