That is the best demo and explanation I have seen on filleting a fish. Great job Marty! I no longer have to show people how to do it...I will just point them to your video!
if you want to get more flesh out of your fish, you could try cleaning out the intestinal cavity before filleting by slicing from the vent up the belly to the gills and pulling all that stuff out. that way you have more flesh exposed, less waste in the way, and can get your blade further down the body of the fish. now you can fillet around the ribs still, or if you really want more yield cut straight along the spine through the ribs, and then use big tweezers or needlenose pliers to pick the pin bones out. you might still have to trim off belly meat and fins but you could definitely get more out of your fillet. just some tips i learned working in a restaurant kitchen where we break down fish each day and yield really counts ha. cheers!
Nicely done Marty. Why you are not teaching is beyond me. Your presentation is great and you keep it moving. I'll bet that after a couple beers, you are the life of the party. Thank you my friend.
Love your videos Marty! If you want to be a little more earth friendly, I wouldn't throw the carcass in the garbage. Here's a few suggestions for getting rid of the carcass: If you have a garden, bury it underneath any new plantings. Plants love Fish too! Put it in the freezer and take it with you on your next fishing trip. You can dump it in the water and it will work as chum. Use the head and bones to make a fish stock or fish soup. Keep up the great work! - Dave
Great video. Very true about flounder. I've fillet many of them after a good night of gigging. Never had a fish board but a nail in the head worked pretty good.
You mentioning burying the waste reminds me of a time my father and I did that with left-over Blue Runner (we were using as bait for Dolphin). We dug some holes around the drip line of a tree in our backyard and buried the fish. My dog dug them up and rolled around on them. Washed the dog and reburied the fish (this time in much deeper holes.) Yep, he dug them up again and rolled around on them. They were pretty ripe by now, so they went in the trash. We never tried burying fish again!
I watched a few of your videos and I am impressed. It seems you really enjoy your time fishing and kayaking. My dad taught me how to fish, I have not fished in 25 years because of so many regulations. I'm back into the swing of thing now and watching you having so much fun has sparked a renewed interest in fishing for me. Have fun man, great videos!
One of the main reasons I don't eat fish often is that fileting my catch was a skill I lacked after watching this I think I'll start practicing on Jacks and mullet before they get used as bait. Thanks for the great institutional video I feel I learned a lot.
My family likes to fish, and when my dad fillets the fish we wash the fillets in a bowl of icy salt water, and then it keeps the fish very nice and clean. We also have a vacuum packing machine and we freeze the uncooked portion in sub-zero temperatures. Great video.😀
Thanks Marty for such an informative video. I am also a fellow Tampa Bay kayak fisherman that frequents Cockroach Bay and The Kitchen. Tight lines and I hope to see you on the flats one day.
As I was watching him show the Berkeley cutting board I saw the WD-40 can in the background and thought to myself, damn I never used that for filleting fish lol,then it went back to the kitchen sink. Great video bud
Great video im a chef you can used the left over to make a delicious hot soup trow the head and bones in a pot Then trow 2 Carrots 1 Onion A bunch of cilantro 2 cubes of fish stock (knor is the best) 2 spoons of chop garlic 1/2 package of sazon with achiote you can find it in ethnic section Then fill the pot till all the fish are cover cook them in medium high till fish are broken and carrots are cook well it take 35 to 40 min add sal and pepper if you like it becareful with bones.best time to eat it sick time,rainy days or after hang over lol work for me enjoy this recipe is really good and tasty😆
I've thought before could you keep frames and when you have a pot full make stock from frozen? Is there a timelimit on how long they'd be ok frozen for this purpose etc?
Thank you for sharing your technique. Those fish heads and ribs will make awesome fish stock , sweat the fish with diced onion, celery garlic, then steam with a little white wine, fresh thyme bay leaf and one dry new mexican chile, a little saffron and as a great fisherman said, "Bob's your uncle"
Very cool technique. Different from what I've seen before, but effective. I normally gut the leftover fish, that you ended up throwing away, and keep it in the freezer for making fish stock for example making muscle pot at a later stage. That way I only throw away the fish guts, normally into the sea, so I feel none of the fish goes to waste. Just my way of respecting the ocean and the sport I live for. Love you videos. Even re watching the old ones now :D
Dude, your videos are truly awesome! I've been fishing and filleting fish for years and have always had problems with cutting through the ribs/bones. I'll try the 45degree method and see if I can get a better fillet out of them. Also, not to be nitpicky, but you should probably fillet out the dark parts of the fillet as well since they contain the highest mercury content in a fish.
You ripped him a new A-hole!! lol Quick tip... gut it first. Great vid series, Marty!! Try putting them on a fire ant mound. G'pa used to do that with shark jaws.
Love watching your videos, I know you have used the Okuma baitfeeder on some of them...I purchased a Kastking baitfeeder and haven't really used the feeding part..could you give me some examples on how. Thank you and so glad you got your boat going.
Have you ever tried feeding the "wasted" part of your fish to your four-legged fishing buddies? My dog loves the fish head, scales and bones. I do throw out the innards though... I am really enjoying your vids! Thanks for making them!
I've actually found it easier to cut right through the rib cage (on the fish with smaller bones) and then just trim the ribs off the fillet at an angle so you save some of the meat behind the ribs. On the larger fish however you would definitely have to cut around the ribs unless you have a serrated knife.
Marty, nice video. The fish heads make good bait for blue crabs. I don't know if there are a lot of those in your area or not. Do you ever cut the fishes stomachs open to see what they are feeding on? Have you ever used sand crabs or fleas for bait?
Yeah this pretty much applies to all fish this is the same thing you do for fresh water fish. Other thank Northern Pike they got a Y-bone i believe its called. Really annoying fish to fillet usually just cut through it and pick the bones out.
15:20 why don't you try adding the head to a fish soup mixed in with crabs and other seafood and put the rest on a grinder creating chum. Just add oat meal flakes a bit of veggie oil to the grinder and bam!
Hey Marty.......how about putting the bodies to where the crabs and other sea life can eat them.. complete the cycle of life my friend.. land fills have too much yucky stuff in them now. Anything in plastic doesn't decompose well either
good job,,,,, good advice if you have a mom or a wife,,,, and don't let kids see you do it or they will not eat fish for a long time ,,,\That is what happened in my home. The kids like fish until they seen me filet them, they are 30 now and still don't eat fish. they see this when they were 10
Not good to throw the unused parts back into the water because it's instant death for Pelicans with all the exposed bones of the carcass. Many people do but it is not a good practice
I normally wouldn't comment on such a seemingly small detail because it would usually fall on deaf ears. However, seeing as I think we are all anglers, we all know that we need to be stewards of our planet and environment. Might I suggest using some sort of bio degradable bag/container to throw the fish out rather than using a plastic bag from the store?
Better still, I might heed the advice I got earlier and return the rest of the fish to the water to be 'processed' by all the little critters that also like fish dinners. Then I could reuse a container over and over again. No deaf ears here, friend. Good, constructive criticism and advice is appreciated.
zoffinger a similar approach is to grind it all up into chum to let ll the other critters eat and improve your performance on the water. that way you have a very small chance of getting flagged by an FWC officer.