IMO the easiest fish to filet is a perch, the bone structure is typical of any other pan fish, your meat pile looks like about 3 blugills, should have definately got a good meal out 8 perch, enough to cover that dinner plate.

 

I think the skin adds some flavor so I prefer to have mine descaled then filleted off the bones.

My dad used to do this himself but for a buck/pound I prefer to have it done by a fish cleaning place.

Yeah........I guess I am lazy.........but loving it as we most often are on the perch.

 

I guess I just need practice. I just watched a bunch of youtube vids which helped a little. But what do you do with that row of small bones along the side of the fish? I also noticed that with walleye, trout, etc.

 

What bones do you mean? There is the ribs, that need to be cut out as close to the bone as possible leaving as much meat as you can. There is also tiny bones along the lateral line, I don't mess with them on perch, once it is cooked I don't even notice them they're so small. On walleye you can ribbon, aka zipper them. After removing the ribs slice at the tail end of the fish on both sides of the lateral line, and rip down it. It should tear right along the bones leaving bone less meat from both the belly and the back strap. Sometimes you have to trim it up some if it doesn't rip right.

As for quantity, I'm not sure about covering that plate with 8 perch - that would take some big perch. As tasty as they are there isn't much meat on a perch. Whenever I get a split walleye/perch bag its always disappointing how little meat comes off 30 perch compared to just a few walleye. That said I do prefer their taste to walleye so its worth the effort IMO.

 

Yea its the bones along the lateral line. So you're saying its ok to eat them without taking out the bones? I've heard people take them out after cooking, but I usually bread the fish so that might not be possible.

 

What I do with those bones is I take a pair of poultry shears and cut them out. 1 cut down each side and a small cut across no bones at all.

 

i don't know how often you fish, but an electric filet knife for around $30-40 ismakes the job quick and easy. go in front of the fin by the gils take knife to backbone, move to til. turn it over and skin if you wish. make a quick cut to take rib bones out. no muss, no fuss. workes wonders of walleye too, but if they are much over 20" you can't cut straight through the rib bones.

 

I prefer to clean my own, can do one in abt a minute. Since I've caught them with the black spots, I always skin them.
I lay the fish on it's side, cut behind the gill(kind of perpendicular to the body) from top to bottom(half of the fish) down to the backbone, take the knife and start cutting along the backbone to the rib, then carefully cut the meat off/around the ribs cutting the little bones you mentioned with it(leaving them in the filet), when you get down to the belly, cut back to the the tail. Then do the other side the same way, You end up with a complete filet that looks like your hand layed flat(not one with a cut off rib arch. lay the filet with the skin down on the board and start a cut at the pointy/tail end(while holding the very tip of the skin down with your other thumb nail or a fork) to the first bit of skin, turn the knife sideways and keep the blade down at a slight angle to the skin and slide it forward to wider end of the filet which removes the skin and practically no meat. Leave the little bones in the middle of the filet, they will cook up and not be noticeable. I think cutting the filet off at the ribs waste a lot of precious meat and perch filets are pretty small already. You need a good(very sharp!) fileting knife to do all this. If done properly, you should be able to pretty much see thru the backbone(and/or the rib cage) when you hold up the fileted fish. Some of the utube videos pretty much detail my method. This one is very close:

 

I am with OSU daddy leave the skin on have them cleaned.

 

Fishinnick, where do you live? I would be happy to show you how to clean fish, if your in the Akron Canton area. Perch walleye bass crappie, most fish actually fillet about the same way. It just takes someone to show you and then practice.

 

I'm in your same boat. I know I waste a lot by removing the ribs. But I don't want the ribs in my fillet ( and neither do the people eating them. I went to the grocery store, and they are charging 16.99 a pound, with the skin on, and butter fly'ed. I need to learn how to do that, and still have them boneless.

I'm doing the standard filleting and my 11 year old son removes the ribs. He's wasting a lot of meat, but they are all boneless.

I did have Wildwood clean them for me once, and they left bones in them.

 

Papascott is correct that it is easier to demonstrate cleaning than describe it.
That being said to remove the ribs I get to the point where I have two slabs with skin and rib cage. Start cutting behind the rib cage from the top of the fish running the slightly up angled sharp knife along the ribs. On perch i only cut about 1/3 - 1/2 of the way down then I stop cutting and push down on the fillet with knife to hold it in place. Take other hand hand and rip the rib cage the remainder of the way out of the fillet. this will save all the meat. Do not worry about any other tiny soft bones in the fillet. They will cook down.

