I introduced my longstanding signature fillet method to the cyberworld back in 2004. It has since been published in STS, SSJ and the Seattle Times. After many years of requests to do a video, fishin' bud and supreme auto mechanic BB Butch stitched together this short clip on how it's done. He caught it, shot it with his iPhone, edited and posted to GoPro.

https://splice.gopro.com/v?id=B6WglzN68

Beautiful! That's how you do it! Thank You! Never could understand the rinsing and wasted collars and bellies by some of the methods witnessed at cleaning stations. I even like de scale before filleting. Gets the slime at the same time.

Holy smokes, that's incredible.

Fillet like a surgeon! I gotta' try that next time.

Seen you do it before, but it was worth another look. Next request: show me how to get that annoying membrane off the belly sections. I like my salmon seasoned (with salt and pepper), and that membrane prevents seasoning from penetrating the flesh beneath, and while the flesh still tastes good without it, some salt in there really gets the taste buds hopping.

I usually just slowly, painstakingly use my fillet knife to get just under the surface and peel it away. This works, but it's a pain in the arse. Any solutions to offer (besides cooking it, peeling it, and adding salt later, which does NOT deliver the same, bacon-like results)?

Nice video of your technique Francis, Butch made a nice edit. I always use your method when I know I am going to smoke the fish, I divide it up into smoker sized chunks on the round and then just peel it off using the techniques above. It saves a step.

Shad, I haven't figured out the belly membrane, but I always eat the bellies seared rare. So what I do is grill hot/fast flesh down (including the membrane) then flip and peel back as much membrane as I can as it is cooking (with fingers or small straight edge tongs). Then quickly paint on melted butter and pepper and close the lid until done (couple more minutes). The butter has enough salt for me. Sort of messy, but the best way I have found. It loses the sear marks, but they were on the membrane anyway.

Nice work with the knife doc. This method does retain a lot of meat that even the best filleter would miss using a traditional cut from the head to tail along the spine. Thats the best benefit from your method IMO, you can retain the entire size and shape of the fillet, and de-rib-bone in the process!

broil and eat

Thanks for the belly membrane tips, all. If I ever catch another salmon (seeming in doubt lately, but maybe the Doc can help me out Monday), I'll get back to the drawing board on that one.

In the round is fine, but the kidney is a tremendous reservoir of residual blood so be prepared to do a little extra wiping. Also you have to make an additional longitudinal incision about 2-3 inches up from the ventral midline (just past the distal extent of the ribs) in order to release the belly pieces. You'll be left with a nice long succulent 4-5 inch wide belly strip containing both ventral fins

Great video thanks for sharing.

Good stuff. Looks like I have some practicing to do. Thanks for sharing!

I like it.
Always wondered how you did this, the video is a great help.

I usually cut around the ribs like Mr. Shay there, but I'm not nearly as quick as he is, and while they're not bad, my fillets usually don't look as good as his.

Thanks Doc. Great video! I’ve been using this technique for the past several years. The video confirmed what I’ve found.

It is a great way to fillet fish, especially larger fish (15+lbs). The wastage is zero. However, it is slow. Really slow. I can fillet a salmon using the traditional method in about a minute. This technique takes much more time. Your video confirms that my laborious 5+ minutes per fish just about matches yours.

Also, your collar cuts are much deeper than mine. I usually go around the gill plate rather than starting a few inches back. So my collars are much narrower. I may try to start the collar cut a few inches back to provide a little more meat on those bones, as you suggest. Also, I always smoke the collars. Does anyone do anything else with them? I’ve never tried grilling the collars, but with more meat on them, it might be worth a try.

Lately, on larger salmon I’ve been trying to fillet out the cheek meat (ala, halibut). It takes some good knife skills to get all the cheek meat; and it’s never a lot of meat. The cheeks end up in the smoker, along with the collars.

Thanks again.

The fish at 2:45 is a harelip salar

Always good stuff, Doc. I do it a tad differently because I lack patience and love the fin meat.

For quickly banishing slime and scales, have always hit 'em with a garden hose from stern to bow when processing at home. Blows the stuff right off in a few seconds.

I too believe in a good powerwash against the grain, but that only works on ocean fish or the freshest pre-transition fish that haven't hardened off in the bay/river yet.

Cook up the collars any way you would any other piece of the fish. My favorite is a simple seasoning of salt MSG and cracked pepper.... rubbed with a little EVOO after sitting at least 15-20 minutes to let the salt penetrate a bit. Into the broiler for 5-7 minutes depending on the size of the collar.

If you're a marinade kinda guy, try this....

Kind of just whip it up in what feels like appropriate Ornamental proportions… into a ZipLock bag and rotate/massage periodically over the next 12-24 hrs.

Lee Kum Kee Oyster Sauce
Brown sugar or honey
Soy sauce
Sesame oil
Fresh ground pepper
MSG
Minced garlic
Minced ginger
Minced green onion (white bottoms) save the fine green tops for garnish after cooking

Once cured, this would also make a great smoked product with an Ornamental flair. Light rinse, air dry, and smoke to your preference

Nothing more painful than having to watch Doc do surgery on a fish.

I just butterfly fillet 99% of all my fish. Sometimes I keep the collars on bigger fish and sometimes I don't.

I can sleep at night knowing that I left a mm of fish meat on the bones.

I'll use the Doc fillet method on really big kings...but since I can't keep any when I'm fishing with him, haven't had to use that technique in a long while.