A while back some one asked me to post step by step instructions on the fishNphysician method of filleting a salmon/steelhead. Wish I had a fresh springer to demonstrate with, but a vacuum-frozen Kenai River sockeye from last summer will have to do (yeah, planked sockeye for dinner tonight!) This method works for a fish in the round (ungutted) or one that has been cleaned. The demo is on a 9# sockeye minus head and guts:

1) Make a long deep cut down the lateral line right down to the spine, then several cross cuts, depending on the size of the fish.


2) Start on the tail end, and begin removing fillets by sweeping your knife from the spine toward either the belly or the back. Keep your knife on the bones and turn the piece as you go.


3) Keep going in similar fashion, removing each piece while working your way toward the head end of the fish.




4) Flip it over and do it all over again.



5) You should end up with a featherweight carcass that is nearly transparent, except for the meat between the first 10-12 ribs which are sort of flattened. It is impossible to salvage this meat with a fillet knife alone.... gotta cook up the carcass and pick it out with chop sticks.




6) Here's the finished product. As you can see, there is VERY little waste with this method. Some guys may not like the fact that you don't end up with one intact fillet per side, but honestly, who can eat an entire fillet all by himself... especially when you are cutting something as big as a 50# king? This method gives you nice generous dinner-sized portions to satisfy the largest of appetites.

Give it a try! You'll be surprised at how easy and reproducible this method can be.

That seems to work pretty slick...what exactly are the advantages of doing it that way?

Thats a nice looking job, is that fish partially frozen?

I find it easier to fillet when they are like that.

thanks

Very interesting technique! I'll have to try it if I can catch another salmon sometime this year. It looks especially usefull for very large fish. Thanks.

Doc,
I guess med school did pay off!!! Nice fillets, must take a pretty steady hand. I'm going to give that a try also!!!
Winterun.

Nice pics. Never seen it done that way, but it looks super easy...and practically no meat wastage either.

Nice job on the STS article as well.

I'm now thoroughly convinced that I don't need to try so hard to come away with 2 nice whole filets and end up wasting a lot of meat. I've always wondered why I don't just do the lateral line cut rather than failing at the butterfly technique.

I will be trying that.

That's cool! Doc.
I'm gonna try your technique next time.

Catcher, the demo fish had been frozen but was thawed out for the demo. It was further transformed into an alder-planked treat....MMM! MMM!







As FishMonger pointed out, the main advantage of doing it this way is to minimize wastage of hard earned meat! He is also correct in suggesting how exceptionally well it works on big fish, where the wastage factor can become HUGE. Here are some pic's of the technique being used on ungutted kings that I previously posted on an older thread about filleting big fish:

BEFORE:


AFTER:






And here's another one:
JUST GETTING STARTED:

I'm sold on giving it a try. Looks easy enough. Oh one more thing concerning that 2nd pic in your second post. Where did you find such a small picnic table?

Hey FNP, you're hired, I will be expecting you at the restaurant to work this Easter weekend. LOL. Then you can take over for me when I leave on my little excursion North next week!

Nice Job.

Steve

Nice Work FNP! Thanks for the idea.

The fillet method is cool and everything... but the real issue here is you made me hungry as hell when I saw those bright red hunks of Sockeye... You could have called... I would have come over.

FNP

Now you've made me pull some filets out of the freezer! Whats the recipe?

Gut or un gut. Does it make a difference? Great pics and idea! Thanks

What kinda recipe did you use on those pieces? looks dammmnnnn goooood

Pretty cool!! But what am I going to use for crab bait if all the meat is off the carcass?

Great pics and thank for info that going to help alot when I smoke same fish.

You know a doctor has got to be good with a knife .... My brother is a surgeon and I can't even believe we are related. Just the thought of cutting into a person gives me a super serious case of the "HEEBEE JEEBEES" ... Oh yeah I can't fillet a fish for beans

imo, it's always easier to filet a salmon when it's been gutted.

for saltwater fishing it's easy because i have a chest cooler filled with ice... so the first chance i get i gut and gil the salmon (bled them right away) and pack the bellys with ice. cold fish filet easier than soft mushy fish.

it's easier with gutted fish because once you are past the rib bones the filets are free... and you don't lose any of that wonderful belly meat.

