|
How To Filet A Walleye
Walleye (Sander Vitreus) are a game fish
found in lakes, rivers, streams and reservoirs. They are most abundant in
Canada and throughout the Midwest, especially Lake Erie. Because of its
abundance of Walleye, Lake Erie is often referred to as the walleye capitol of
the world.
Walleye are sometimes called walleye
pike, yellow pickerel, yellow pike, or pike perch and have been incorrectly
identified as a member of the pike family. A quick look at the dorsal fins of
the walleye (two fins) and the pike (one fin) shows that the two are not from
the same family.
Walleye are similar in body shape to both
sauger and yellow perch. However, walleye can be identified by the dark spot
found at the bottom of their first dorsal fin and their large canine teeth.
Saugers lack the dark spot and yellow perch lack the large teeth. Most walleye
are yellow, but occasionally a variation occurs which gives the fish a blue
color. Called "blue phase," these fish are not blue pike.
Walleye prefer the deep water sections of
large lakes, streams, and rivers. They have large, light-sensitive eyes that
help them locate food in poor light. To protect their eyes from the sun,
walleye stay in sheltered or deep water during the day and move into shallower
water at night. They are voracious predators and use their large canine teeth
to catch a variety of minnows and the young of other fishes. Yellow perch are
often a favorite meal.
Spawning takes place from mid-March to
early April. Adult walleye randomly release their eggs over rocky bottoms of
lake shoals or gravel bars in rivers and streams. The eggs fall between the
rock crevices to hatch.
Walleye are one of the most mild tasting
and best eating fish around and they are very easy to filet. Below, I will
detail how to filet a walleye:
1. A sharp filet knife is a must, or an
electric two bladed knife- the kind that mom used to carve the turkey with on
Thanksgiving.
2. Start by grabbing the walleye by the
gill with your weaker hand and with knife in your other hand make a cut from
behind the gill down to the backbone, making sure not to cut through the
backbone:
3. Now find the backbone again and run
your knife along the backbone cutting through all of the rib bones toward the
tail, but making sure not to cut through the backbone. Stop when you are about
1/2 inch from the tail, then flip the whole piece over to your right while it
is still partially attached to the tail.
4. Once the filet is flipped over now run
your knive through the flesh down to the skin and run the knive along the skin
and it should come clean away from the fish.( this takes some practice, but the
sharper the knife the better) Then cut all the way through, cutting the fillet
loose from the skin.
5. Now turn the walleye over and do the
same to the other side, you should have two fillets with the ribs still
attached.
6. Lay the fillet so that the ribs are
away from you and place the electric knife under the ribs and keeping it flat
against the ribs cut away from you removing the ribs.
7. Un-zipping the "Y" bone. Looking at
the filet above you can see at the tail end where the "Y" bone runs the length
of the fillet down the center (the red marks down the center, the full length
of the fillet). I take a standard (not electric) knife and cut about 1 to 2
inches in from the tail end of the fillet down both sides (parallel with) of
the "Y" bone to the tail. Now take the "Y" bone in one hand and one side of the
fillet (where you cut the notch) in the other and gently pull the 1/2 fillet
away from the "Y" bone until it is free. Now do the same to the other side. If
it fails to tear free you may have to take your knife and trim off what is left
of the "Y" bone.
You should now have four pieces of fillet
out of one walleye, completely boneless. Turn the pieces over so that the skin
side is up toward you, if you see any dark meat (the bigger the fish the more
dark). I like to then turn the fillet over so the dark meat is down, take my
standard fillet knife and lay it where the dark and light meat join and shave
it off the fillet. This dark meat is what gives walleye a strong fishy
taste.
We then rinse the fillets in clean water
two or three times until they are clean, then place a meals size portion in a
quart zip lock bag, fill the bag with fresh water until it is above the
fillets, then zip the bag shut while squeezing the air out of the bag. Once I
have the bag closed with no air inside, I lay them on their side in the freezer
and let them freeze solid. This makes it easier to stack them when storing them
for winters use.
Submit an
article to Award
Media.com
 Fish in Ontario
Let's Go
 Fishing
Fishing Canada
|
