IceShanty.com's Ice Fishing Community
Montana => Ice Fishing Montana => Topic started by: Baitslinger on Jan 15, 2019, 09:50 PM
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What's everyone's preferred method for dealing with the small pin bones in Kokanee?
These are 12-15 inch fish that I would prefer to fillet, then use in the smoker or throw on the grill. Don't like those bones though, and don't want to pick them out individually like in a larger salmon.
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Picking them is the way to go. Canning them will soften the bones quite a bit and you can eat them. If you are really particular about it then cut them out by following them very carefully with a filet knife.
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Agree with above. You should be able to pick the pin bones out of a 12 to 15 inch Koke with a pair of tweezers in under a minute. If not, can it.
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If you're going to smoke lake trout fillets or large kokanee fillets, leave the pin bones in the fillets until after you smoke them. The pin bones will stick up out of the dried meat, it'll be easy to grab them with tweezers, and it'll be easy to slide them out of the smoked fillets.
With small kokanee fillets, I don't bother removing the pin bones. However, after I smoke the little fillets, I run the back of a spoon over the tips of the pin bones to smash them down, so the sharp tips won't poke a hole in my vacuum packing bags.