Well, with SPRINGER and Sturgeon season coming up; what is the Best fillet knife with at least a 9" blade, (I catch Hawgs) and were can I Find one?

The old Kershaw has seen beter days . I did do a search but did not find much info. Thanks in Advance Ross

I like the dexter russels with the sani-safe handles. Buck makes a nice one also. The link is just an example of the many online cutlery stores that sell dexter russel. Shop around.
http://www.fishermansheadquarters.com/28dexter.html

edited to fix link

I love my Cutco. Slides thru a salmon like a hot knife thru butter.

Now just how big are we talking about? You may want to consider........

I have used this same knife to fillet more fish then the average person on this board has ever caught! I have used it for at least 12 years! You will not find a better knife for the job/price for filling fish up 25 pounds anywhere. When your fish start to get bigger then 25 pounds or so, there are better knifes out there that can do the filleting job for you. But with that said, so come the much higher prices for those "better knifes". You can expect to pay 60 dollars and up for a knife that can fillet fish in the 35-50 pound class (i.e. the Forschner #402-10 or similar!) Now that the knife to use on those 30+ HOGs!

If you catch fish between 8-25 pounds, you CAN NOT BEAT THIS KNIFE!

http://www.1sks.com/store/buck-ulti-mate-ocean.html

I can't tell you how many fish that I have filleted with the same knife, but it runs into the thousands plus more!


Cowlitzfisherman

Were can you find cutcos at?

At the sportsmens show last year Seattle Marine had some pretty good prices on fillet knives.

I too have filleted more fish than most people will catch in a lifetime and, for the money, check out CRKT's 9" big eddy knife.
I like that design, but I use Forcshners, including their big upturned style butcher knife for albacore, and medium sized, and larger salmon. Their fillet knivies are outstanding with a great combination of flexability an edge holding ability. Excellent stainless steel if your using it primarily with salty fish. The CRKT will start to pit after lots of use around salt water. Kershaws are especially proned to this.
The CRKT knife also has the best handle in my opinion.
Also, find a good butchers steel, and learn how to use and maintain it correctly.
I own a couple of Dickeron sapphire-cut steels. Not cheap, but I get the most out of all my knivies, including in the kitchen.

I love the 6" Rapala.

I was trained by a chef in my restaurant days on how to filet a fish. He swore by the knife.

This year I fileted over 200 fish with my $9 knife. I usually go through two a year. They are a tool that wears out, but I always save the old ones for boat knives for stationing near anchor lines, etc.

I almost cry sometimes seeing how folks butcher their fish at the cleaning table at Sekiu. One day while "egg whoring" I cleaned and fileted 30 fish for other people to earn 24 pounds of eggs. Folks commented on how nice the filets looked, and a number of folks sat and watched as I made my way through this pile of fish.

My Dexter Russel has too stiff of a blade, the Forschners I have used also suffer from this. I view my filet knife the same way I look at my razor. It is disposable.

10 years with a knife in my hands professionally is how formed my opinion. Buy a decent knife that can hold an edge and can be retouched easily with a steel. They will wear out, fall overboard, get left behind, etc. At $9 (Wal-mart), the Rapala gets the nod. I also use it for parts of butchering elk and deer.


Andy

Cutco all the way. I have one, plus I bought one for my dad last christmas. He cut himself the first time he used it. Plus yuou can adjust the blade length.

www.cutco.com-- I think it is called the fisherman's solution

later Ryan

Elkmans link didn't work but here is the Cutco knife he was refering to:
Cutco - Fisherman\'s Solution

As for me... I prefer the Kershaw with the convertable blades but sadly they're a thing of the past now.

Fish Hawg, There are a few of those cutco knives on ebay for about half of new from cutco if you are interested. Do an E-bay search for -cutco fishermans solution-

I've had very good luck with Frost knives. Again they are a bit more money but they are easy to maintain. Their salmon knives have a built in scraping spoon on the end of the handle.

Here's a good link to Seattle Marine's knife pages.

http://www.seamar.com/knives.html#index

I believe they are spelled Forshener or something like that but they are great knives.

Also Victorinox knives are a good blade.

Sounds like we have a few filleting experts here at PP...My dad was a butcher and left me a knife called Swibo....when sharpened properly it is a pro's knife and can work magic on meat and fish.