Fast & Easy Fish Cleaning Tips for Walleye, Perch, and Panfish

The fish cleaning techniques described here are nothing new, and is mainly intended for beginners. This process takes about a minute for each fish, depending on experience. The example shown is using a walleye, but can work all the same on perch, crappies and bluegills. On those crappies, you DO NOT need to scale it first. I hope this increases your ability at cleaning fish.

Slice fish behind the gills all the way to the backbone but don’t sever. You’ll want to angle the knife towards the head so you don’t waste part of the walleye or perch fillet.

 

 

 

 

 

Now work the knife along backbone being careful not to cut through it. You’ll want to run the knife all the way to the tail, but leave the skin still attached (don’t cut through).

 

 

 

 
Now lay the fish out, skin side down. Take your sharp fillet knife and run the knife all the way down the fillet. Keep the knife along the skin so you don’t waste any of the fillet.

 

 

 

 

 

You will cut away the fillet from the skin, so you’ll only see a fillet remaing.

 

 

 

 

 

Take your fillet knife and go under the rib bones from the top to the bottom, cutting rib bones free. You will want to keep the knife RIGHT UNDER the bones, so you can conserve most of the fillet. It is very important to have a clean knife for this step.

 

 

 

 

After that you’re pretty much done. You can see what’s on the left is the final product, you can throw the rest away. Rinse off the fillet, stick it in a plastic sealable bag and fill with water until submerged (will eliminate freezer burn). Now it’s ready for the freezer if not the grill or frying pan.

 

 

 
Also you can cut out the cheeks of the fish. This is the best part of the fish, and it’s worth it!