Hey Doc, I can tell from your picnic table photo and the sign in the background that we fish out of the same place. I usually stay in the cabins. Nice job on the filet photos.

I always prefer to filet un-gutted as I see it as a wasted step in the process, and when the belly cavity is empty, it collapses down which doesn't help with the filet angle. This is easier up on the Kenai since the fish stay cool in the fish box with the river temp and it isn't always that sunny. We always bleed them out and then filet when we get back to camp.

Down here, I still usually bleed them and throw them on ice until I am at a location where I can filet them out. Alot less mess this way to.

Wow, now I know why I'm not a surgeon. Your cuts are awesome. You should be proud!

For the record more than 95% of my surgeries involve an incision of 2.5 millimeters, usually made with a diamond micro-knife under an operating microscope. The only time I get to make any cuts bigger than that is when the "patient" is a fish.

You don't need to be a surgeon to cut fish well.... just a good method, a sharp flexible blade and a little practice. My best advice would be to forget that you are cutting flesh, but instead envision that you are trying to shave the bones as you work.

For those who were interested in the planked fish recipe:

1) Lay fish skin side down on your cutting board and sprinkle salt on the flesh side to taste. A little MSG at this stage is great for those who are not sensitive. Let the salt penetrate for 45-60 min.

2) Soak an alder plank in water for 45-60 minutes

3) While fish is salting and plank is soaking, mix up the following ingredients for the topping:
1/2 cup mayo
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 medium-sized sweet onion minced
2 stalks green onions finely chopped (chives are OK too)
1/4 sweet red pepper finely chopped (optional for color/eye appeal)
fresh ground pepper to taste (10 turns on my pepper mill)

4) Preheat covered gas BBQ to 450-500 degrees while you arrange salted fish skin side down on soaked plank. Generously paint the topping over all exposed flesh.

5) Have a spray bottle of water handy by the BBQ. Place plank in BBQ, close cover, and cook for about 10-12 minutes per inch of fish thickness.

6) The alder smoke should begin pouring out of the covered BBQ within 5 minutes.... this is NORMAL. Do not open the cover unless the plank is flaming, extinguish with spray bottle if needed.

7) The fish in the picture cooked for exactly ten minutes in my Weber. DO NOT OVERCOOK! Fish is done when it easily flakes/breaks apart with gentle pressure and the topping starts to brown.

8) ENJOY!

So.... what time will dinner be served??? I will help do dishes!

A craftsman is only as good as the tools he uses.. So 'fish Doc', what are your filleting tools?

Periwinkle

That fish was cut with a 6" Normark knife. I think that is the same company that puts out my favorite Rapala knife with the blonde wooden handle. Here's my take on fillet knives:

1) I don't think the make matters much. Important thing is it sharpened to the point of being able to cut thru skin/scales, especially on river fish that have hardened off (scales firmly set). Fish flesh pretty much cuts like butter once you penetrate the skin.

2) A good knife should have a fair amount of flex to maintain good contact across bony countours.

3) Bigger is NOT better for this technique. A 9 or 12 inch blade is advocated by a lot of folks who cut big fish, but these guys ususally go for the "heroic-all-in-one-intact-fillet-per-side" method with the knife sliding firmly along the full length backbone.

Their knife has to cut thru all the ribs ( very hard on edge-life) and the blade needs to be long enough to simultaneously cut the skin along the entire length of the dorsal ridge (top of back). As their knife starts to dull, you'll see them start to "saw" at the fish.... BAD BAD BAD!

4) Every time the knife touches the fish should be a bold sweeping motion. DO NOT SAW!. Every stroke should be in the same direction (NOT back and forth) until the piece comes off the fish.

5) Keep a good steel handy and take a few strokes on it just before making your original skin cuts on each side of the fish.

