American Angler 12 V DC filet Knife report

[Moose1am]

I purchased another filet knife. This time it's powered by a 12 volt battery or cigarette lighter outlet. I used it tonight for the first time and cleaned a 2lb catfish with this knife. Smooth is all I can say. I powered the unit with one of those jump starting battery packs that has a 12 volt plug built into it. The cord on the knift is about 10ft long and it's a straight line cord not the coiled type.

I cleaned a few small crappie and was wondering how this knife would work on small crappie. Well it cut right though them like butter but still got most of the meat. Now these are some small crappie that I caught out of the stripper pits. These pits don't have a lot of nutrients or good water quality and the crappie grow slow and there are a lot of small stunted crappie. A 9" crappie is not very common. Most are 8" long and some are only 7" long. I have only caught a few of the 9" long White Crappie. Not black Crappie yet out of these pits.

I was able to clean about 6 small crappie is nothing flat. I was impressed with the knife. It felt good actually cutting up some filets.

I still have my rechargeable Nickle Metal Hydride battery American Angler Filet knife and won't be using that anymore. Either I got a defective one (bad betteries) or it's a piece of junk that never did seem to work right for me.

The 12 V DC powered unit works much better. I would recommend it to anyone who cleans a lot of fish. And with the portable power supply you can take it anywhere there is a fish cleaning station and water.

I clean the blades and then put some olive oil on the metal to keep them from rusting and to make the blade slide easier when cleaning my fish.

I was amazed at how easily it allowed me to seperate the filet from the fish's skin. That part is normally the hardest part sometimes but this knife made that part a job.

I have been fishing three days in a row ( almost like work) and caught fish each time. 4 hear 6 there and today about 8 more. Not catching the limits that I did earlier this summer but there is a lot more fishing pressure on these lakes. I saw 5 boats in my secrete cove just today. LOL.

Water temp was 83.4 Deg F. Winds were calm first then picked up to about 10 to 15mph out of the SE. It was partly cloudy today. Water temp 6ft down was around 76 deg F. I added a 5ft piece of PVC pipe to my live wells intake so that I was drawing water from 6 ft below my boat. That water was much cooler than the suface water. It kept all my crappie alive all day long.

I fished tightline with southern Pro crappie jigs. Red/chartrues Blue/White. Black/Chartures and my squirmin Squirts White Lightings. Today I took two dozen small minnows with me and tipped my 1/16oz jigs with small minnows or a crappie nibble. Today the minnows worked best. I caught most of my crappie using the white lighting but then I caught about 3 or 4 of the crappie with the Red/Chartruse colored southern Pro. All jigs are about 1.5" long.

I caught the catfish on a KY Lake Crappie Rig that has two crappie type hooks and a weight. I have a bunch of those still from the 1980's. LOL
I used some 10 lb Berkley XL line and my Fugi Rod and a bait casting reel. The catfish hit the minnows as soon as I lowered the bait to the water. He came out of 25ft of water about 1.5Ft off the bottom. There was a brush pile and some standing timber in this spot and it's near a drop off. There is a small shelf area nearby that comes out from the shoreline into the bay and then it drops off into 26 ft of water.

I am going to have to stop fishing as I am getting tired of cleaning fish. LOL Well maybe I can give some away.

[Shellback]

I've got the American Angler 110 volt model and it's great too! When you mentioned trouble getting the skin off, do you take the filet off the fish and then remove the skin? If so, try cutting the filet off back to the tail, but stopping short of removing the filet, then flip the fish over skin side down and cut back towards the head. Walla, a skinless filet and no trying to hold onto the filet while starting the knife between the filet and skin. I'd sure like to know an easy way of getting the rib bones out without loosing alot of meat.

[rango]

i keep two of those american angler 12 volt knives on the beast and two 110 volt knives at my cleaning table. they have worked great for me. shellback fillets em like i do,, i start at the head, cut down to the back bone and turn toward the tail. at the tail i flip the fillet over and take the skin off. most times i only do one side, and leave the other side intack with the backbone and tail as the tail is my favorite part of eating fish. frying a whole, large crappie takes too long for it to float. if i decide to fry em whole, ill gash em down the side about every half inch or so from front to back. this lets the oil get in there and cook it through much faster. up till a couple years ago, id carry a board and clean em in the boat before i left the lake so i wouldnt have it to do once i got home.. dont do it now tho as usually folks that go with me keeps the fish, or im planning on giving em to a neighbor.. i used the 12 volt knife to clean and fillet that 42 pound catfish i caught down at santee three year ago and had no trouble doing it.. i had both fillets off time i could have skint one side on a fish that big. on a big catfish ,, ill run the knife about a quarter inch above the skin to eliminate the red streak.. ill take the red i missed off after i get the skin off. that red has to come off and the lateral line cut out to get good tasting fillets. on a crappie ill cut through the rib bones and go back after i get em all filleted with a sharp knife and cut the bones out.. on a big catfish,, ill cut around the bones, but unless its a really big catfish,, the angler knife should cut throght the ribs like on a crappie.

