Thread: Pin Bones

Originally Posted by Redge

I’ve never seen one, or found one in my filet.?


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they are tiny and almost undetectable, most burn up in the oil if they are present
real close to the rib cage right above it off the spine .

I guess I cut them out with the ribcage. Every once in a while I feel a piece left in the fillets while washing them off. I get it with a pair of tweezers

Pin bones?? Never even heard of em and I,at 75, have been fishing for white perch(aka crappie) since I was big enough to hold a cane pole! Guess I'm either dumb or dumber.

Originally Posted by TreednNC

Do you bother removing them?
Do you notice them if you don't remove them?

Ive eaten crappie all my life, and until recently, fishing some healthier lakes with thicker, fatter, healthier fish, usually keeping 10-11" fish to eat, I've started noticing pin bones.

I don't mind bone-in, whole fish. I don't mind bone-in chicken, but if I find a bone in something that shouldn't have it, Im lucky if I finish it. Not sure why lol

Ya'll picking pin bones? Maybe I don't fry them long enough but meat is nice, white, and flaky and not overly done.

When you are rinsing them, you should be able to feel them,just pluck them out.

Originally Posted by TreednNC

I wish I knew exactly where in the fillet theyre coming from so I could avoid them. Never really feel them after I filet and cut rib meat out.

Nimrod, you're saying pulling the meat from around the ribs, rather than cutting it out, alleviates them?

Not sure this is right but is what I can come up with from online searching because I have never encountered them either after filleting.

If you cut the ribs out leaving sort of a C or L shaped fillet, you've pretty much cut them out. If you go up and over the ribs and down to the belly, then they are in the fillet, right over the dark colored lateral line.

At about the 2:50 point of this video, you will pick up where he's peeling the rib meat off the ribs down to the belly. Then he cuts on either side of these pin bones before he slips the fillet off the skin.

i have a youtube video that shows how i fillet and it is likely in the manner of the above process .
they are pesky lil tiny bone things for sure ,but i rarely get them in my fillets

Ive filleted thousands over the last few years and maybe I just don't fry my fish long enough lol. I fillet the ribs and all off, then cut the rib cage out when Im done. Only recently have I noticed pic bones, but I've frying thicker fish from another river system, plus frying more of my own fish now that I live alone, and don't cook them to death like my family did when I was growing up lol