Electric or Old School

[NIMROD]

I use manual cutting around ribs not through . Catfish will kill an electric knife and does a poor job. I can fillet any fish with a sharp fillet knife except a Gar .

[NIMROD]

I limit my catches (or at least take home) to twenty no matter the fish . Bream always get the hand knife and crappie get the ele. variety.since I scale then fillet time is to long on huge numbers . Heck I have already put up (not counting those eaten fresh) 25 quart bags of 20-35 bream fillets and 5 bags of crappie .

That can help on small fillets not drying out while frying

[KnightShadow10]

Regular rapala..I go around the rib cage

[Tony the Tiger]

I've always been a traditional fillet knife guy but my wife on the advice of a good friend gave me an electric for Christmas. Can't recall the brand and really resisted using it but now I've gotten used to it and I love it especially when going through 20 or more fish. I clean a lot of fish and give them to my non fishing friends. Still use my old knife for trimming. Some people say "I wouldn't clean all them fish and give em away" but what the heck I'm retired.

[BTB]

Another vote for American Angler electric.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

[ibmack]

As far as I have found amazon has them cheaper than anywhere. Sometimes able to get free shipping. I have 2 American angler pro which i love! They are gold handled. My first one ever was blue handled and it was also the bomb but an older design. The blue one will save ya some money and is just as good. They both have extreme power. The difference between the blue and gold one is the blue has plastic gears i believe, and the gold has metal gears.

thanks LP, gonna order me one. don't catch enough fish like you to need two at a time though

[wicklundrh]

It doesn't surprise me that the Forschner is a great knife. It's made by Victorinox, same company that makes some of the best Swiss Army Knives.

Slackline,

The blade is very similar to the one you created (in curve and angle). That is what helps it stay sharp and glide through the ribs. It excels even further when you remove the meat from the skin. They make them in several different sizes (as well as straight blades). I've used the second to the largest for years now. Last time I was in Alaska, the guy I was with said I could have anything he owned... except his forschner knife!

[Ketchn]

I rarely clean a bunch of fish .....and I never use an electric ....but I imagine after cleaning zillions like this I am somewhat faster than average with a regular fillet knife ....

[mildot1]

I'm electric all the way. When I was catfishing only I timed myself on 4lb fish and under and it was about 23-24 seconds per fish cutting behind the ribs and ready to bag. Crappie for me are a little harder, seems to be a more fragile fish and I cut in front of the ribs or I wouldn't have any fillet left. I use electric to slice the ribs out also. Less than a minute per fish. You do need a good set of blades, i realized that the other day after I wrecked a couple. Went and got the ones out of my 12volt knife and was back in business.

FWIW

[ibmack]

Video on Youtube of a guy in Stillwater, Ok using a Cabelas fillet knife. Pretty good I would say. Lot faster then I could ever do it. https://youtu.be/B8BvdvJFAug

he is quick, but it doesn't take long to fillet 6-8" crappie