How to fillet perch with a knife.

[WillCFish]

Here's how to fillet Perch

[Sk8man]

Why not an electric knife?

[ray koziatek]

at that rate it will take ya 2 hrs to fillet 50 fish.....

[WillCFish]

This was just for demonstration. I can go faster. lol  I never did care for an electric, don't know why. 

[Sk8man]

You would if you were filleting limits of perch or in the old days when there weren't any limits

[ifishy]

im with ska8man i learned with an electric back when my grandparents had a cottage on chaumont bay I was under 10 and my dad and i would spend hours cleaning perch by the 100 used to burn out the contacts every year or so now i use a regular knife as I perch fish much less often and now keep the occasional trout or pike.  I will say a sharp knife can be just about as quick as the electric though once you get into rhythm

[BSmaster]

I am not as sure about an electric knife - for me definitely no.  I would say that there might be a better method than what you are using.  I have seen guys do it fluently (efficient with no loss) and seen people who are getting paid perform horribly (rough shot fillets and skin).  The right knife, the right technique, and a lot of rhythm.  I don't go fast but I also don't have good hands and would rather keep the bleeding to a minimum.  It is a good video with good instruction and I am sure people will follow it. 

[Sk8man]

My comments are not intended to detract from your thoughtful video in any way either. Your method is roughly the way I did them for many many years and thousands of fish.  I still may do so with small numbers rather than messing with the electric but when you are dealing with large numbers of perch it takes massive amounts of time to do it that way and settling for maybe losing a small bit of flesh in the fillets seems a better tradeoff than spending several hours cleaning them even in a heated cellar

[ifishy]

these days i'm stuck cleaning fish in the unheated barn sometimes speed is worth missing some flesh once the finger tips go numb all bets are off.  this video can be applied as a basic methot across other spiecies as well.  I sent the link to a friend who is a bit of a newbie that started fishing with me last year.  He said he thought it was  great video for him.

[traveling man]

It is a great video but I'm an electric knife guy too. It would take me to long to clean 50 perch with a regular fillet knife. I did like the reminder to keep the fillets on ice.

[Pequod1]

Nice instructive video for a newbie to learn how to filet. Did it similar to this for many years but if you get stuck, as I do, cleaning every ones catch, I found the electric to be a lot easier on the hands and the rist. Yes, you might lose a little meat, but I fish Erie a lot and it doesn't matter much 

[WillCFish]

Thank You all for your comments. I do tend to lean toward teaching newbies. Us guys that have been doing this a long time develop our favorite ways and stick with them. 

[jimski2]

After observing the women at a commercial fish processor who cut a dozen perch a minute, they scale them mechanically, cut their heads off and with four motions they filet the perch with no bones left in the filet.

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[BSmaster]

After observing the women at a commercial fish processor who cut a dozen perch a minute, they scale them mechanically, cut their heads off and with four motions they filet the perch with no bones left in the filet.

Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United mobile app

With those skills, I bet they are all married too.

[hossenlopp]

I have an electric, but I switched to the Bubba Blade and I love that.  Great for crappies too, really any fish.  

[byrle]

I use electric fillet knife. It's good

[bridget]

Good information.

 

At Black Lake at McLears they have a great fish cleaning house. Its interesting to see what is brought in and how different folks go at the cleaning job. The resident folks who normally bring in the most crappie,almost exclusively use the electric knife and definitely have the technique down to a science. To see the job some of the weekenders do, usually with a dull knife is painful to watch.

 

We fish for perch and bluegill as well, and for eating favor the perch and bluegill. When you have a hundred fish to clean at the end of the day you definitely want to get the job done as fast as possible, but at the same time don't want to butcher them and be throwing out meat along with the scraps. Most of the perch are not the seneca lake jumbo variety so you have to use a good technique.

 

We use a hybrid technique of electric and a very, very sharp fillet knife. For the perch we use the electric for the cut behind and head and the belly cut. The crappie seem to be better suited for the electric, particularly the larger ones. For the smaller ones we use a combo and for bluegill use the same technique as for the perch.Its definitely something you get feel for and get into a groove after a dozen fish.

 

The guys at deer camps both in Speculator and West Almond much appreciated the work. No complaints of bones to date.

[sodus_guy_09]

Electric is definitely the way to go when you have a lot of fish. You can buy curved blades if the knife came with straight ones you'll see a huge difference in how easy it is. Make sure they're sharp and with some practice you won't pick up a regular knife again

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[Adk1]

That is how I fillet most all of my fish.

[Bada Bing]

I just bought a mister twister electric knife with twin blades. For me it works much better than my old Rappala electric single blade knife.

[EsoxAC3]

x2... Love the Mister Twister! Great electric knife. And super durable!

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[Bada Bing]

The Rapala tried it once and put on the shelf.Many years latter saw someone use the Mister Twister, first perch I used it on couldn't believe the difference between the two.

[js003c]

Is the mister twister knife electric or battery powered?

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[Bada Bing]

Mines 110 , it's green and yellow.

Edited April 4, 2015 by Bada Bing

[WillCFish]

I don't do enough skinning to need one of these but those that have them like them. I guess they do up to 25" walleyes.