[Moose1am]

Hey Shellback:

I Leave the filet attached to the fish at the tail and then flip the filet over and then remove the skin from the filet by angling the knife blade at about a 10deg angle and then cut between the back of the skin and the outside of the meat just like you suggested. I learned that way when I went to Canada back in 1970 and a guy at the camp taught me how he cleaned fish that way. I have been using the method with the electric filet knifes ever since.

I was able to cut along the side of the fish behind the operculum and then turn the blade 90 deg to follow along the backbone all the way out towards the tail. I stop right before I get to the very end of the tail and then flip the filet over to gain access to the inside of the filet.

Before I got my electric kife I used a very sharp rapala filet knife and would cut down the back along the dorsal fin and then carefully filet around the rib cage to remove the bone.

Today I still use my manual filet knife to cut the rib bones out of the filets after I get the filet ready with my electric knife.

The trick to removing the belli meat and the rib bones is a very sharp filet knife. I use two stones and a utility that hold the blade's of the knife at the right angle during the sharping process. I use the rough stone to get the 45 deg angle on the steel first then I come back and use the fine stone to sharpen the new edge. I sharpen the knife blade on one edge with the smooth stone and then flip the knife blade over to sharpen the other edge with one stroke. One stroke for each side when doing the finish work. That will put a very sharp edge on any good blade.

I've got the American Angler 110 volt model and it's great too! When you mentioned trouble getting the skin off, do you take the filet off the fish and then remove the skin? If so, try cutting the filet off back to the tail, but stopping short of removing the filet, then flip the fish over skin side down and cut back towards the head. Walla, a skinless filet and no trying to hold onto the filet while starting the knife between the filet and skin. I'd sure like to know an easy way of getting the rib bones out without loosing alot of meat.

[Shellback]

I used to do much better myself with a regular knife while trimming the ribs. Just got lazy with the electric knife I guess. I'll have to get my diamond hone out and touch up the ole filet knife.

[Big Zig]

What made you go with an electric fillet knife? Never really thought about filleting with anything but a standard fillet knife. Maybe I'm missing something........

[Shellback]

Those electric knives are fast, I love them. One cut to the backbone behind the gills, turn the knife and right back just stopping before the tail, flip the fish over and run the knife forward between the filet and the skin. I wish I could type as fast as I can do a fish!

[kunes]

What made you go with an electric fillet knife? Never really thought about filleting with anything but a standard fillet knife. Maybe I'm missing something........

I've always used the old manual fillet knife also and it did fine on everything including big salmon, but I found that the bones in crappies over 12 inches are so thick that my hand would tire after cleaning 3 or 4. I now use the electric on all fish over 12 inches. It hasn't had much use lately....

[LBM]

Questions and comments
Moose I have been using my wifes kitchen 110 v electric knife with a blade that is 7 1/2 long by 3/4 inch. I have always thought that it would filet better if the blade was narrower. Where one cuts to the backbone then makes the turn to cut with the back bone. I was curious as to the demensions on your blades mainly how narrow they are. Seems to me a smaller blade would be cutting a much smaller radius thus leaving more meat with the filet.
My knife handle will get plenty warm if I am fileting a bunch of crappie(Kansas has a 50 fish crappie creel limit which I haven't hit and probably won't) so I am expecting to be needing another knife one of these days.
Also surely your American Angler blades are stainless and won't rust!!??

One of these days I plan on filleting some crappies leaving the skin on like I think suggested by CP or Roberta. Not sure where I will be scaling the fish since my wife allows me to dress crappie at the kitchen sink? I think she would object to the flying scales, during scaling, in the kitchen.
In the past I have filleted crappie leaving the skin and scales on. I then broiled the filets with the skin/scale side up. Once cooked I seperated the meat from skin then added salt and Cayenne pepper to taste. This was for ones wanting reduced cholesterol. If I take the scales off then I would be able to just eat the broiled fish with out first seperating the meat from the skin.

