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Bluegill filleting technique part 1

A method I've used for several years.

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Comment by GillnBrian on May 8, 2009 at 12:49pm: great vid! I use an electric knife and I know exactly what you are talking about with the gut sack mess. I wonder if this can be avoided though even using an electric by mimicing the cuts you make and going around the rib cage rather than through it.

I have tried some traditional fillet knives and have yet to find one that works as well and keeps an edge like the knife you are using. ...I will have to look more =)

Thanks for the video!

Comment by Cobey on March 6, 2009 at 5:57pm: I tried this way out today and it was great! thanks again!

Comment by Cobey on February 27, 2009 at 5:13pm: Great job and great advice. I have always scaled, gutted, and cut the head off. I look forward to trying this and enjoying my panfish bone free. Great video!! Thanks for sharing!

Comment by Nathan on February 4, 2009 at 7:24pm: nice, notice the lack of waste, i know of a few ways and thay intail lots of waste or having bones

Comment by RHW on February 4, 2009 at 6:16am: Great video. Pretty much the way I have done it for years. Only exception is that I cut what you call the flap completely off and discard it. Health advisories have warned that any pollutants in fish will collect in the belly flap. Don't really believe I am loosing much meat as this area is super thin anyway and fries up to nothing.

Comment by Loren W. Moseley on January 28, 2009 at 9:36pm: Good work! I am a retired fisheries biologist (obsolete in some ways these days - MSc in Zoology, Ohio State University, Dec., 1956). I retired from private service January 28, 1994. I have been cleaning fish for over 60 years and use the same general technique on blue gills. However, you have refined some of the process which I will be using from now on. Your video is great and well done! I have tried the electric knife and still prefer a Rapala trout knife or the carbon steel knives with flexible blades that I acquired in the late 1960's in Port Clinton, OH. The electric knife works well on larger fish such as pike and lake trout, especially with an extra long blade. I do not like the electric knives with a single blade. The reciprocating doubles are the only way to go. I have fished in NW Manitoba several times with a group and the shore lunch fish were rapidly reduced to fillets with a cordless knife. Often the group amounted to up to 20 people. We did our own work and never used guides. I stopped going because of a couple of health issues, but, I still think about those days.

Comment by clint pierce on January 28, 2009 at 6:49am: Awsome Bill, I would scale and try to fillet them. Nothing but loss of meat and a big mess. Thank You Iam going out side right now and try your Tech.

Comment by John Sheehan on January 25, 2009 at 5:11pm: Great job! Thanks for this .I'm getting a rubber glove. You do it quickly! 7 cuts each side.