August 29, 2004--How to Fillet Fish

One of the most common questions we get is "How exactly should we fillet this fish that we caught?" For those of you familiar with our book, The Cruiser's Handbook of Fishing, we provide a detailed diagram on pages 245 to 247. The photos accompanying this article do not appear in the book, but since they show a small Indo-Pacific grouper typical of the kind of fish sailors love to catch and eat, we thought it might be instructive to take you through the drill with these shots.

First, a few caveats. Before you fillet, consider how you plan to use this fish, and remember that filleting is perhaps the most wasteful processing method if you plan to discard the remainder of the fish (the head, throat, and skeleton). You could gut and scale this same fish, cook it whole, and pick every last scrap of that sweet meat off of the bones. Even if you do choose to fillet, you could use the head, throat, and skeleton to make a lovely fish soup (that diagram is on page 246, and please refer to the recipe "Island Fish Soup", pages 365 to 366), or at the very least give it to a friend so they can make some soup.

Now we can with a clear conscience proceed to the filleting process. Lay the fish flat and extract your very sharp, high quality fish knife (knife recommendations page 239 and 264, sharpening instructions and diagram page 240). Make the first incision just behind the pectoral fin, and slice down to, but not through, the backbone, as if you were to "half-sever" the head. Then insert the tip of the knife through the skin near the tail on the dorsal surface, and run a shallow incision all the way up the top of the back to the first incision. Repeat this cut, running the knife down along the bones, perhaps two more times, until you expose the ridge of the backbone (first photo). Turn the fish around and repeat this process for the ventral half of the fillet. The fillet is attached only by a thin line of muscle and ribs to the backbone at this point. Starting from either the tail or, as shown in the second photo, the head, press the knife down against and then along the backbone, severing the fillet from the fishÑbut stop short just at the base of the tail, leaving the skin connected. Fold the fillet back, press the knife against the skin at an angle of approximately 10 degrees, and either pull the skin past the knife blade or push the knife across the skin without "sawing" (third photo). Voila! You have a skinless fillet...but it still has some bone and a bloodline.

Flip the fillet and you'll see half the rib cage and gut lining. Place the knife blade at the top of the rib cage, and cut just behind the ribs so you waste as little meat as possible. You'll excise a small, roughly triangular piece of flesh containing the ribs and gut lining. Next, the bloodline and associated bones: this thin, darkened line runs the length of the fillet, right down the middle, containing red meat and the small bones that once projected out of the vertebrae. Simply slice down each side of the bloodline, very close to the red section, and lift it free. Your fillet is now boneless and the stronger-tasting red meat is gone, just the way most folks from developed countries are accustomed to encountering it.