Thread: How to fillet a crappie/bluegill

unless they are slab crappy or huge panfish, i skin them like a catfish, cut the dorsal and ventral fins off, cut off the head and gut, leaving the fillets attached to the backbone and tail.. crappie tails are good to eat.. they turn nice and cripsy,, just the tips though, not the boney part.. if they are slab i fillet them with my electric knife and go stright through the belly ribs, and then cut them out with a good fillet knife right before cooking... faster at the dock and you don't waste as much meat trying to cut around the ribs while on the fish

Yeah, leave it attached at the tail, flip it open, and cut between the skin and the meat - I use an electric knife - takes no time, and rarely do I lose much meat -

Electric fillet knife is the way to go, however, there are some that I have my trusty old fillet knife for. I just started the electric fillet knife thing last year, and it was amazing. I am pretty fast and accurate when it comes to the regular fillet knife, but I can do about 3 to 1 with the electric. PRACTICE ON SOME BLUEGILL FIRST...DON"T WANT TO SCREW UP YOUR CRAPPIE!

Unless grillin or baking, I always filet!

Originally Posted by FishCrazy

I also use an electric knife and will never go back to the old way. Here is how I do it though. I cut straight down to the backbone behind the gill and then turn the knife blade along the backbone and run it to the tail cutting right through the ribs but stop just shy of disconnecting the fillet on that side from the tail. Slip the knife out and flip the fish over and do the same on the other side, leaving it connected at the tail also. Then just flip that side off to expose the meat side of the fillet while its still connected to the fish and just run the blade down the fillet to remove it from the skin. Then fold the skin back up on the fish flip it over and take the fillet off the other side. I leave the fillet on the other side because it helps to hold the fished shape while running the second cut down the backbone. What you end up with is the fillet with the ribs in them which you lay with the inside facing up and with a sharp knife a "V" cut will extract that ribcage lickity split. It is amazing how fast you can fillet a crappie this way when you get the hang of it. I forget where I read about this but it has saved me a bunch of time and I would highly recommend you give it a try.

I tried this method from FishCrazy when using my electric knife last time -- specifically, leaving the filet on the one side and flipping it over before doing the filet on the second side and cutting the meat off of the skin.

It really did work better in making it easier to follow the backbone of the fish for the second filet. That meant less wasted meat with little to no extra time. Thanks for the idea!

I think it's much better to fry them, pull out the top fin, then filet them with your teeth.