Filleting Crappies

[Bluefinforme]

just cut up some craps.....any advice....I feel like I missed a bunch of meat near the "hump" ....felt like a lot of bones in that part....any suggestions.....Cliif?

[goneicefishin]

maybe a little course one night for fncl   i know like you can attest to ben the meat right behind the head in front of the dorsel fin with groundfish is the best for chowdah and probably the best fish on them

[fishuhalik]

I make a cut right behind the gill plate down to the backbone, go to the rib cage, cut up along the ribcage to the skin, then follow the ribcage down to the bottom of the fish.  Wastes no meat at all!

[Bluefinforme]

sounds like I did it OK.....I've just never filleted anything so small!




ps.BillB........you missed it

[Frozen_nutts]

just cut up some craps.....any advice....I feel like I missed a bunch of meat near the "hump" ....felt like a lot of bones in that part....any suggestions.....Cliif?

I can't explain it here..I'd have to show ya!

[fishuhalik]

Next time I get some I'll try to give ya a pic-by-pic show on how to do it.  It's really simple and very quick.  I can filet 25 craps in about an hour, and I'm sure some of the guys here that have been doing it longer are even quicker

[Mike G]

Any of you guys use an electric fillet knife?  I use one for bigger fish and it's amazing.  But I've never used it on pan fish before.  Wondering if you get the same results?

[fishuhalik]

Never tried one myself, I seem to do fine w/o spending $60 on a knife!  I already spend too much on fishing equipment.   

[Fish Monger]

put them under the track of your snowmobile...........
just kidding, they are pretty good eating
If I am not going to eat them right away I remove the innards and freeze them whole. Beleive it or not they fillet out much easier once you thaw them back out.

[Mike G]

Never tried one myself, I seem to do fine w/o spending $60 on a knife!  I already spend too much on fishing equipment.   

$19.99 at Cabelas - this knife works great too, just haven't tried it on pan fish yet.
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp?id=0003352514303a&type=product&cmCat=search&returnString=hasJS=true&_D%3AhasJS=+&QueryText=electric+knives&_DARGS=%2Fcabelas%2Fen%2Fcommon%2Fsearch%2Fsearch-box.jsp.22&N=4887&Ntk=Products&Ntx=mode+matchall&Nty=1&Ntt=electric+knives&noImage=0&returnPage=search-results1.jsp

[billditrite]

Any of you guys use an electric fillet knife?  I use one for bigger fish and it's amazing.  But I've never used it on pan fish before.  Wondering if you get the same results?

just used mine for the first time and after a couple fish it was the cats ....meow !!

[Mike G]

just used mine for the first time and after a couple fish it was the cats ....meow !!

Did you use it on pan fish?  I'm going to target crappie next week so I was curious.  I was in NY for browns on Ontario last year and the guide cleaned our trout with one.  These were 7-16 pounders and he zipped through them in about 5 minutes - awesome.  So I  bought one

[billditrite]

yes i used it on crappie!! i got an anglers best. was a gift from my sister she bought it at saco bay tackle co. not sure of the price. it is a rechargeable cordless with a 25 minute run time!

[shellback]

went to wal-mart yesterday morning and picked up a rapala deluxe for $40.filleted out 10 fish in about 10 mins.I love it.the fish were left in the sled overnight so they were somewhat frozen which seemed to work even better.the reason I got the rapala is you can run it off a 12v adapter and it has 18 ft of cord so I'll be able to run it right off the sled and fillet them right on the ice for the occasional fish fry on ice.I'm just wondering how long the blades will stay sharp.

[oldken]

just used mine for the first time and after a couple fish it was the cats ....meow !!

  i use an electric knife all the time on panfish works great if you have garage sales in your area
you can pick them up for a couple of bucks i just cut down to the back bone from just behind the gills then follow it to the tail dont cut off the fish  then go under the skin and remove meat just a quick cut removes the rib bones after a few it's easy