Fish Knives

How to clean a salt water red fish caught in the Indian River Lagoon.

This set of knives, I have used for a decade or more. Most of them were gifts or I found them along my way. My family owned a Trailer Park on the shores of Lake Huron (one of the Great Lakes) situated in Ontario, Canada. The red handled fillet knife made by Normark and the Golden Tiger pocket knife were left behind, by the fire pit, by campers.

The carved homemade bone handle knife, the rough wooden handle fillet knife, the black handled Normark knife and the Russel boat knife (pictured beside the bone handle knife with the brown leather case) were all gifts from friends.

The ones I use most of the time, are the Normark knives. They have a six inch stainless steel flexible blade, that is easy to fillet fish with. They also have a sharp tip that can puncture the skin easily. I always skin my fish instead of scaling it. If you remove the skin you are also removing the strong fishy taste from the fish meat when you cook it.

My favorite fillet knife is the rough wooden handle knife and you can tell by the photo, I use it the most. The difference is the curve of the blade. It is comfortable in my hand and I can control the five inch blade better ,down the back spine of the fish. The blade is built into the wooden handle and secured by two rivets. You can purchase one of these fillet knives at any bait store. There is no brand name on the knife.

Cleaning fish can be an easy chore ,if your knives are kept sharp. Believe it or not, you will slip off the fish and cut your self faster with a dull knife than a sharp one.

Some people use a fish fillet board with a clip on it to hold the tail firm while they clean the fish but I think it is easier to clean the fish with the head on, on a flat surface.

You make an incision directly behind the head, just behind the gills . Make sure you cut the fish all the way through the whole side and push the knife down until you feel the backbone of the fish with the knife. Then, turn the knife to the right and making sure the knife is through the whole of the fish side, saw back and forth with the blade of the knife down the spine to the tail of the fish and sever this side off from the fish.

You can see the picture below of how the fish should look like. Now turn the fish so that the tip of the tail (on the side that has been severed off) is the starting point and go from the tip down the skin with your knife to remove the meat from the skin. It takes a little patience to get your knife between the skin and the meat but once you get started just hold the skin tight in one hand and sea saw the knife down the skin to remove the meat. Hold the skin tight ( with your left hand ) for leverage and the work is easier. Re-peat for other side.

I also save the red fish head and throw it in a crock pot to make soup. Just add celery, onions and carrots, garlic, rosemary and thyme,for fish head soup. Have you ever ate fish cheeks they are the pearls of fish meat to eat. Awesome. My neighbor ate the eyes but that was something I could not do.

Always keep you knives sharp. I use a wet stone and a diamond steel to sharpen my knives. I have pictured them here to show you the stone has two sides a rough side to start with and a smooth side to finish the job. Always drag your knife from the bottom of you knife to the top to sharpen and the video below shows how in much more details.