a lot of people have been asking me for fillet videos so I'm going to start with some fish tonight first time you have to lay this bluegill and go real slow explain all the steps as I go and I'm gonna fillet a pumpkin seed clicker I use a fillet board where I can clip the fish in by the head but all I'd really recommend is having a surface where they don't slide around I also use a sharp knife plenty knife a cheap play knife works well but I'd recommend getting a knife sharpener if you don't have one with your knife will get dull eventually first thing I do is I'll make a cut right behind the gill plate here this is the gill plate I'll make that cut backwards towards the skull skulls right here the spines right here along the fish right through the metal I'll make this cut till I hit the spine like that the bone will stop me don't cut through the bone now I'll take the tip of the knife right here and just make a slit along the back of the fish curve it around this corner here like that and I'll follow the top Ridge of the fish really tight whenever I'm making a cut along the bone on any of these cuts I'm always angling the knife towards the bone at a very slight angle and applying a little bit of pressure to get a close shave to that bone so I'll run it right along the edge here right along this fin the dorsal fin right around the midpoint of the dorsal fin I'll push the knife all the way through again tight to the bone you can feel it like clicking along the bones the spine as I push it through I'll keep it real tight slight downward angle a little bit of pressure I'll run it all the way until I get to the tail fin but I won't cut all the way through the skin there next thing I'll do is I'll pry this slab a meet up by this slit I made and I'll keep flying downward pressure like this and a little bit of a downward angle make a couple of swipes and then I've met where the ribs start and right where the ribs start I'll start angling the knife up but I'll still keep it right tight to the ribs there and you'll hear some clicking that's the knife cutting through some really thin pin bones that will take out later these ribs are like a little hill on these this backbone here so I'll take the knife I'll just start curving it off as I slice and then I'll start to go straight again as I go around these ribs real tight I'll just make a couple swipes here and then cut through the belly skin towards the bun put that over I'll dig right down to the skin there take the meat off the skin and again slight angle down maybe ten degrees pointing towards the earth a little bit pressure and one last thing here those those pin bones that we left in right where the meat start to get shallow this is the this is concave from the ribs right where the thick part meets the thin part you can feel them there they're right here you just want to take a slice out not all the way down just the for the length of the ribs is there only along the ribs you'll find these and other types of fish too while I perch crappie bass to name a few and you take them out right there and toss them aside next thing I'll do I'll put the fish over if you leave this fillet on and don't take it off the skin you can flip it back under and give yourself some support if you need it it's a good thing for beginners to do but I do them this way then I don't have to keep flipping the fish back and forth and just saves a little bit of time doing it this way but it's a little bit trickier because the fish is going to incur by laying along that Flay board see how it's all bent so you got to follow the curve of the fish I'll take the plane I've cut that slit again back towards the skull and give you a good angle here now this time I have to curve the knife to keep it tight to the bones because the fish is all work but run it make that slit shove it through keep some downward pressure cut to the tail then I'll start peeling it back along a bone there down to the ribs once I get to the ribs I'll hear to click through those those pin bones and overthrow them we're just taking the rib meat off now just cut through the belly skin like that one more time take it off the skin here so on left is roll bones and you're never going to get this meat out in between the bones that's a sacrifice of flying them but you can get real tight to the bones and real tight to the ribs to rotate to the scale then one last time pick out these pen bones they're right here you can see it's right where the deep meat meets the shallow meat of the ribs and then in the upper back it's right in between them you can feel them right there if you rub your fingers on the meat need to cut there cut there and then peel that up cut it off now the pin bones are out you got a boneless we're going to play this pumpkinseed now you should go fast especially as you do more and get more in tune with the curves of the fish we go to place