How many of you actually fillet these things...

[sleemie]

I tried to fillet a bass and I don't see how there's enough meat on them to get it done.  The one I had was 2.5 lbs and like 16-17" long, and that seemed like a decent size, so I would think most of them caught aren't going to be much bigger.  I was told to first cut the meat off the bone on one side and then cut the skin off the meat, but the amount of meat was so thin (like 1/8" inch) that you when you try to cut the skin off you couldn't keep the meat together.  I was thinking it would have made much more sense to scale it and then just bake it whole.  

[Matt Fly]

Most of us are Catch and release on BASS.

[Guest DavidGreen]

On a bass the best size for dinner fair, would be in the 3-4 lb. range and even then you have to make sure that you get all of the lateral line removed or you get a muddy taste, this will mean that you are getting fillet strips not slabs.......

But like Matt_Fly stated most of us, if not all here are CPR (Catch Photograph & Release) on BASS.

Tight Lines!

[alhuff]

you do lose alot of meat when you fillet most fish, bass being one of them.

the next time just clean it and not fillet it, this will save alot of meat, just make sure you mind the bones..............

Hope this helps,

Alfred

[Guest avid]

Catch and release is absolutely the way to go.  That being said, I enjoy a fresh fish dinner, but bass is not my preferred species for eating. Now snook is a good eating fish.   To answer your question though, one of those fish fillet boards that has a clip on the end to hold the fish still is a good thing to have for filleting.  A MUST, is a very sharp thin bladed fillet knife.  Did I say it had to be verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry sharp?  :

When it comes to LMB. Catch and release.  

[Raul]

Like ReelMech said, the best sized bass for filleting is between 3-4 pounds, smaller than that it 's good for the pan whole. Not my favorite fish to eat, trout is much better.

[L.D.]

Let the bass go, eat the walleye, more and better tasteing meat

L.D.

[abelfisher]

Ditto, CPR!

[Guest avid]

Ya know pan fish are great eating.  If you live in lake thats loaded with yellow perch. You can have one of the best tasting fish dinners ever.  They are fairly small so don't try to be precise with the filleting.  Just catch a whole mess on 'em (not hard once you find them) and fillete with the skin on.  great tasting fish.  I used to do this in Lake Ronkonkama on Long Island. It was allot of fun.  I used a little hair or curly tail jigs and would bounce them off the rip rap.  The schools of perch would tear em up.  

[flechero]

I'll probably get flamed for this... and I don't even eat fish!  ...lol

I have talked to Tx parks & wildlife staff as well as biologists about catch and release and always get the same response.  Lake limits are established for a reason, some fish need to be kept.  Keeping smaller fish will help almost every fishery... the exception being fish kills, new fisheries, etc.  The biologists I have spoken with agree that to grow big bass you need to control the little bass populations.  Little ones eat a much higher percentage rate per pound, than large bass.  It's how they manage the lakes.  When populations are high so are the limits, when they are low, the limits get lowered or sometimes temporarily halted.  Just like deer tags or turkey tags, etc., etc..

I'm 100% against keeping a trophy fish- photo,weigh, measure and release- the replica mount will look better and last longer.  Slot lakes are ideal and fish under the slot are what should be kept, if you keep any.

Now, having said all that, how many bass have I kept in the last couple years...  NONE.  But when asked to bring some home for friends in the past, I have kept small ones and would again, with no regrets.

To the original poster- if you ended up with thin small fillets on a 16-17 inch fish, you either caught a really skinny fish or missed a lot of meat.  

We should be more worried about people keeping and killing illegal fish and people polluting our waters than a few legal fish kept for a dinner.  

Final thought:

Stay within the laws and respect the resources that the Good Lord provided... and if you keep a few for dinner, don't forget the blessing, those fish were not there by accident!!

-keith

[Ben]

Not sure what you're doing wrong but a 2 1/2 lb bass will give you a healthy slab of meat. I keep all my 12" to 13" bass and only the larger ones that are too injured to survive.

