I spend the extra time to scale, gut and take the head off before filleting . The skin is the game changer in taste to me . Used to spend hours bass fishing , went to pan fish ( crappie/bream ) and have never looked back . Try entering the top about the middle , push knife through the fish and let the knife ride the backbone to the tail . Turn the fish up and place thumb in the area between backbone and fillet section and trim back to head . Following the rib cage .hope this helps and makes sense.