For those who fillet bream

I find coppernose bream pretty difficult to fillet but I'd rather eat fillets than whole fish. If I fillet a number of them, wondering if anyone would want the rest of the carcass. Could give them a few fillets as sweetener, lol. I don't want to be 'wasteful.'

I know a fellow who does this to crappie he catches. (Keeps and eats the carcass in addition to the fillet.)

If you fillet bream, is there any particular model of knife you find that works well? I use an electric knife. I just bought a Black n Decker (EK500W) 9" and it works well on bass but bass are thicker.

These coppernose I am catching are larger bluegill than I normally catch around here. Big ones are near a pound. I weighed a couple at 14.5 oz.

I use a rapala mid size knife for most of my fillet work for about a year now since my electric went south. I’ve gotten better and smoother since going back to this and also know when to stop and sharpen now, unlike my past habits. Don’t know if it matters but I never break the guts open anymore.

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Originally Posted by skeetbum

I use a rapala mid size knife for most of my fillet work for about a year now since my electric went south. I’ve gotten better and smoother since going back to this and also know when to stop and sharpen now, unlike my past habits. Don’t know if it matters but I never break the guts open anymore.

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You fillet bream?

As for the OP, what I meant was after a fish is filleted, you can whack off the head and there is meat on the bone left that you did not get with the fillet knife. Just wondering if other people do this, lol, as I know people who do! I don't want to mess with it, really, but I don't like wasting any animal.

Attachment 401993I fillet my Brim the same as a Specked Perch/Crappie. I use fillet knives and get a fillet up to the eye and down to the belly including the rib meat. It would be hard for anyone to get 100% of the meat but I try to get as much as I can. The back bones have some meat but I never keep them. I know some that do and they also eat the fins. When I clean larger fish Like Bass, snapper or Grouper I cut out the cheek meat and throat pieces.

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Originally Posted by livemusic

I find coppernose bream pretty difficult to fillet but I'd rather eat fillets than whole fish. If I fillet a number of them, wondering if anyone would want the rest of the carcass. Could give them a few fillets as sweetener, lol. I don't want to be 'wasteful.'

I know a fellow who does this to crappie he catches. (Keeps and eats the carcass in addition to the fillet.)

If you fillet bream, is there any particular model of knife you find that works well? I use an electric knife. I just bought a Black n Decker (EK500W) 9" and it works well on bass but bass are thicker.

These coppernose I am catching are larger bluegill than I normally catch around here. Big ones are near a pound. I weighed a couple at 14.5 oz.

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Amazon.com

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Originally Posted by Techno2000

Amazon.com

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Thanks. Do you use this knife? I see it has 4 inch blade. They also display a 6 inch blade option. You think 4 inch is better? Do you cut through or around ribs?

Unless you like fins ,eye balls ,bones and heads you would starve on what’s little bit of meat is left on the bone once I fillet a blue Gill and I use the same cordless electric bubba blade that I use for crappie. Sure it takes some getting used too and you will mess up a few those that you mess up just fix em whole you will get it if you stay at it! Bluegill fillets is my favorite fish to eat!

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Originally Posted by livemusic

Thanks. Do you use this knife? I see it has 4 inch blade. They also display a 6 inch blade option. You think 4 inch is better? Do you cut through or around ribs?

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I have the older 6" model with the regular blade. This new flex 4" blade seem like it would be perfect for something so tedious as filleting a bluegill. The few times I've done It I went over the ribcage.

There's an easy way to eat a Bluegill. After it's fried, the top fin, anal fin and tail fin can be plucked right off, eliminating those bones first. Next split and open the fish up. The whole back bone should lift right out .The only bones left for you to deal is the ribcage.

the small rapala is ok for filleting bream ,and walmart has a tiny no name that works even better for around 3 dollars , it takes some practice to get good at filleting sunfish .
an electric is NOT the weapon of choice on small fish unless you like turning them into a mauled fish
my 27 cents worth

I fillet all my fish just like RobertFl picture...Black and Decker electric knive with Berkley Slim Fillet blades.

Scale then fillet with a wall- mart Cuda . Cut off heads as if going to fry whole . Then start at top and follow ribs till tail with tip of knife. Roll the fillet down till you can pull off ribs . Attachment 402075

Nice pile of fillets

I used to fry em whole after gutting them and I would eat tails and all. That said I fillet them as I would any Crappie.

I have several fillet knives, but my favorites is still the medium Rapala. I have a 4" one also, which is great for working around the rib cage of smaller fish, but not good for skinning the fillet. I use the small knife to remove the fillet and the longer one to skin the fillets. I've never tried an electric knife so I don't know how that works by comparison.

The pile in back are 1/2 to 3/4 lb bluegill filleted with an AA electric knife when the Pro model first came out. No meat left on the carcass unless you wanted to make soup. It's no longer the same knife.