Before getting to hipped on catch and release, check with the local game/fish biologiest and see what they recommned for the lake. I my case they beg you to keep the smaller fish because the lake is over populated with them and release the larger bass. I asked them if that's the case, why are they so quick to give tickets for fish under the 12" min. It's a kick in the butt to have to throw a injured 11 3/4" fish back that's belly up before you get 30 ft from it.

On the small bass, I cut a fillet off one side only. This is so they fry without having to overcook the outside to get the center done.

On larger bass, first you have to keep the knife very sharp. I cut down the top half of the backbone with the knife right against the bones but not along the spine. The spine of a bass is so thick, you will leave a lot of meat on the back bone if you just try to go down the whole thing in one pass. After making that firs cut, I trim the meat off the ribs, I don't try to cut the ribs off the fish, they are so big, they will dull a sharp knife in a heartbeat. Then I raise the meat up and cut it loose from the lower part of the backbone.

First couple are a pain in the butt to do this way but after you've done a few, it's very quick and easy, so long as you keep the knife sharp. This way leaves very little meat on the bones and renders a big thick slab of meat. I aslo don't cut it loose at the tail end so I can just flip the meat over the tail and trim the skin off, letting where I left it attached hold the skin.

[paparock]

CPR is a personal choice for me, when it comes to bass. That is why I am such a nut about circle hooks. I do eat fish and sometimes I keep some I catch for the dinner table but as others have said I prefer other species for eating and then only a few.

As to how to fillet, well it takes a bit of practice to get it down and the smaller the fish the harder it is at least to me.

[Tatakai]

I love to have a plate of good fried fish.  But the lakes here are so polluted that we are told not to eat to much of them in a months time and some species not at all should they be eaten.  Wish that the waters were back to the way they were when I was a kid and could eat my fill.  Oh well times have changed.

Tatakai

[Matt Fly]

I know I'm talking about one of the top 5 fisheries in the US. Lake Fork,  I have to agree with flechero.   After the fish kill on Fork, Tx parks and wildlife, I felt was over stocking Lake Fork .  Go online and compare the stockings to other lakes that are similar.   It is nothing to catch 40 small bass now days,  10-16inch.  Before the fish kill, 40 fish maybe averaging 5lbs.   It has taken almost 5 years,  but Fork is back, not quite to the days of catching the double digit every 5 trips, but I'm catching one at least 8lbs every 5 trips.

I think harvesting the small ones is good for the lake.  But I'm not keeping any !!!!

[flechero]

Matt_fly

Have you heard about any of the "little fish" tourneys?  It's kind of neat, and for this exact reason.  They are becoming more popular in Tx...

Normal tourney rules (except big bass is changed to little bass) and some are 1/4 the money, others no money, just charity... only legal fish under the slot (if no slot, usually under 17")can be weighed.  I fished one last year that had a big bass pot and smallest bass pot... I won the small pot w/ .97lb  ;D  (in fairness though, I only missed big bass by .3lb)

They have volunteers to clean/fillet the fish and all meat goes to either needy families or a food kitchen for homeless people.  

This was born out of the neccessity of fisheries managers to control populations.  

Catch and release is a great thing... but in some cases it has actually been too successful.  We as the foot soldiers of the fisheris managers need to be aware of local trends and regulations... and help out when needed.  This will help improve our fisheries.

-keith  

[sleemie]

Not sure how all of what's been said differs from a lake to a river.  Where I was fishing I first thought it was a lake because of the size and appearance of it, but it's actually part of a river, just this portion of it looks like a lake...is that a tributary???  

Anyways, I follow the laws of my state (Virginia), which for Bass is you have to release them if they're between 12-15."  You can keep them above and below that size.  

On the pan fish...I assume you don't even bother with filleting something that small...do you just scale it, gut it and cook it?  

On filleting the Bass..wouldn't it make more sense to pull the skin off first because the meat is then still anchored to the fish?  By me cutting it off first and then trying to pull the skin made it very difficult to get the skin off because the meat was so flimsy.  

[flechero]

On bass (and most other fish) it is much easier to leave the skin and meat attached by the tail, that way you have the fish to hold onto when you fip the fillet over and slide the knife betwee the skin and meat.