 

im one of the guys that dont want any bones in my fillets. i have alot of kids and old people eating my fillets. so i dont leave any bones in mine. i know i do lose just alittle meat. but with perch after i cut the fillet from the back bone i just flip it over and cut rid cage and lateral line bones out. i use an electric knife so i can clean them really fast. before i started using the electric knife i used a regular fillet knife, then i would cut down the back to the rib cage, then cut around the ribs leaving those small bones in the fillet, then flip it over and while the meat was still on the skin i would just make a small cut on each side of the small bones, then cut the skin off. the row of bones would just be hanging down in a thin strip, then just cut it off. you get the most meat with no bones this way. but it just takes so much more time than with the electric knife. so im willing to lose just alittle meat for speed. if you only have a few fish like you have its probably better to do it the slow way and save as much meat as possable. but usely we have enough fish it doesnt hurt to lose alittle meat. they reccomend you dont eat the belly meat on fish anyway, and thats all your really losing.

as for the electric knife. i use to buy the regular electric fillet knives. then a couple of years ago we forgot to take our knives. so we went to the big ol wall mart. they didnt have any electric fillet knives. so we just bought a couple of carving knives, for 9.99 each. now they are all i buy. they work better than the fillet knives and last just as long and are alot cheaper. if you clean many walleyes they dont last very long and the blades get dull pretty fast. its just hard on them cutting through the rib bones. i just clean the eyes the same as perch. i cut behind the head then cut through the ribs along the back bone all the way to the tail. then just flip the fillet over with the tail still attached to the fish, then make a cut around the rib cage making sure i cut above the little row of bones. then cut the meat from the skin. you get 2 pieces, the rib cage and just boneless meat.
sherman

 

Many Video's out there, here's my favorite!

http://youtu.be/42uB6hJt52E

 

I have never seen anyone have a problem with eating a lateral bone in a deep fried perch?

 

I have never seen anyone have a problem with eating a lateral bone in a deep fried perch?

Bob,
when you are deep frying 12, 13 to 14" perch, then the lateral bones can become a prob unless you really over cook them. At least that's been my experience.

 

Fishinnick, where do you live? I would be happy to show you how to clean fish, if your in the Akron Canton area. Perch walleye bass crappie, most fish actually fillet about the same way. It just takes someone to show you and then practice.

Scott,
you just gave me a great idea for our next club meeting. I'm gonna have you put on a fish cleaning demo. Think I-5's would mind if we got a little messy in their back room?

 

Yea its the bones along the lateral line. So you're saying its ok to eat them without taking out the bones? I've heard people take them out after cooking, but I usually bread the fish so that might not be possible.

Yes, those bones you are talking about are fine to leave in. I don't even notice them when I eat it. The ribs are another story but I don't like bones in my fish and I can't notice those tiny little bumps along the lateral line once its cooked in a perch. Especially if it is fried and breaded.

 

well being a westender I don't have that problem Guess that's why I prefer 8-10" perch (probably because that's what I mostly catch lol) I wonder if you get much more meat out of a 12" than a 9-10" if you have to remove lateral line? might be interesting to compare?

 

I have never bothered to try the zipper technique on perch. Does that work as slick as it does on walleye? Or is it too hard to do on the smaller fillets of perch (even the bigger ones)? If they can be zipped that wastes almost nothing.

I have actually never had any problem with cones in perch fillets except it a rib is left behind.

 

brian,have you been on the big pond this year? how's the boat working out for you?

 

Sorry Charlie but that first video looks like a pain, i could clean 5 fish to that guys 1. i agree with ParmaBass on the video he likes, thats how i clean gill, crappie,perch,walleye. i like to see the rib cage then a sharp 4in knife right along the bones, and if i have too many to clean then just cut the hole rib away, hell with that little bit of meat.

 

well being a westender I don't have that problem Guess that's why I prefer 8-10" perch (probably because that's what I mostly catch lol) I wonder if you get much more meat out of a 12" than a 9-10" if you have to remove lateral line? might be interesting to compare?

I Found the numbers below here:
http://www.fish.state.pa.us/pafish/perch/00yperch_overview.htm

The ratios seem reasonable. So a12" perch should yield about twice the meat of a 10" perch and the 10" perch should yield about twice the meat of an 8" perch.

8" = 0.2 lbs
9" = 0.3 lbs
10" = 0.4lbs
11" = 0.6 lbs
12" = 0.8 lbs

 

We use these methods!

 

well goto erie and get 60 or 90 of them perch from 10to14 inches and you'll get the hang of it after cleaning 20to25 of then i just use a good sharp knife and clean them like i do eyes and them little things from skitter wont fill your plate the bigger the better,markfish