Okay, so now that we’ve pretty much determined that it really is okay to eat some of the fish that we catch, will somebody please tell me how to fillet a trout and manage to get the bones out of it? I usually cook them whole, because I can’t seem to fillet them well.
Have you seen this?
http://www.wvu.edu/~agexten/aquaculture/troutproc.pdf
I tried filleting trout a couple times with limited success. Then I found the above link. Haven’t had a chance to try it yet, but it looks promising. Maybe someone else let us know how they do it.
If possible do not gut the fish and have the flesh cold (set up fish are easier).
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Lay fish flat on a cleaning board. It helps if head is secured by a clamp.
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Cut down across the body right behind the hard gill plate to the backbone, but do not severe the backbone.
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Insert the point of your fillet knife right next to the dorsal fin, keeping the knife as close to the backbone as possible. Penetrate until the ribs are felt on the tip of the knife.
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Cut(work) the knife along the ribs, keeping the ribs attached to the backbone until you have separated the flesh from the spiny bones that are the top of the backbone.
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Now cut the flesh away from the ribs keeping the knife as flat to the ribs as possible to prevent wasting flesh. The ribs remain attached to the backbone.
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Once you have the fillet cut from the ribs you can easily cut the meat from the ribs to the tail from the backbone.
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If you plan on on skinning the fish do not sever the skin from the fish when you have completed step 6. Turn the fillet so it is skin side down and insert knife at the rear of the fish and work the skin from the meat. By leaving the skin attached to the tail it gives you something to hold onto during this step.
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Repeat steps for the other side.
I know this sounds complicated but with a little practice you can do a fish in hardly any time at all with very little meat loss. I use this method not only on trout but on almost all of the warmwater fish as well. I can fillet a crappie in about a minute using the above.This is not my idea but something I read in a book years ago.
Hope this helps.
Tim
The simplest and easiest way that I have found is the way they do it in restaurants. Gut the fish, cook by whatever method you like( I like to poach in foil with a little butter,white wine,garlic and lemon), lay the fish on its side, make a cut down to the backbone across the body just ahead of the tail and another along the dorsal line just to bone, carefully lift the meat and skin straight up and the fillet will come right off the bones, grasp the tail and with another shallow cut on the other side lift the skeleton whole out of the other fillet. 99 o/o of the bones will be removed and you can eat the fillet with gusto:!: ENJOY:!:
You mean? Don’t tell me! It’s OK to eat the fish you catch?
And they are quite yummie too.
Jeff
To eat a trout is fine…to fillet it first is sacrilegious! 
Thanks guys. Paddy, I’ll have to give that a try. It sounds like it’d work well. Panman, that’s what I do with all my panfish and bass. It works like a charm. For fish like pike, pickerel, and trout, not so much. It still leaves bones, at least in my experience.
Yes, it’s okay to eat what you catch and they are in fact quite yummy. Despite what many preach and practice, a wild fish tastes much yummier than a pen raised, dog food fed, hatchery fish. The only hatchery fish that I have had that match a wild one are those stocked as fingerlings and allowed to grow in a natural environment for the majority of their lives. Just my opinion, but one I’ll stick with.
This won’t help since I can’t describe how…but my brother can fillet Northern Pike so there is not one bone …and there is almost no waste…ends up with two solid fillets…I’ve watched him do it and it is an art.
Here is a video for filleting the pike.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcWyGrV0qao
Thanks for that link. I can file any fish but I could never do that with Pike. Duh it’s so simple!!!.
When I lived in Virginia (many years ago) we would catch small pickeral which have the same bone structure as northerns. I read this method in a book, tryed it and it was OK - provided you are not hung up on dieting, etc.
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Kill Fish.
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Scale Fish.
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Fillet fish so that you end up with the backbone & ribs removed but the skin still attached to the meat.
4… Lay fillet on board with the skin touching the board.
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Take your knife and cut through the flesh to the skin but not through the skin. Do this about every 1/4 inch along the fillet.
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Cook the fish in hot oil which will pentrate the cuts causing the small bones to dissolve.
Like I said not good for the waist line, etc, but they taste good. Don’t know how it would work on a fish much over 18-20 inches.
Tim
Lee, I’m pretty sure that is how my brother does it except he uses the electric knife for the whole process.
In My opinion if you have waited till you got home to clean and fillet a fish you have sacrificed a lot of the flavor. Kill them by slicing the gills so they bleed out and die in a few seconds. Clean them as soon as you catch them. Put them on ice or some other method of cooling right away. Do not under any circumstances haul them around in the boat in a plastic bag.
The old fashioned wicker kreels worked well with wet grass in them so evaporation could keep the fish cool. I wrap mine in two layers of paper towel then dip them in water . This keeps the sun off them, keeps them moist while evaporation cools them down. We eat them the night we catch them or we don’t keep them. Just my opinion.