filleting pickerel

Here is a photo series of how to fillet pickerel.

The problem with pickerel is that they are full of spikes

Sharp teeth

Spines on their fins

and even inside their gills.

Here is how it is done: first open their gut

Then cut the upper part of the fish from the open belly to the tail

But don't cut the side off at the tail, leave it attached

Then go to where you started and the belly is open but the flesh still attached in the upper part of the body and cut this off following the backbone

 All the way to the end

Then cut what you just cut off below the arm-like fin

This is what you have

 This is why the tail being attached is good. It gives you a handle to skin the fillet you just cut

And this is how you do it. Keep the knife still and wiggle and pull on the fish

 Ta da!!! you are nearly done

But now you have to take the bones out

On the pickerel another part really good to eat is the cheek

The Tree Knot

The tree-knot is obviously not its real name, but this is the way I call it because the first time I was show this knot was when I was being taught how to build a snare and it was used to tie the pole to the tree on the tree side.
I worry that I may forget it ....The old brain is not what it used to be.

 It is not just used at the tree but also within the snare, this is the way the yellow string in the picture below is tied to the little stick.

First you make a simple Granny Knot at the end of the rope.

Then you make another one as close to the first one as possible... don't tighten it yet.

Put the other end of the rope around what the tree, or the stick or what ever and pull the end of the rope through the second loose Granny Knot

Tighten that second knot

Kaboom, you're done!
In the picture below, the tree or the stick would be in the loop.

Filleting Jackfish

I never took pictures of how to fillet connies and I regretted it afterwards. So I asked C. To show me how to fillet a jackfish he had caught and let me take photos.

 Here is the jackfish (beautiful creature really but with a mouth full of several rows of sharp teeth)

First put the knife in its belly right by the anus, aiming to come out near the backbone at the top.

Like this. And with the blade facing the tail cut along the backbone towards the tail without cutting the piece off

Then slice its belly open

And empty the belly

Then turn the fish around and putting the knife back into the first cut made from belly to backbone but this time with the blade facing the head, cut along the backbone towards the head

And cut the side of the fish off the at the head and the tail so it comes off

Then do the same on the other side

At this point you have the two sides cut off the backbone

Then cut the "triangular" part of the side not all the way to through to the skin

Then following the skin slide the knife between the skin and the flesh

Then turn the side of the fish around and slide the knife between the skin and the flesh from the back towards the front

Now you have a side without skin. Cut the "ribs" off

Then you have to cut the middle bones off by cutting along them, first on one side

Then the other

Ok, maybe I am not explaining it quite right but this is the way it is done,

Basically looking across a fish this is where the bones are, and this is what has to be removed:

Note that in a connie the side bone going slightly up are single bones, and in the jackfish they fork into two