Now a question for Rango when you fileted your 42 pounder. Did you cut through the ribs with you filet knife?
I also filet my catfish so as to remove all the red, silver and yellow meat. But I find it difficult to cut through the ribs on around the five pounds and larger cats with my electric filet knife. I only cut through the ends of the ribs taking off the standard filet but then have to got back and cut out the meat above the ribs next to the backbone. If the American Angler electric knife will cut through the ribs on a 42 pounder then it should work like a hot knife through butter on my 5 to 9 pounders rib bones.

Thanks
LBM

[Moose1am]

I knew when I typed that I oiled the blades to prevent rusting that someone would say that they were stainless steel and thus would not rust. That was why I should have said that I oiled them in the past when I was not sure that the blades were stainless steel or not. I also oil them to lubricate them to make the slide against each other better and with less friction. Since the blades are two blades held together it dosen't hurt to keep some light oil on them. I hope my blades are stainless steel and they they never rust. I also hope that they stay sharp for a long time.

My blades are about about 7 3/4" long and they are 7/8th of an inch at the base and only 3/16th of an inch at the tips. They are "stainless China" what ever that means. Not sure what you mean by the smaller blade cutting a smaller Radius" statement. That one lost me. You may be talking about the radius of the cutting blades. That radius would be changing along the length of the blade and the radius would not be constant. I am familar with the Radius on a Ice Skating Blade (Ice Hockey Skate Blades have different radius for different Possitions) So if that is what you are talking about (rocker of the bottom of the blade on the knife" then I somewhat think I know what you are saying. Basically I think that filet knifes should be thin blades. I have some buck knifes that have thicker blades but dad never used them to filet fish. We used them to skin a few squirrels though.

BTW my American Angler is the American Angler 12 Volt Elsectric Fillet Knift that is sold at Walmart. It's a new model this year. I didn't see this one before this summer. It's suppose to have a redesigned gear drive and motor etc. That may be just their marketing people talking though. It said to have a cooler running motor (so it says on the box) This one has a newly designed handle that provides comfort, convience and control. This new handle does look more ergonomicly designed which is why I purchased it. I have some 110 Volt AC electric carving knifes that are not really designed to hold in your hands when carving up the turkey at Thanksgiving and this newly designed handle fits my hands real comfortably. Also the blades have two buttons that you have to push in to remove the blades from the handle. One button on each side must be pushed in and held before the blades can come out. That is suppose to be a safety feature. There is also a Adaptor (Included) with battery clips that permits a direct hook up to a regular car battery. You plug the cigarette lighter type plug into the adaptor female socket and then hook the battery clips to the car battery. Or you can simply plug the plug into a cigarette lighter hole that has 12 volts dc power to it. There is a trigger lock also and a grease guard and grip.

The reason I am describing all the above is that I could not find a model number on the knife or the package. So if you go to the Walmart you can look at the description that I have given to see which knife I bought.


Hope this helps.

Questions and comments
Moose I have been using my wifes kitchen 110 v electric knife with a blade that is 7 1/2 long by 3/4 inch. I have always thought that it would filet better if the blade was narrower. Where one cuts to the backbone then makes the turn to cut with the back bone. I was curious as to the demensions on your blades mainly how narrow they are. Seems to me a smaller blade would be cutting a much smaller radius thus leaving more meat with the filet.
My knife handle will get plenty warm if I am fileting a bunch of crappie(Kansas has a 50 fish crappie creel limit which I haven't hit and probably won't) so I am expecting to be needing another knife one of these days.
Also surely your American Angler blades are stainless and won't rust!!??

One of these days I plan on filleting some crappies leaving the skin on like I think suggested by CP or Roberta. Not sure where I will be scaling the fish since my wife allows me to dress crappie at the kitchen sink? I think she would object to the flying scales, during scaling, in the kitchen.
In the past I have filleted crappie leaving the skin and scales on. I then broiled the filets with the skin/scale side up. Once cooked I seperated the meat from skin then added salt and Cayenne pepper to taste. This was for ones wanting reduced cholesterol. If I take the scales off then I would be able to just eat the broiled fish with out first seperating the meat from the skin.

Now a question for Rango when you fileted your 42 pounder. Did you cut through the ribs with you filet knife?
I also filet my catfish so as to remove all the red, silver and yellow meat. But I find it difficult to cut through the ribs on around the five pounds and larger cats with my electric filet knife. I only cut through the ends of the ribs taking off the standard filet but then have to got back and cut out the meat above the ribs next to the backbone. If the American Angler electric knife will cut through the ribs on a 42 pounder then it should work like a hot knife through butter on my 5 to 9 pounders rib bones.

Thanks
LBM