quote "Fillet Knife Challange"

[HideHunter]

I run just a bit faster than they do with the elecric (about 40 seconds) but I can clean a bluegill or crappie in just under a minute with a conventional - and do a better job. I use a 'standard' fillet knife almost exclusively any more.

So Rick - you clean a ton of 'gills. How about you?

[Clay]

I run just a bit faster than they do with the elecric (about 40 seconds) but I can clean a bluegill or crappie in just under a minute with a conventional - and do a better job. I use a 'standard' fillet knife almost exclusively any more.

So Rick - you clean a ton of 'gills. How about you?

Like I said, I don't consider myself an expert and I only clean gills a couple of times a year. If you look at the professionals, the fish industry like a previous poster mentioned, they don't use electrics. If it was really better or more productive, I think that they would even if it cost a little more. I do think that the average guy, can be quicker with an electric, if you develop a fair amount of skill, a fixed blade would be hard to beat not only in the finished product, more meat, but also in time.

Rick

[Rick Z]

I use a regular knide and do a fish about every 40 secodns or so.

Rick

[jiggin]

I like a standard because you save more meat and i cut over the ribcage and that eleminates going back and cutting the ribs out.

[HideHunter]

Like I said, I don't consider myself an expert and I only clean gills a couple of times a year. If you look at the professionals, the fish industry like a previous poster mentioned, they don't use electrics. If it was really better or more productive, I think that they would even if it cost a little more. I do think that the average guy, can be quicker with an electric, if you develop a fair amount of skill, a fixed blade would be hard to beat not only in the finished product, more meat, but also in time.

Rick

Sorry Rick - I was actually asking the other "Rick". I figured he could rip them out.

40 seconds, start to finish, with a fixed blade knife is "flying".

[Bluegiller]

A good sharp Rapala hunting knife can't be beat for cleaning fish. Ditto, the Rapala filleting knife (sized to match size of fish) can't be beat for filleting fish. Keep the knife sharp!

[modocdan]

I learned to fillet fish from none other than the famous actor "Slim" Pickens. I was about 14 and was gutting and skinning a gunney sack full of black snapper and lingcod we had caught off the Oregon coast at Brookings. Slim was a regular there on the salmon charters. He said "whatcha doin' there boy ?" . and showed me the error of my ways. He also showed me he difference between what most folks consider a sharp knife, and one that actually is sharp. There's a world of difference. Though I was just a pup, I recognized him from the westerns I had seen. That was nearly 40 years ago, and I have filleted a lot of fish since then. For awhile I was the fastest on the docks, and I made lots of extra $$ in those days hangin around when the charters came in and cutting fish for the clients. I also got to keep a lot of salmon roe. Bottom line is, I imagine an electric is faster, though I'm sure a little more wasteful. Personally, I'm way to old school to ever go electric regardless, and unless you're really cutting a lot of fish often, the time saved is really not much in the scheme of things. I figure to each his own, but I'll stick with the standard, truly sharp, fillet knives. I once saw a man, there at Brookings, whip his knife out and slice a Gull cleanly in two with one stroke of his fillet knife. (they will boldly steal fillets right in front of you)....................ModocDan

[tigfly]

I like this thread because it brings back memories of perch fishing with my dad and his buddies on Lake Erie in the 60's. We would bring back 200 to 300 perch (no limit then) and my job was to scale the perch and keep the mosquitoes off of them while they would filet. They could easily butterfly filet a yellow perch, walleye (very few of them back then), bass, etc. in well under a minute with a conventional knife. They tried electric knives to filet once and never again unless they were skinning the larger fish. I would have to agree that experienced guys with a filet knife could do as fast as an electric. Man, did we have some great fish fries back then!!

Glenn

[FishnDave]

I'm horrible with either instrument, and should not be allowed anywhere near them.
I've never timed myself, but it sure seems like I'm going FAST if I can clean a fish in about 20 minutes. Yeah, I'm that bad at it! I just look on in amazement at the guys that are proficient fish-cleaners. I know HOW to do it...I just haven't practiced enough I suppose. Of course, my knives are probably about as sharp as a plastic "Spork".

I suppose that's the main reason I generally only keep fish about once/year.

[HideHunter]

I learned to fillet fish from none other than the famous actor "Slim" Pickens. ...................ModocDan

Now anyone who learned to fillet fish from "Jingles" is just all right in my book.

Like tigfly - I learned early - in fact just about the same era. When I was about 10 or 11 my Grandad would go help the commercial boys pull seine under the ice in the winter time. He would come home about three days a week with two #2 washtubs of small drum about a pound (we call them perch). Up until that time we had just scaled, headed and gutted everything. Grandad, my uncle, two cousins and I got pretty good - pretty fast. You can't tell those small ones from crappie out of cold water.

Bluegiller - those old wood handled Rapala fillet knives you could buy for about $2 twenty (30?) years ago were a heck of a knife. I still like a little "stiffer" knife than most. I have a bone-handled Uncle Henry I'd sure hate to part with and an old Leech Lake I like almost as well.