How To Fillet a Walleye FAST 

That is BY FAR the most slick way I have seen to fillet walleye. I do zipper fish, but the ribs down demo is gold. I’m going to try it. Thanks for sharing

Best walleye cleaning video out there.

Mark sounds like a nice guy. Quite good at filleting fish too

I’ve seen a lot of walleye filleting videos. This method of rib bone removal is awesome.

Out of all the walleye filleting videos here on RU-vid - this method/technique is the best by far. Mark has obviously done this for a long time and it shows - outstanding job & top shelf filleting skills. Thank - you for posting video.

now this guy is GOOD, I like his technique

Perfect! He fillets like I did when I worked at a fish camp and had dozens and dozens of fish to fillet everyday

This is the best walleye filleting video on youtube. I've cleaned a few thousand myself, and do it the same as this except for the rib bone removal. I'd be curious to see the so-called "better" methods mentioned by some of the comments. I seriously doubt any are better than this.

Wow I've watched this a few times man this is so awesome I've been catching small ones that method is really awesome thanks for the share God bless you man really good thing to learn zipper fillet is a handy skill

This is exactly how I was taught to clean walleye and I have never seen anyone else do it the same. 👍

I have scene a lot of fish cleaning videos,and by far this is the best and fastest I have watched!.great job!

best video i ever watched.

Thank you. I like the guys technique, I'm gonna do it this way.

Well done, I learned a few great tips. Thanks

I've never seen it done like that, very cool, very fast. Thanks for posting. Great tip on how to keep the blade sharp. Any video of Mark filleting pike?

The man is handy with a knife.

Awesome! Wish I would have seen this sooner. I like that rib removal method. I see how to get the y bones out. Nice!

Super duper video Mark. Not only did you show a quick method ( which I've never seen before ) of cleaning a walleye n sauger but also taught me a lesson about leaving the dorsel fin on a sauger attached for easy identification between the two different spices. I know about the transportation law about leaving a 1 inch patch of skin on for transportation identification but I didn't know about leaving the dorsal fin attached to carcass of a sauger also. Thank you for a excellent video. I'm from dah state of Minnesota. Haven't fish up dare on LOdW yet.

Mark wins, hands down. As a one time fishing guide, my walleye cleaning is similar to Marks. Very few demos leave the tail attached to the fillets for easy skinning. Even his knife has a "blunt" taper which makes for a nicer finished fillet and less meat loss. I find removing the eye bones from a fish less then 2.5 lbs unnecessary as they fry out. Keep the cheeks. Nice job.

Thats pretty cool, What is a good quality filleting knife ?

Nice man!! Real nice

Can you remove the rib bones from a Pike the same way as you did with the walley?

That was incredible. Pan lizards eat like gold as they say

what knife are you using?

I want to know brand name of his knife. And also with the big walleye if he can just go through like that. On lake Erie we we get much bigger walleye. Then what is here.

What brand of knife is that?

What knife is that?

* I didn't know Walleye had Y bones. I called them pin bones, and they only run part way down the fillet. Just run your fingers down the lateral line area to find them, and cut them out in a thin strip. If you want to remove the complete lateral line, use his method. Northern Pike have the Y bones. They also don't run the full length of the fillet. The tail section is Y bone free.

Would that rib method work on other fish????

This guy looks like he's done a fair bit of filetting. I filleted fish for a living in processing plants in Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan and never, ever did I see a professional filliter cut up a fish like some of the guys in these videos. They all end up with too much waste and too slow. We always cut the fish toward ourselves but we wore aprons, chain gloves and only used 2 knives - one for cutting and one for skinning because they have to be sharpened different to do different jobs. I've seen a lot of videos showing how to fillet and not one shows how the people do it that actually make a living at it. You got to be fast and clean when you get paid by the pound.

Wow that is impressive! The first time I did it, it took me thirty minutes and it looked like I used a chainsaw. I wish I would have seen the first.

Forgot to mention, this video may have been filmed during ice fishing time based on what the guys are wearing. One additional step, which can be done, when fishing open water, is to bleed out the fish in your livewell at the end of the day. This takes all the blood out of the fish, and results in pure white filets every time, and a much cleaner work surface.

Don't waste the cheeks, that's the best part !!

The only problem here is... all the bones are NOT gone! There are fine side bones that radiate off the rib bones and run down the middle of the meat between the top and bottom of the fillet!

He’s the best bye far! And he looks like he drinks a shit load of beer.👍

so many laws and rules for fish, kind of sad really, but i finally got to eat walleye today, here in va,…. bought it at wegmans in channtilly va, it was amazing, so, im going to buy more tomorrow.

Anyone know what knife he is using?

For kids... you can also just give them the tail end of the fillet (part past the rib cage). There are NEVER any bones in the rear part of the fillet.

nice

Did you really throw away the scallops?

What kind of knife is that ? I'm sure that guy knows the one to buy.

God dam. He makes me look bad. Lmao. Great video.. I'll try it like this next time. Ughh

Top way to filet snoekbaars ( thats how we call them ) 😉

Is the white under skin okay to eat? I know guys that say you shouldn't

"So hes gonna slow it down for us so we can follow him" dude proceeds to clean it at the speed of sound. And btw i just farted

Pinbones don't go that far back

Leaving the dorsal fin or the skin attached is a ridiculous state law!! Nice technique !!

damn that's insane it takes me 2 minutes to clean one lmfao

In Ontario you need 1/4 of the fillet to still have skin on it and as far as the regulations are concerned we dont differenciate between walleye and sauger so don't need to show the dorcel fin

Does anyone eat the skin?

WTH. No wings??!! I’ll give you a pass on the small cheeks 😂. Thanks for sharing 🎣🐟🎣😃

People still live in Minnesota 🤔

Damn I've never seen this method before

Leave more skin. Give yourself something to grab onto for the final skin removal.

How you gunna throw away the cheeks 😫

Forgot the cheeks, otherwise nice job

Pas le droit de faire ca comme ça à la pêche

cheeks?

Its neat, its slick, its fast but its dirty. Flopping a skinned fillet around the slop and slime on the table isn't clean to me. And if you think you'll just rinse that fillet off under some running water, well we all know how hard it is to get the smell off our hands even with soap and water.

That is his "rookie" method. There are much faster methods out there where you do not have to cut through the belly. No disrespect, but that is NOT the best way to clean a walleye. Had a guide clean one with a spoon.

This guy looks like he's done a fair bit of filetting. I filleted fish for a living in processing plants in Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan and never, ever did I see a professional filliter cut up a fish like some of the guys in these videos. They all end up with too much waste and too slow. We always cut the fish toward ourselves but we wore aprons, chain gloves and only used 2 knives - one for cutting and one for skinning because they have to be sharpened different to do different jobs. I've seen a lot of videos showing how to fillet and not one shows how the people do it that actually make a living at it. You got to be fast and clean when you get paid by the pound.

What knife is that?