WARNING: This article contains graphic images of fish filleting that some readers may find disturbing.

No electricity and no running water, except for a pump in the kitchen sink and the “facilities” were about 30 yards behind the cabin. The lake was full of leeches; bears kept us in the cabin at night. However, it was some of the best walleye fishing I have ever experienced. In fact, I remember one particular afternoon during which a “triple” was more of the rule than the exception.

But more importantly, I saw my first walleye filleted by a family friend who was also on the trip. Ray was a great outdoorsman with a belly laugh that would make anyone join in. And after the stringer of walleye was brought in, he was as fast as lightning with a fillet knife. In fact, he was faster than anyone I have ever seen, before or since. I later nicknamed him “30-Second Ray” – and the finished fillet was as if prepared by a surgeon.

I thought: “this is easy” and asked if I could give it a try. I failed miserably on my first attempt (a 1½-pound walleye was reduced to a patch of flesh about 6 inches long; Ray exploded with laughter), but I swore I would learn to emulate his expertise. After watching a good many fishermen and “dock boys” who were experts at the task – and a lot of practice – I managed to hone my own skills. And, after 30 years of filleting walleyes using the same method I learned from my mentor, I actually got pretty good – albeit never as fast.

One summer, a resort owner in northern Minnesota showed me a different way. I was amazed at how easy it was. The finished product yielded as much if not more fillet, and the method seemed even easier. Ray is now long gone, but wherever he is; I know he would be proud of me.

Walleyes are some of the most sought-after fish in any lake. If you have not yet seen or don’t know this method, I hope that the text and graphics that follow will help you to learn it.

Filleting Walleye Instructions

Start as you might normally start, with the fish belly towards you and fish head on your left. (This method would be used by a right-handed person; simply rotate the position of the head 180 degrees to the right if you are left-handed.) Make the first cut down and into the fish just behind the pectoral fin, stopping at the backbone. Need a recommendation for a good fillet knife? Read my article about knives.

Then, turn the knife and, keeping pressure on the back of the blade, cut along the backbone and through the rib cage all the way through to the tail and out. The whole side of the fish comes off and the rest of the rib cage remains attached to the fillet.

Turn the fish over so that the back or dorsal side is now facing you. Repeat the process. You now have two fillets with rib bones intact and waiting to be removed.

From here, I originally learned to remove the rib cage by placing the fillet skin-side down and cutting down behind the ribs and then out to the belly, following the curve of the rib cage with my knife.

I did OK and eventually got very good at removing the rib cage…. But trying to follow the curve of the ribs down and toward the skin was difficult and somewhat inefficient. The angle was steep, and it was easy to waste good meat.

This “new” method has me place the rib cage-side of the fillet down. It is more effective and actually easier. More importantly, placing the rib cage side down, you can help to flatten the rib cage, making it easier to follow the curve of the ribs.

No matter which of the two fillets you are going to debone, place the knife at the anterior (front) end of the fillet and just above the rib cage. Use one hand to apply downward pressure to the fish – and the rib cage – to flatten out the rib bones.

Cut towards the belly of the fish and gradually work toward the posterior or tail of the fish, allowing the knife to simply follow along and just above the now-flattened rib cage. Flattening the ribs makes the cut easier and straighter and results in less waste of good fillet.

The result will be two very nice fillets that are truly boneless and ready for your favorite recipe; all that is left for you to do is to remove the skin (see my article about Removing the Skin from Fish Fillets).
As always, it will take a little practice to get good at this. I know you will like the results, and no bones will be left in the fillets. All you need to do is to skin the fillets and enjoy some fresh walleye! If you’d like to see a video of this fish filleting method, watch R. Karl’s YouTube video!

And… if you don’t already save the “cheeks” from your walleyes, I encourage you to do so. These morsels are easily removed and considered to be the “fillet mignon” of the walleye. The cheek socket is shallow and bowl-shaped and lies just behind the eye of the fish. Just cut down, around and back up, following the contour of the cheek socket. Then slip the knife between the skin and the meat and separate the two.

The cheeks can be used to make several fish dishes as well as one of my favorite hors d’oeuvres: Walleye Cheek Dip. This and several other delicious walleye recipes can be found in the Recipes section of this website.

The post Filleting Walleye and Sauger – Step by Step appeared first on On the Lake.

Removing the skin from a walleye (shown here), bass, northern pike, bluegill or any fish for that matter – is easy, especially when compared to, say, cleaning a bass or removing the y-bones from pike.

If you have some sort of gripper – skinning pliers work well – that makes holding the fish skin easier, by all means use it. Otherwise, grab hold of the very tail of the fillet using your left hand (I’ll assume that you are right-handed) with the rest of the fillet pointed away from you.

With your fillet knife, cut down at an angle just until you reach the skin (obviously being careful not to cut through the skin… which is very easy to do) and begin to slide the knife between the flesh and the skin.

Keeping pressure on the back side of the blade, move the knife toward the other end of the fillet, ensuring that the blade stays at a very shallow angle between the meat and the skin.

At this point and with your left hand, you can actually begin to pull the tail away and in a direction opposite to the way the knife is moving.

While pulling, if you move the tail in sort of a horizontal S-curve/back and forth motion, it makes the task easier. The skin will peel off like it is hardly attached… and voila, you have a boneless, and now skinless fillet!  Just make sure to keep the knife blade at as shallow an angle as possible.

I hope that helps. It, too, may take a bit of practice, but far less than removing the y-bones from a pike!. Once the skin is off, there are a multitude of possibilities in terms of the way to prepare your now boneless and skinless fillet: fried is very good and how most folks seem to enjoy it. You can even try your fillet sautéed, stir-fried, baked, horseradish encrusted or – well, you get the idea.  Check my recipe section for some great ideas!

But some time when you get some really fresh northern pike – a 3- or 4-pounder works really well – try the Mesquite-Grilled Margarita Pike recipe. I’ve never had a bad review!

And contrary to popular opinion – myth actually – that many mistakenly believe, the bigger the pike, the whiter the meat, and the better the flavor. Walleye, by the way, is exactly the opposite. Those really big ‘eyes (over 17-19 inches) are tough, and do not have the almost sweet flavor of the smaller fish.

The post Removing the Skin from Walleye & Other Fish appeared first on On the Lake.