How to clean a Crappie fast

[Moveon]

You have a point about disturbing the guts. That will happen if you fillet the fish like in the video. But it's not really that bad as you can wash the meat or fillet with a hose right away. That's what I do. Filleting with an electric knife is much faster and if you catch a lot of fish it's a time saver and the meat turns out good. Try cleaning 25 crappie a few times when you catch a limit and you will see why I use the electric knife. I have four different electric fillet knives. Stay away from the American Angler Fillet knife. I tried three different American Anglers and finally got a Rapalla electric knife that runs on either 12 V DC or uses 120 volt AC and a converter to change it to 12 volts DC.

Keep the knife blade sharp and it really helps in cutting though the fish bones on the rib cage.

BTW: Blood and guts easily washes off the fillets with no detriment to the meat.

For years I cleaned my fish with a regular fillet knife and went around the outside of the rib cage and it took me much longer to clean the fish and I didn't save that much more meat. Plus I had to scale the crappie which was a big mess to clean up. Nothing worse IMHO than eating fish scales on the fish meat. That's a bad as having hair on squirrel meat.

I am way out of practice but at one time I could do one in half that time with just a filet knife and not disturb the guts. That looks way messy to me.

[Bassky]

This is the best way to filet fish. It isn't messy. all meat no bones!!

[Colbyt]

Plus I had to scale the crappie which was a big mess to clean up. Nothing worse IMHO than eating fish scales on the fish meat. That's a bad as having hair on squirrel meat.

Strange you should mention that. Using just a filet knife, for the first time ever I tried the method above without scaling the smallish crappie first. It is the scaling I hate. I think with a bit of practice it may be my new style. I wasted a bit of meat on the first few but started to develop a technique that worked towards the end of 18 of them.

I wound up with one pound of boneless, skinless, scaleless crappie bites for my effort. Both methods worked but I got more meat with a lot less mess when I started leaving the rib bones on the carcass like we used to do. It is a bit tough to cut thorough the scales along the backbone.

I've been think about it and may try something slightly different next time. If I find something that works, I will be sure to post it.

[Colbyt]

Must be a single guy. I can't see that happening at my house at the dinning room table.

[Moveon]

This is how I used to fillet my fish. Now I use the electric fillet knife to do most all the work. I do use the Rapala thin bladed fillet knife to remove the rib cage bones after I cut the fillets off with the Rapala Electric Fillet knife.

I like to ice down my fish before I clean them. Iceing the fish down or putting them in a refrigerator over night helps to firm up the flesh and it makes cleaning them easier.

And I do this outside at the fish cleaning station on my Wood deck. I have a draining system that runs from under the fish cleaning station into a big drain running though my back yard. So I just pull out the garden hose and use it to clean the fish fillets before putting them in icy salty water in a bowl. I leave the fillets soaking in the salt water overnight and then rinse off the fillets before drying them on paper towels and putting them in 1 gallon Ziploc freezer bags and sticking them into the freezer. The double lock Ziploc freezer bags will keep them fresh for a few months.




[QUOTE=bwframe;514093]I use a Rapala Superflex 6".
Attachment 5273
Pretty much use the method this guy uses, going around the rib cage and leaving the skin attached at tail to take skin and scales off with last cut.
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[rossieladq]

I bought a Rapala electric knife. About $100 most places, I found it for $60 on Amazon as suggested by this article. Good knife with a really nice handle. Works just like in the video.