Every blade-handy angler has their own techniques and tricks for peeling the perfect fillet off a fish. But anyone who has spent enough time around a cutting board knows the perfect way to fillet is a combination of three crucial elements: technique, tools and practice.
Whether it’s a 15-pound red snapper or a 6-ounce bream, the basics of filleting a fish are the same. The idea is to remove the meat along the fish’s flanks, while leaving behind the head, bones and guts.
Step 1: Make a vertical cut just behind the fish’s gill plate and pectoral fin. This cut should go all the way down to the bone and extend from back to belly.
Step 2: Run the blade from the first cut all the way down the top of the fish, along the backbone to the tail, making a shallow incision as close to the backbone as you can get it.
Step 3: Using that long cut along the backbone, utilize smooth, light strokes to work the fillet away from the bones moving from the back to the belly. The other hand can be used to peel back the meat as you go. Cut around the ribcage when you arrive at it.
Step 4: With step 3 completed, you should have a beautiful skin-on fillet. To remove the skin, place the fillet on the board skin side down. Start from the tail and insert the knife through the meat down to the skin, leaving a tab of meat and skin at the tail to hold onto. Turn the knife horizontal and run the blade up the skin to remove the meat.
Step 5: Use tweezers to pick out any pin bones left in the fillet.
The technique seems simple enough, but if you don’t have good, sharp, flexible knives that are sized correctly for the fish on the board, you’re going to make a mess out of your fillets. Havalon has come up with an all-in-one solution for this issue with its Talon system. With five styles of high-quality blades that all fit on the same handle, switching from a 7-inch blade down to a 5-incher or even down to a 3.5-inch utility blade is as easy as pressing a button with their Quik-Change II blade replacement system. The blades can be resharpened as well as replaced to make sure they are razor sharp when you need them.
Also, with a handle that opens up, clean-up is both thorough and easy with the Havalon Talon system. Rinse your tools down and roll them up in the included canvas kit so they’ll be ready the next time you need them.
And next time should be soon, because practice is the final and most important element in the perfect way to fillet. Go fishing enough, and you’ll be peeling off perfect fillets for the table in no time.
Check out the Havalon Talon System at www.havalon.com.