Care of Your Catch

Freshly caught fish tastes great if it's cared for properly. Store caught fish in a cooler with ice until you get home. To preserve a fresh taste, clean your fish as soon as possible. Filleting, pan dressing, and skinning are three simple ways to clean your catch.

Filleting Fish

Filleting is a very popular technique for cleaning fish because you don’t need to remove the internal organs, head, or fins. The fillets also are boneless. Filleting is easiest when you use a sharp fillet knife with a thin, flexible blade. Wear a fillet glove on your free hand to prevent serious cuts. (A fillet glove helps deflect an errant knife blade.) You also need a flat, firm surface to work on.

1. Place the blade of the knife just behind the pectoral fin and cut through to the backbone.

2. Turn the knife so the blade is against, and nearly parallel to, the backbone. Hold the fish firmly with one hand and use a sawing motion to cut through the ribs toward the tail. Continue to the base of the tail. (Note: Some anglers fillet the meat around the ribs rather than cutting through them.)

3. Place the knife near the tail end of the fillet with the blade next to the skin. Hold the fish at the base of the tail with your fingertips and work the blade forward between the skin and flesh.

4. Place the edge of the knife blade just under the top of the ribs and slice them out of the fillet. Repeat the procedure on the other side of the fish.

How to Fillet Fish Videos
Filleting a Fish, from the Missouri Department of Conservation 

General Fish Filleting (uses a fillet knife) 

General Fish Filleting (uses an electric fillet knife) 

Panfish/Sunfish Filleting 

Cleaning Catfish

Catfish Filleting