Best New Fish Filleting Trick

Former Professional Walleye Trail angler Larry Snow, was to talking about cleaning walleyes. Snow told us that he’s cleaned thousands and thousands over the years. I told him that I’d cleaned a few myself—told him I could fillet a fish perfectly in about 25 seconds. “I can do one in 18,” he said.

Part of Snow’s secret (he uses a regular Rapala fillet knife) is something I’d never seen before. Most of us remove the fillet, then flip it skin-side-down and ribs up to remove the rib bones. Snow keeps the skin side up, placing the heel of his hand on the middle of the rib cage, pressing down slightly. This makes the leading edge (the top edge) of the rib cage stick out. As he slides the knife under the fillet, it naturally catches the edge of the rib cage, and the knife slides perfectly over the cage to remove it. It’s almost mistake proof—a perfectly clean rib removal every time.