How do you fillet your crappie?

[GreenEYESfromOHIO]

Hey,

I was curious how you guys fillet your crappie? There’s a few different ways but from what I’ve seen the two most commonly used ways are...the traditional way where you fillet it boneless going around the rib cage and the second way where you cut through the rib cage completely. I was watching people do both on YouTube, the second way where you cut through the rib cage looks incredibly faster.....I tried it and I was horrible at it. I had to fight to cut through that rib cage, one fish I near ripped in half because I had to really muscle it. I was using one of those Rapala fillet knives 6”.....just bought it last week so it’s brand new and SHARP! After experimenting, it seemed way to hard, not precise and a real good way to dull your knife was my thoughts.....the only reason I don’t like the traditional method is because it’s more time consuming.

[tlefire]

Electric fillet knife ......you'll be a master at it in no time.

[John Doe]

Electric- through the rib cages. Like tlefire says, you’ll be an expert in no time. I like flexible blades to get close to the spine and not lose much meat. The carcass will be paper thin.


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[Atimm693]

If using an electric knife, I will cut right through the ribcage and trim it out later.

If using a regular knife, I cut around it. Starting just behind the head, cutting along the backbone following the dorsal fin, once I get past the ribs I'll poke all the way through the belly and follow the spine to the tail. Cut the skin off and done.

[DockShootinJack]

Same way the others have described

[GreenEYESfromOHIO]

Only reason I haven’t gave an electric knife a consideration is because although I fish a lot, I don’t bring home a lot LOL! A good day for me is anything over 4 keepers. So my typical filleting session is only 4-8 fish. So not a lot at all. That’s the life of a crappie bank fisherman LOL.

[jigflinger]

You need to get the 9 inch Rapala fillet knife. The six incher just doesn't have the ability to cut ribs easily.

[DockShootinJack]

The electric is a lot easier to cut through the rin bones. I did it for a long time with a standard fillet knife. It worked fine as long as it was really sharp.

[CrappiePappy]

I've got a couple of regular fillet knives that I used to cut thru rib bones with ... dulled them to the point you couldn't cut yourself with the blade, even if you tried.
Started using a elec. knife and haven't looked back. First one was a Mr Twister, then an American Angler. I like the Mr Twister's handle size, but don't like the coiled cord (it can limit my distance at some cleaning stations). While I have several different blades for them, I mostly use the "shark" blade.
If you want to go "on the cheap" you can get a elec knife for $15-$20 at Walmart. If my Twister or Amer. Angler knives gave up the ghost today, I have a "ancient" GE elec knife that will still do the job.

[Tenn Tux]

watch the video in post "you gotta watch this video" where it show Ronnie Capps fileting a crappie. Pretty close to how I have always done it.