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some how i dont think it will be this easyhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPR7atw72l8
Practice on some Pickerel first... pretty much the same method and much easier to grab a couple quick ones anywhere. I fillet everything because if I get even one bone in a bite of fish I won't eat the rest, total appetite killer for me.
Looks like a lot of wasted meat to me. This is how I do my bows. I gut and behead them. I dust them in my special seasoning mix. Stuff them with Deavallia (sp?) onions if in season. Olive oil in the fry pan and cook over low heat for a few minutes tilll a fork will go through the backstrap, flip them and do the other side. After they are done I crank the heat to med-hi and brown the skin to make them crisy. The key to getting the bones off easy is to have moisture inside (reason for the onions) and to not over cook it. Larger fish I will bake them but I usually keep pan size ones for the fry pan.
anything under 18" goes back.. i filet both trout and salmon.... I use a painr of long nose ( thin tip) needle nose pliars to remove the pin bones along the lateral line... it takes some practice to get your method down and the bigger the fish the easier the job... once you've done a few it's not all that bad.. it's the only way my wife will eat them...
I don't even take the heads off. I gut them and stuff with some butter and a lot of pepper and throw on the grill.
how are those lateral line bones to find?
agreed. I heard years ago that if you break the spinal cord spinal fluid will leak into the meat. Being a skeptic i did a study myself. Much to my surprise the trout i left whole tasted much less fishy. Also seemed to taste alittle sweeter. Also if cooked correctly you should be able to run a fork in the same direction as the bones and the meat should come right off. Once you have done one whole side grab the fish by the mouth and pull slowly and all the meat from the second half should stay right where it is and the head spine and tail should come right off. It is hard to fillet anything under 18-20in. Just my two cents good luck on the open water.
Very easy to find the lateral, or "pin," bones... run a fingertip down the fillet and you'll feel the tips of the bones apprx along the same location as the lateral line of the fish... they go down about to the end of the ribcage.Roccus' method of picking out each individual pin bone does in fact reduce the amount of meat lost over if you cut the line out like on the video, but as he said, its harder and more time consuming on smaller fish. I always just cut the small strip of meat out.
Usually, I gut and behead them and bake em. Once they're done, I grab the backbone where the head came off (once they've cooled some) and using a fork press the fillet on the bottom side away from the backbone while lifting it up. Once that is done I flip over the fish and do the same to the other side. When I'm done I'm holding the entire skeletal piece in one hand and the two filets are lying on the plate ready to be served. Occasionally, a rib bone or two will break off in the filet but not a big deal.
that must save more of the fillet i would imagine
Looks like a lot of wasted meat to me......
i personally gut and behead trout of any size but salmon i filet, i find salmon to be easy to filet but trout you lose so much meat by trying to filet it's just not worth it to me.
Good luck on the opener if you find open water. My boat is still sitting in the garage. Spring feels like it's months away haha. I might try and find moving water and go on foot or maybe canoe
