Cleaning a walleye using an electric knife.

 

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I start by laying the walleye on its side, head in my left hand (I am right handed), place the electric knife behind the forward fin and cut down to the back bone being careful not to cut into the back bone. I then rotate the knife toward the tail.

 

Cut along the backbone until the knife is about 1/2 inch from the tail. I then flip the fillet over onto the table away from the fish

 

Now place the knife at the tail, which is still attached to the fish by a small piece of skin. Then cut toward the front end of the fillet keeping the knife flat against the skin while pressing down.

 

Then cut all the way through, cutting the fillet loose from the skin.

Now turn the walleye over and do the same to the other side, you should have two fillets with the ribs still attached.

 

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.

 

(I don't have a picture to go with this as of yet but it is fairly simple)

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.