How do you fillet your crappie?

[Ketchn]

try a billy bay , I have several and priced to fly off the shelves and stupid sharp, flexible and BAD TO THE BONE for a surgery style fillet job

[Ketchn]

as seen below .....
and if you dont like orange they come in chart as well ....

[catchNgrease]

There are several options in this brand. And Academy carries one or did but it was a little stiff for my taste. The picture I sent is of a 7" and mine is some longer.

When I am cleaning a bunch of fish I do use an electric knife. The paired serrated blades in concert are different and they do have their purpose.

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[John Doe]

cutting through the rib cage mortifies me , cant' wrap my head around smearing fish poo and guts on my fillets as an added flavor .
but to each his own and saw away if it is your thing
someone good with an electric and some experience can do a pile in just a few minutes for sure ,but >>>
I only use a sharp fixed flexible blade and take a little extra time to cut around the rib cages myself .
I seen what they eat enough times to not need to see it on every fish I clean ,but ...
"if" doing piles of fish was my thing I probably would go electric ....

It’s not a problem if you wash the filets


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[SKs Crappie Catching Adventures]

Crappie don't live long enough for biomagnification to be an issue. You'd have to eat pounds per day EVERY day of the year for contaminants to build up enough to be of issue. Even with the larger apex palegics it's the same way, and even then, usually only an issue with small children and pregnant/nursing women.

I've heard it's where contaminates IF THERE ARE ANY would be.....
I prefer to go over and beyond to protect my family and myself.....
I cut my filets off above the ribcage.....

[SKs Crappie Catching Adventures]

as seen below .....
and if you dont like orange they come in chart as well ....

Excellent workn blade.....
Of course a knife is only a good as it's owners care of it....
I good knife isn't judged by its cost but the edge it holds and this elcheapo holds a edge very well.... You may not like it if you don't like a knife with some backbone but I do....

[John Doe]

I've heard it's where contaminates IF THERE ARE ANY would be.....
I prefer to go over and beyond to protect my family and myself.....
I cut my filets off above the ribcage.....

The very reason I always carry a firearm. Now back to regular scheduled programming.


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[CrappiePappy]

As an addition to the question pertaining to what form of cutlery one uses to fillet ones fish ... is where/how one makes the first cut.

I've seen SO MANY Crappie filleted with the knife blade at a 90deg angle straight up/down just at the end of the gill plate and then have that same person try and get a "check mark" shaped filet by cutting around the rib bones ... all the while telling me that they do that check mark cut so as to not waste any meat.

SAY WHAT ??? You just left twice that amount of meat on the head of the carcass you just trashed !!

I cut a 45deg angle cut, starting from the top outer edge of the gill plate towards the top of the fish's head, then bring the blade down towards the stomach area ... so as to cut off as much of the meat above the gill plate/eye area as possible. THEN I cut the ribs out, making the check mark shaped filet. Now the fillet from my 9" fish has more meat on it than the other guy's fillet from his 10" fish

[RobertFL]

I get a fillet up to the middle of the eye on Brim and Specks(crappie). For this picture I pulled the fillet back from head so you can see cut better..I will try to explain my process...I start off with a sharp 4 or 6 inch fillet knife, make a cut along the backbone all the way to the eye, cut from eye down to gill, flip knife over, cut from meat up thru skin down to belly(knife edge is pointed up), switch to longer knife with slightly curved blade and cut meat over the ribs... fillet skin off, cut out pin bones. freeze or cook fresh..

[RobertFL]

I admit I want some "better" quality knives..these work and have filleted alot of fish mostly Brim..