Thanks for the recipe. I had this for dinner tonight and it was great having fish cooked in a different fashion for a change. With a freezer full baking it almost turns it into chicken, but even after being frozen for 8 months this was still a treat. Tommorow I might try some hali!!!!!
Hopefully a few buddies will see your demonstration and stop trying to do the "heroic-all-in-one-intact-fillet-per-side" method. I never have done the lateral full length cut, but for sure I always use multiple verticle incisions. For an extra treat while filleting masssive quantities of kings, take the collar cuts of a few fish and throw them on the BBQ. Not much meat but this area contains loads of oils and fats.
Can't argue with you when you see the near transparent skeleton.
P.S. Nice article this month. Looks like I'll be up there in July and I hope to take advantage of this. Now if only Bob would start something like that and get it subsidized I could afford to fill up my wall. Wow it seems like every river I fish I somehow run into Richard Cranium.

Beautiful...wonderful.....awesome knife work I applaud you ....Not even enough on those bones feed the cat. Sweet Did i say wow??

Louis F.

That is my favorite part of the fish! I have "volunteered" to cut others' ungutted fish more than once or twice, with the understanding that I get to keep their unwanted collars and belly strips. On a decent Kenai king, the collars/belly weigh about 6-12 pounds! ( See the example halfway back thru this thread.) I come home with more "salvaged" king meat doing this than what I catch and keep for myself! Troll the river for fun, troll the cleaning table for food! How can you beat that?

Great pics. Thanks. It makes a lot of sense. I always end up cutting my fillets into meal-sized pieces anyway.

One question: It seems logical that by using this method, the pinbones are exposed and easily removed. Do you cut or pull them out before vacuum packing the pieces?

When it comes to pin bones, I'm a puller/plucker rather than a cutter. Generally don't pull them before vaccuum-packing fresh fish.... if you are worried about a puncture, just pack the pieces flesh sides together and skin sides out. That way only slime and scales against the vac bags.

On smoked fish, I always pull the pin bones prior to vac-packing since they tend to become very exposed as the meat shrinks.

Doc, if I read correctly, the key is not so much as length as it is degree of sharpness. Sharp is good, right?

Hey Doc,

Parker gave your method a try yesterday on some springers we wrangled up. He did a pretty good job, but the carcasses had a little more meat on them than yours.

I'll post some pics later so you can check out his results.

You can just call me "Hack" Parker from now on.

Well, Doc, I got the opportunity to try out this technique on a couple of Jerries last night.

Unfortunately, I hadn't read all of this thread first, so I brought a stiff fillet knife and not my flexible one. I can see where the flexible one might be nice. I'll have to try it out next time.

In all, I got better on each fish I did. It definately takes more time on the river doing the fish this way, but it saves some processing time at home.

Also, once you get used to the correct cut angle, it does get easier.

I did have some issues near the doral fin, but I suspect a little experience will speed that process up.

Also, I think it would have helped if I would have slit the fish up the middle first.

If you're going to vac-pac up the fish, this a great technique to try. If you're going to cook up the fish that night, I think I'd rather stick with a whole fillet.

DanS took a photo of my handiwork and I can really see why I didn't go to medical school to become surgeon! Maybe he'll read this and post the photo. I tried this on whole, ungutted fish. As I see above, he beat me too it.

In all, I liked this technique and will probably be practicing it a lot, as I vac-pac a lot of fish.

Thanks Doc! It's always cool to learn something new.

Ok, so I'm a hack...

Just keep that knife away from me, Parker, and we should be fine.

You gotta remember, the Doc probably cuts on actual people, so I'm sure his technique is just slightly more refined than yours.

Looks good to me Parker, But then again I've always been the cut em up, pick the bones out later kind of guy!!
Ramprat

Parker,
Hey it took you a bit and actually the fillets didn't look that bad. Especially to the 2 I butchered... But heck, I was done in a few minutes... We sat around for hours for you to do your two. Not a bad day overall 5 fish... I know I had fun, hope you, DanS and Tony did too...
Keith

Hey Parker, I hope you didn't let Dan get near the sharp thang. He's had enough time off work. Hey Dan, where's my cut?
G