dolphin Mima among the most colorful of game fish when feeding otherwise excited the colors become brighter and more intense the food value is excellent it has a white flesh that is mild and suitable for any method of cooking it tends to school in the same size from a few pounds to twenty pounds the larger dolphin run single and in male female pairs males are always larger the world record is 88 pounds a variety of tackle is used from fly rods to spinning reels and bait casting the methods for fishing are trolling casting and drifting dolphins are warm water fish from Florida to Massachusetts they are most plentiful in the south next fish is going to be this nice beautiful large dolphin as you can see we're going to definitely use both knives here and that's why I have them laid out you need a large thin knife like this in order to skin it this fish has a large head it's a good bit of waste in the head of this fish and it's a very thin fish even though it is big looking your return is not quite as good as it is on other fish so you're going to need to get a good job on it skinned it down and it is excellent eating you'll enjoy it come back like we did on other fish we showed you earlier cutting back towards tip it ahead not to waste any meat flip your fish over take your fingers stick him in his eyes easy to hold on to him turn back again cut back up in the top of the head not to waste any meat you can see very very easy to move ahead from a dolphin now we're going to do the fillet on this dolphin applying pressure down on the left hand come in keep our finger on the index part of that knife come right on down through the tail use your left hand and your thumb to keep this thing folded back rub it right along the backbone open up the belly section you can hit those bones being cut come on the other side of that vertebra make sure you get to the center of it come back down on the other side get close just remember it's just a little larger fish takes a few more strokes come all the way back down through the tail come back to that section pull it through pretty big fish here we lay it down you come close again and that dorsal fin always coming close closer you get to that fin the more meat we're going to get back high pressure with our left hand come on all the way to the tip of the head move that big boy over as you can see if you come up and down over this vertebrae this big boat if you lay that fish knife on the top of that and if you notice you write it down the backbone which a lot of people do but how much meat you're going to leave on this backbone of this large dolphin that's a lot of waste you can stick hang sec my fingers underneath that knapely the idea is to come in the back come to the vertebrae work yourself over take the knife edge and pull back down on the other side and that's on any fish you do even a flounder only other exception that would be boning the shad now next step is I'm going to show you how to fillet this other piece this is going to be very similar to a mackerel has a long flat ribcage section this one's a little more difficult to work with on this board because it's so long we're just going to take this tail we're going to drape it over turn our knife just like we did on the other one make sure we kind of touch right along the edge of the bone so we can feel it we don't want to leave any meat pull it up take our index finger keep it on that guard again come right on back and just keep scraping along the bones it's a little deeper than the macro but it's the same principle come back lay it back draw your little line you want to keep that finger again on it because you want to be able to feel when you cut through that skin and touch the backbone then all you do is reach up with your left hand again use your thumb and your knife as a pair of pliers and just pull a whole strip right on out okay our next section is just like the macro before we've got those Center bones that run right down the center of the fish cut down on both sides keeping our finger on the blade so we can feel where we're touching just like a surgeon cut on through again left hand use a knife and our thumb as a pair of pliers just pull it straight back we've got all the bones out now we can enjoy it like a banana okay now on a larger fish anytime you have a big dolphin like this or a large king or anything to make it easier and you don't need that bigger fillet when you go to cook it later you can take it if you want and skin it whole but it's easier if you want to take it and just cut the fish lengthwise if you don't have a long knife like I have in this particular shot you can do it with a smaller blade knife like I showed you before get started on your fillet and just apply pressure down with your knife hold the meat up hold on to the skin just give yourself a seesaw motion always applying pressure down toward the board and then as you take the fillet off you can see we didn't leave any meat on this skin is a waste okay I'll show you on this other little strip same principle lay it down hold the tip of the tail get a good grip on it rub it back and forth just a seesaw motion keep that knife blade flat and right on through there again no me like you're disposable unit here now after you've taken and cut that long strip in this manner all you have to do is come back and figure what size portions you want to serve and just cut across and then make your serving size pieces I guarantee you no one's going to go hungry with this kind of filet getting that gorgeous and a good thing about it is we didn't waste any meat that one little half right there will make a real nice meal for six people okay now we're going to take the other side of the fillet off it's just a reverse like we did the mackerel we come in run right along that fin pressing down against the bone come to that point come right on through to the center of the vertebrae remember that large hump that we have in that center on this one we're going to cut through these rib bones that attach to the backbone from this side coming right on back through and you can feel that knife cutting through those larger bones that way we won't waste any meat come back down pull it up come back down on that vertebrae remember that big large hump come on right onto the tip all the way down don't waste any bit I'm going to turn it around come back apply pressure with our left hand work that knife lead right along close to that fin remember don't come off of it a half an inch and leave a half an inch of meat all the way down that fish that's the whole serving wasted and look how clean we got that backbone you can read the newspaper through that that's the way you want it up cleaning a fish and getting a lot of return back we aren't going to do this other side and show you how to take the little bones out and skin it because it just be repetitious I wish you well on his beautiful dolphin