Question Fillet Knife or Electric Fillet Knife?

[mo65]

Hey guys,
The fillets that come out of the Panhandler still need the skin cut off and the ribs cut out. I usually clean the fish in steps:

1. Cut off heads and remove guts.
2. fillet
3. Skin and remove ribs

Not only does it go faster than filleting by hand, the amount of meat you get is impressive. I can clean a handful of fish and have enough for several peoples lunch! there is no wasted meat with this baby.

[sharps4590]

My Dad wasn't a fisherman at all and the "old guys" from church who took me didn't keep any fish and on the rare times we did, mostly blugill and the occasional bass, we scaled, gutted & gilled 'em. I was in my late 20's by the time I learned to filet a fish and that was with an electric knife. That's what I still use. When first married we lived on a private 43 acre lake that was overrun with 1 - 1 1/2 lb largemouth. MDC had told the owners to keep eveything that was caught, so we did. Some pretty impressive catches were made. I still remember Easter Morning 1979 when I caught 33 fish in 28 minutes, yes, it was crazy. Consequently we ate a lot of fish back then and both my wife and I got pretty good with an electric knife.

[John T.]

when i do keep fish ( witch isn't very often ) i use a standard knife.

[ArrowTempest]

I got all excited when I watched people in Texas whip out their electric knife and sliced off those perfect fillets in a blink of an eye. I asked Mr. Z if we could get one, I even promised if he'd buy us one I do all the fillets from now on.

An alligator could make a cleaner cut then I did on our fish. Mr. Z still gets headaches we he thinks about the mangled mess of bass. Thank goodness he kept his non electric knife and has taken back his job of fish cutter.

[Pork]

I have to come back & retract my statements on the electric...
My buddy kept on me to give it another try after he & I filleted a nice batch of 'gills.
He'd take the fillets off the fish with the electric & I'd take the skin off the fillets....
I couldn't keep up with him (even though I had the much easier of the 2 jobs)

So, next batch I had to do by myself, I decided to give it a go.
WOW! I think watching his approach is what made the difference.
I was zipping through gills faster than I thought possible
- with no more 'waste' than if I was doing it with my old trusty rapala knife.

I did still use the standard knife to take the skin off, but the time I saved was AWESOME!
I recommend anyone put off by the electric, watch someone experienced & give it another try.
It was WELL worth it!

[Tombo]

I have used many different knives for filleting fish.

A few years ago a friend said I needed to get a Cut-co Fillet Fisherman knife.

I had a Cut-co rep come over and he showed me this knife and I purchased it. This knife is awesome for fish and I use it on deer also.

The knife has a Forever warranty, not a lifetime. I can give it to my son and it is still warrantied for life. If I cannot seem to get the edge back, just send it in and they will sharpen it for free. I have not sent it back yet as I have always been able to get that razor sharp edge back.

I was so impressed with the high quality of this knife, we had the fellow come back and we then purchased approx $1,500 woth of thier kitchen and steak knives.

\We have never regretted buying the knives.

So, if your looking for a good fillet knife, take a look at this one. Not cheap, I would guess today it goes for approx $80.

[PaJNS]

Thought I would move this up...Good question.

[Lohycore]

I have both, but usually go with standard, seeing as how I normally clean my fish at the lake. We don't fillet our sunfish, so it's usually just bass and catfish that we fillet. Like most of you who use both, it's only when I'm fortunate enough to have a big mess that I'll break out the electric.

[Bluegill]

I just let my son-in-law clean 'em hee hee

[jeretired]

If I've caught trout or just a couple panfish, I'll only use a fillet knife. After going out on Lake St Claire several years ago, on a charter with Good Old Captain Don, and seeing him fillet a couple hundred perch and walleyes in "record time", I ran right out and bought an electric fillet knife solely for fish. If you've never tried it, check it out on You-Tube and practice. Fantastic and Foolproof!!!!