I finally found a link to the way I'm referring to. I think it's easier to go through the ribs, not around them. I always seem to cut a finger when going around. This method doesn't work well with big fish, the ribs are tougher. A sharp knife is key!

http://www.iowadnr.com/fish/fillet.html

Sorry I can't help with panfish, never cleaned any.

[magic]

A 2 1/2 pound bass should give you a real nice slab of meat.  Sounds like your fillet technique needs work.  A fillet on a fish that size should be nice and thick, not 1/8 inches.  You need to find a good diagram for a better fillet technique.

Briefly- with fish on side, cut straight down right behind gilcover until you hit back bone.  Turn knife 90 degrees and cut along backbone and thru ribs.  when reach tail leave skin attacheds.  flip slab over and with the knife sideways (almost flat to surface of table-starting at tail, slide knife through flesh but not through skin and slide knife forward.  then trim off ribs etc.  It's hard to describe but works great with practice.

I don't keep many bass but smaller ones 12-13 will taste much better ( and are easier for the fishery to replace) than a larger fish.  Perch and crappie are the best!

[bassindude]

:-[Please don't tell me that after a tournament the fish that die in the live well ( and there are always a few ) are thrown back in the lake to rot.  These bass gave there life so we could enjoy our passion that we call bass fishing.  The very least we could is take the dead ones home and share them with our families. I grew up eating bass when it was not so taboo to eat them, and I think they are one of the tastiest, flakiest fish in the lake.  There has to be publications out there that illustrate the proper way to fillet a fish, but I will work on some drawings that I can post.  All this being said I think that many of you have hit the nail on the head, common sense should be used on your particular fishery.  I release the vast majority of the bass I catch but If one is going to die I keep it, and I never let the club toss dead fish back. This is the kind of thing that can give our sport a black eye.  As for as the amount of meat in a fish I get about 3/4 to 1 in. fillets from a 3 lb. fish, obviously depending on the health of the fish.   As for the best ones to eat I think that the smaller 12 - 14 inch fish are the tastiest, and are no more difficult to fillet than pan fish.

[bassindude]

The way Majic described is the way I do it with one exception.  Before you flip the fillet over and skin it flip the entire fish over and make the cuts to that side first.  The reason for this is support.  The fish will be much more level and easier to cut the fillet more smoothly.  After uoy cut the second side skin them out.

[sleemie]

That diagram helped a lot.  It looks like cutting through the ribs might be an easier way to go...other than the wear and tear on the knife.  I found that trying to cut around the ribs was very difficult, and I think where I really messed up was on the upper part of the fish towards like the backbone.  I did most of my cutting like right next to the ribs, and it looked like there was a good amount of meat left on the upper area.  

[bassindude]

The method in the link that Flechero posted is similar to the fast filleting method I use on pan fish. I was shown by an old seasoned guide that still fillets the  panfish for his clients.  first and formost use an electric fillet knife.  Cut the entire head off. It's easier if you put the fish on edge.  Then start at the tail and cut clean through the ribs until the fillet is free from the fish.  then lay the meat side up and start at the tail and shave the meat off of the skin.  This works really good when you have a lot of fish.  The key is to do each step to several fish before moving to the next step.  

[bassinjack]

i guess i fillet my bass vary different then everyone else i take my fillet knife and run it just under the scales from back behind the head to the tail right beside the top fin then do it agine on the bottom then run my fillet knife from one cut to the other then i take a pair of pliers and pull the skin off right to the tail. take my knife and start at the tail and run it right along the bone till i get to the rib cage then i just slowly trim the meat off the rib cage flip the fish over and do the same thing. i was the meat off to get the excess blood off and soak the filets in salt water for 12 hours are so. yes walleye are crappie are much better eating but bass done right can be vary vary good to not as sweet of meat but good deep fried up

 Jack

[Keepin_It_Reel]

I have never ate a bass and never will. CATCH AND RELEASE ONLY.

[basser89]

I practice catch and release, just wish I could get my Dad to! So I have had bass in the past. It's ok, but I would mush rather have crappie, walleye or musky! Actually the rating would be walleye first, musky a VERY close second, followed by crappie.