Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Since this seems to be coming up now that people are getting sizeable fish, I thought I'd post the information I have on cleaning fish. Good understanding of technique and biology, paired with good tools will make this easy!

I learned to clean my own fish shortly after I learned to fish. The rule was "You catch'em, you clean'em". Also baited my own hook, thank you. We fished for sunfish, bluegills and a few yellow perch in the Fingerlake region of New York.

We cleaned the fish out in the lawn with sharp fillet knives, a cutting board, and newspaper to wrap the trimmings in. Here's a brief run-down.

1. Sever the head just behind the pectoral fins (the fins that would be 'hands'). My preference is to stab in to cut the spinal cord first for a quick death, then work downward and upward.

2. Dis-embowel, slicing the belly open from the bottom.

3. Remove fins by slicing to each side of them and pulling them out.

4. Scale them starting at the tail by holding the knife at a right angle to the fish and scraping towards the head-end.


This site has some really clear pictures, including filleting. I've never done fillets!

http://www.fishingkites.co.nz/cleaning- ... hindex.htm

I'm sure everyone who has cleaned fish has their own tricks-of-the-trade. Please share. I'm sure my technique is not nearly as refined or perfected as others!

For those that can be bothered or for some reason don't want/like the skin on their fillets......

Place tail of fish (or narrowest end) in salt, salt fingers also...

Place fillet skin side down.... hold tail (salt helps to grip) and make a gentle cut close too end of fillet without cutting the skin....

Once cut, turn knife flat and while firmly holding tail/skin piece gently (I say gentle) slide the knife away from you along the skin while gently (I say gently) pulling the skin toward you.

It is not necessary to pull the skin toward you but with practise it makes things faster and by holding the skin slightly upward as you fillet along the skin the flesh will sort of roll upward/away from the skin allowing you to better see what's going on

Not as hard as it might sound, just takes a little practise...

If all else fails just eat 'em with the skin on and try again another day

I guess you don't mean these sunfish:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_Sunfish

I'm trying to picture you getting one into the boat...

IMHO, if you are going to scale a fish, do it first, makes it a lot easier, and you can get all the scales. If you gut them first, it leaves a floppy area under the belly which is hard to scale, also around the edges is harder. Flilleting is an art. It takes practice. Perservere and it's quite rewarding IMHO. That said I think I will be gutting and beheading my barra so as to get the most out of them.

That link is just how we do it, except I hold the head of the fish in my left hand and start at the tail end.

Eeeek! Not those 'sunfish', Nathan! These sunfish. And if you look carefully, you'll see a yellow perch, too. Which one is me???

Janet is that you in the middle?

Very good, CG. And the yellow perch is leftmost of the fish on the stringer that the gril in yellow is holding.

Thanks for the info. I've never cleaned a fish , guess I'll have to learn . I have filleted them though and found it easy if you have a good knife. The best advice is practice, practice, practice . Stick with it and you'll get there .

I fillet by feel-- most bones are in a row--and since were growing with few species of table fish we will all become experts quickly.
I work on a serve being 250gm -1/2lb ish.
...C1

C1, is that 250gm live-weight or dressed-out? I allow half that amount if I have nice fillets. Or maybe I just have a daintier appetite?

From what I'm reading, fish dress out at a little more than half their live-weight if bones are left in, and a little less than half their live-weight if filleted.

I'm probably going to have to fillet for the kids, but I was thinking that I could boil and strain the leftovers from filleting to get a fish broth for soup.

Or fish stock, fish sauce..... great for asian dishes

or pectin for jams

Saving and reusing the carcase for stock is a very sensible idea. Even the shells from your yabbies can (should) be used for such. I've finally got my family trained to toss chicken bones in a plastic (zip-lock style, for odor reasons)bag, which I put in the freezer. When I have enough saved, into a slow-simmering chicken stock they go. Make as big a batch as possible and divy it into plasic containers, then those go back in the freezer.
It might sound more complicated than it is, but trust me, totally worth it. You'll always have homemade chicken stock on hand and you'll find that all your food seems "gourmet" as you start using the stock instead of water or canned "chicken broth."
You can also do the same with your veggie cuttings, but I think most people are already using those for composting and/or worm food.

Any time we have a family get-together, I always 'claim' the bones. Ham or turkey usually. I 'let' my sister have the nice slices of white meat. I get The Best soup boiling those bones down.

C1, do you mean some sort of fish-flavored jam? Jam over here is usually made with sweetened fruit. "Grape-Tilapia" isn't going to sell in my house! Or is there a way to get the fish flavor out?

Never thought of using shrimp shells, but maybe I should give that a try. Anyone done that? Any good?

Cleaning fish is best done with very sharp knives so a filleting glove is a good investment. They are made from kevlar and stainless steel mesh and will help you to avoid a nasty wound when you make that inevitable first slip with the knife.

They'll be using them anywhere that fish is being processed. Meat boners also use something similar.